The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has said it appears the Federal Government is “ignorant” of how the university system works.
The union said it will not be moved by the FG’s decision to invoke the ‘no-work, no-pay’ policy. It however stressed that their salaries are going to be paid.
The union stated this on Thursday while reacting to the statement by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, that the withheld salaries of the lecturers would not be paid to serve as a deterrent to any worker planning to go on strike in the future.
The union, which spoke through the Lagos Zonal Chairman, Dr Adelaja Odukoya, said that the FG is “contradicting themselves” with the claim that the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS, developed by the union to replace the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, IPPIS, did not pass integrity test, was far from the truth.
Read also: ASUU-FG meeting ends in deadlock, strike to continue
Odukoya, a member of the National Executive Council of ASUU, said: “If they have not paid us for six months and we did not die, we cannot die now.
“But they must be told that they are going to pay us our salaries, that is sure. The job of a lecturer involves teaching, research and community development and if we are not in class now, we are doing those other things.
“As for the IPPIS, why are they contradicting themselves on this issue. They themselves said and agreed that UTAS, when it was subjected to integrity test, performed much better than their IPPIS.
“It is the fraud being perpetrated through the IPPIS that is making those benefiting from it to go on sticking to it.
“They are saying that we had no reason to go on strike, if there was no reason, why are they proposing a new salary structure?
“They have set up a lot of committees with nothing to show for it. In May 2021, they set up a committee to work on our demands, nothing came out of it till we started strike in February this year.
“When we started strike, they gave another committee three months to do some things, yet nothing concrete came out.
“They are ignorant of how things work in the university system,” he said.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
