The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says the ongoing strike will continue until all the issues in contention are adequately addressed by the federal government.
The union also accused the federal government of using the seizure of salaries as a hunger weapon against its members for refusal to migrate to the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS).
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Speaking with newsmen shortly after its meeting at the Niger Delta University, Amassoma, Bayelsa State on Thursday, the Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Port Harcourt Zone, Professor Uzo Onyebiama, called on parents and students to join the union in the struggle to redeem the university system and future of Nigerian youths, insisting that the demands of ASUU were not only about the welfare of its members but also for the revamping of university education in the country.
Professor Onyebiama, who was flanked by ASUU’s chairperson NDU branch l, Dr. Kingdom Tonbara; ASUU’s chairperson UNIPORT, Austen Sado; ASUU’s chairperson, Federal University Otouke, Emmanuel Akpan and others, said the IPPIS will remove the autonomy of universities and install it in the hands of the Accountant General of the Federation.
He said: “IPPIS has become an obnoxious instrument for stripping the governing councils of universities of their powers and their responsibilities and removing the hard won autonomies of universities.
“The issue of autonomy is critical to the survival of our universities as institutions for intellectual freedom and development of our dear country.
“The purported directive of Mr President and the subsequent circulars to the Vice Chancellors on enrollment on IPPIS, using the seizure of salaries as a hunger weapon and the compulsory change of effective date of annual salary increment of salaries of academic staff from October 1 to January 1 are by these provisions illegal as such null and void.
“IPPIS ensures that the governing councils of universities are no longer free to discharge their functions and exercise their responsibilities and can no longer ensure that disbursement of universities funds comply with the approved budgetary ratio for personnel cost, overhead cost, etc.
“In the light of these threats inherent in the enrollment of academic staff in IPPIS, our union cannot afford to quietly lie low.
“We, as a union of intellectuals, have a sacred responsibility to alert Nigerians about this calamity called IPPIS, which has been hoisted on the universities.
“We hereby call on parents, including academic staff and students, to take up the gauntlet and join this struggle to redeem our universities and the future of Nigerian youths.
“We will remain in this struggle until the issues in contention are adequately addressed,” he said.
‘FG can’t meet demands’
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had on Wednesday said the government cannot meet the requests of ASUU due to present economic situation in the country.
ASUU is demanding N110bn for revatilisation of tertiary institutions amongst other requests.
Ngige, who stated this while briefing journalists immediately after a closed-door meeting with ASUU members in Abuja, reiterated that government had offered only N20bn it can afford.
According to him, Nigeria’s dare economic situation occasioned by COVID-19 pandemic would not allow government to do beyond its financial capacity despite its commitment to revitalisation of universities.
“This government is not against revitalisation but this government says that because of dare economic situation, because of COVID-19, we cannot really pay in the N110 billion which they are demanding for revitalisation,” the minister said.
Ngige explained that the government had offered a total sum of N50bn to the striking lecturers, where N30bn out of the money is meant for Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) of all the unions – ASUU, SSANU and NASU.
He said ASUU members insisted that all the N30bn be meant for them alone.
