University professors will be paid through the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), as reported by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The ASUU president, Emmanuel Osodeke, was on Channels Television on Monday to discuss the ongoing strike.
Since February 14th, the academic union has been on strike because the government has not met its demands regarding the salaries and allowances of lecturers, increased funding for universities, and the acceptance of UTAS as the federal government’s preferred payment platform (IPPIS).
The ASUU president stated on Monday that the union would be meeting with the federal government on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of renegotiation.
If the federal government meets ASUU’s requests at today’s meeting, ASUU will halt the strike, according to Osodeke.
Although they have asked us to a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the matter of renegotiation, “we have not had any real communication,” he said.
For the record, there are seven main reasons why we went on strike. The renegotiation of the 2009 agreement is the topic of tomorrow’s debate.
Now that the pilot has been completed and the chief of staff has approved the plan, UTAS will be rolled out across campus, putting an end to any remaining concerns regarding IPPIS.
“Two,” you may be thinking, “if this administration is serious, this strike will not last more than two weeks. For those who may have forgotten, we were planning to go on strike back in November, but NIREC stepped in and prevented us from really starting the strike. There was an admission of defeat on our part.
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After meeting with the president, who promptly formed a committee to deal with the issue and appointed his chief of staff to lead it, and after the press reported their meeting across the world, they did nothing. After the president appointed the Munzali committee and we met with them, they disappeared without a trace.
After two months of negotiations, during which time the Nimi Briggs committee was established, the other party simply disappeared. We are already two weeks past when the President had hoped the Ministry of Education would return with results.
If we go into tomorrow’s meeting with the administration saying that we are willing to sign what we have agreed, then the strike will be called off.
