From Frank Ikpefan, Abuja
The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Monday declared an indefinite strike over the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPS) and the non-implementation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement.
ASUU on March 9 declared a two-week warning strike following a resolution taken at its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at the Enugu State University (ESUT), Enugu.
The union leaders accused the Federal Government of failing to implement the contents of the Memorandum of Action (MoA) signed last year by both sides.
ASUU’s National President Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi announced the strike at a news briefing at its national secretariat in Abuja, amid closure of public tertiary institutions for a month by the government over spread of COVID-19.
The ASUU president said the union took the decision after an emergency NEC meeting last Saturday in Abuja where it reviewed the new proposals made by the government team.
Prof. Ogunyemi noted that the Federal Government, after two consultative meetings with its team led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen, Chris Ngige, failed to address the issues raised by the union.
He said: “Following the declaration of the two-week warning strike at the Enugu State University, ASUU and the government held consultative meetings on March 12 and 17. ASUU made it clear at those meetings that our union was always in pains going on short, or long term strike.
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“However, we equally made it clear that no responsible union will sit idly watching its members’ welfare and survival being trampled upon. In view of these developments, an emergency meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) of ASUU was held in Abuja last Saturday to review the warning strike and take decisions on government’s proposal for resolving the crisis.
“Based on the review of the reports from ASUU leadership’s engagements with the government, NEC concluded that the government had failed to satisfactorily address the outstanding issues raised in the FGN-ASUU 2019 MoA and ignored the objections of ASUU against IPPIS.
“Consequently, NEC resolved to embark on a total, comprehensive and indefinite strike beginning from March 23, until the issues are resolved.
“ASUU rejects the application of force on our members to join IPPIS irrespective of the patriotic evidence shown by the union to offer a more credible alternative to IPPIS.”
Ogunyemi said although the government has told ASUU that it now accepts the union’s proposal on its payroll model, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), it sees its appeal to join IPPIS as a booby trap.
“The government has told ASUU that it now accepts the union’s proposal on UTAS with the given timelines for full development; one, software development, six months; two, alpha testing, three months; three, beta testing, six months; four, stable release, three months.
“However, the appeal of the government to encourage ASUU members enrol on IPPIS within the intervening period before the full development of UTAS was rejected as a booby trap,” he added.
However, Ngige said the ASUU leadership was yet to communicate its decision to embark on an indefinite strike to the government.
The minister, in a phone interview, however, noted that the government would meet to discuss the best line of action to take.
He said: “They have to write to tell us that they are going on indefinite strike. They didn’t write us to tell us that they were going on strike before. This indefinite strike, I am hearing it from you.
“The agreement we had the last time was that they should go to their members and come back to us. They were supposed to come back to us by Friday. Today is Monday and they have not come back to us.
“As a government we shall discuss and know the best line of action. We are their conciliator, so we will also discuss with the government.”
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