By Gabriel Atumeyi
365Daily – The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned of another strike following the Federal Government’s failure to implement the December 22, 2020 Memorandum of Action that led to the suspension of the last strike.
Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Benin, Prof. Fred Esumeh, made this disclosure on Monday, September 14, 2021, while speaking to newsmen on ‘Another Inevitable Round of Crisis in Nigerian Universities’, in Benin, the Edo State capital.
Esumeh further said they were awaiting the directive of the national body of ASUU on how to proceed.
In March 2020, ASUU embarked on a long strike action following its disagreement with the FG over the funding of the universities and ineffectiveness and discrepancies around the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and others.
To resolve the impasse, ASUU, developed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution to replace IPPIS and after a series of meetings with the Ministries of Finance, Education, Labour and Employment, and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, it was approved but is yet to be implemented.
In reaction to the non-implementation of the payment platform, Esumeh said: “The specific issues remain the Federal Government’s deliberate delay in deploying the University Transparency and Accountability Solution as the payment platform for university staff, the non-payment of the due tranche of Earned Academic Allowances.
“Others are the non-release of the earlier agreed N40 billion fund for the revitalisation of public universities, the unwillingness to sign the draft of the renegotiated 2009 agreement, the continued non-payment of promotion arrears, the non-payment of withheld salaries and the non-remittance of deducted check-off dues of the union.”