ASUU to FG: Address our concerns or face prolonged strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Thursday urged the federal government to address the concerns of the university lecturers or face prolonged strike.

Addressing a joint press conference in Ibadan, Oyo state on Thursday, the Coordinator, Ibadan Zonal Chapter of ASUU, Professor Ade Adejumo, said the Union has been vindicated following the underpayment, overpayment, none third party deductions, and outright omissions, among other anomalies which characterised the February salary paid to those who enrolled on the IPPIS platform.

Daily Trust reports that the Ibadan Zone comprises of the University of Ibadan, Ladoke Akintola University, University of Ilorin, Kwara State University and Osun State University.

Professor Adejumo, who was flanked by Prof. Ayo Akinwole (UI), Prof. Moyosore Ajao (UNILORIN), Dr Biodun Olaniran (LAUTECH), Dr Femi Abanikannda (UNISON), and Dr Dauda Adesola (KWASU), added that the union is worried that despite the anomalies experienced by those enlisted on the IPPIS, the government is still adamant on forcing the platform on the nation’s universities.

“Presently, the outcry emanating from university workers over the payment of February salary has vindicated ASUU’s position on the evil platform of IPPIS as an unworkable platform. To say the least, IPPIS is a haven for corruption rather than assisting in curbing it.

“The attention of our union has been drawn to the latest gibberish from the odious stable of the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Sonny Echono.

“Ordinarily, we would have ignored the silly vituperation unbecoming of an officer entrusted with such high responsibility. We would simply have consigned it to the ash tray of irrelevant irritation which it rightly belongs, but the public must not be allowed to be misled by this public liar, Echono; a trained (failed?) architect who now finds haven in the civil service.

“If this architect of lies found satisfaction in his primary calling as an architect, he should have remained in private practice and be a proper employer of labour rather than joining the civil service where he now becomes an uncharitable purveyor of lies against the patriotic struggles of the nation’s body of academics in search of the best for our country.

“Echono should be truthful to himself and the nation rather than playing politics with fake statistics. Of the over 70 percent of university workers that he claims to have already been captured on IPPIS, what is the percentage of academics in his figure? The so-called balance of 30 percent, what is the percentage of academics?

“In what way has the government responded to the plethora of sharp practices and irregularities that have been trailing the IPPIS implementation? How many university administrations have been prosecuted or even indicted for staff padding? Why have ASUU’s demands for visitation panels to the universities over the years been treated with such flippancy by the government that this high priest of IPPIS serves?

“On ASUU’s composition of its negotiations team, Echono’s parable of the carpenter and the nail falls flat on its belly. If the woes of the country have grown from bad to worse since the ‘Ali must go’ saga, to our current nightmarish experiences, if the deficit of good governance and trust continue to be our abiding fate, if our civil service continues to be populated by cancerous (un)civil servants in the mould of this Echono, ASUU will not shy away from looking for bigger and stronger nails to drive those that run (ruin?) our country to the path of responsibility. That is the historical pact of our Union with this nation,” he said.