The decision to extend the strike for the fourth time was taken on Monday, August 29, 2022, after the union’s National Executive Council met at its headquarters at the University of Abuja.”
By Deborah Hassan
365Daily – The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has again extended its 6 months long strike.
The decision to extend the strike for the fourth time was taken on Monday, August 29, 2022, after the union’s National Executive Council met at its headquarters at the University of Abuja.
365Daily learnt the meeting was heated with arguments among the lecturers. The union had embarked on the strike on February 14, demanding for a renegotiation of agreements reached between it and the government in 2009.
It is also demanding that its members’ salaries should be exempted from Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) through which it pays its employees, saying it wants the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) instead.
In reaction, the spokesperson of the Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Ben Goong, said it was meaningless for ASUU to keep the strike on after government had taken all possible steps to end it.
He explained that “Government has already inaugurated a committee to harmonise the IPPIS, UTAS, and UP3, a salary payment platform introduced by another union within the university system.
“This will ensure that the government will pay with only one payment platform that will harmonise all the technical peculiarities.
“If you bring some demands and almost 80 per cent have been attended to, there is no need to drag the strike anymore.
“It is unreasonable for the strike to be lingering seeing that government has worked toward meeting most of the demands,’’ Goong said.