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ASUU Threatens Fresh Strike, Gives FG Tuesday Ultimatum

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has stated that it is prepared to engage in another round of industrial action as a result of the Federal Government’s refusal to implement an agreement reached with the union.

The union has given the government till the end of the month (Tuesday) to reach out or it will start the strike process.

Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the union’s president, revealed this in an interview with The PUNCH on Sunday, adding that the FG no longer picks up his calls.

Recall that in March 2020, ASUU went on strike in protest of the FG’s funding of universities, as well as the ineffectiveness and anomalies surrounding the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System and other issues.

ASUU, on the other hand, developed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution to replace IPPIS and met with the Ministries of Finance, Education, Labor and Employment, and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation several times before it was approved but not yet implemented.

Similarly, the FG and ASUU negotiated an agreement aimed at settling some of ASUU’s demands, resulting in the strike’s suspension on December 24, 2020.

In addition, Osodeke stated that the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency insisted that UTAS be re-presented to end users during a meeting with the FG on August 2, 2021.

At the meeting, Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige informed ASUU that the N22 billion earned allowance set aside in the 2021 supplementary budget would be made available to university employees soon.

On the contrary, Osodeke told one of our reporters on Sunday that the FG had stopped communicating with ASUU and had failed to carry out the arrangement struck.

Because the government has remained silent on their requests, Osodeke stated the union will not hesitate to go on strike again to protest the administration’s failure.

He said, “The government has refused to reach out to us. Government officials have stopped. In fact, they don’t take our calls again. Nigerians should tell the government to do what they agreed to do.

“We signed an agreement and even in May, we reached a final agreement; this is August and nothing has been implemented. Does it make any sense? We are giving them till the end of August and after that, we start the procedures.”

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