The non-academic staff of universities, NASU, have vowed not to resume administrative functions until the imbalance in the sharing formulae of the N40 billion earned allowance approved by the government for four university-based unions is addressed.
The NASU made their position known shortly after, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU suspended it’s over nine months old strike.
The ASUU President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, had announced the suspension at a press conference on Wednesday morning in Abuja.
The suspension followed the decision by the Federal Government to pay two – months’ salary arrears of ASUU members.
The ASUU, before now demanded 110 billion naira revitalization funds each year for three years to universities while on one of the longest ever strike by the academic staff union of Nigerian universities that started on the 23rd of March 2020.
For nine months, despite the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus and in spite of pressure from the government, the university lecturers held tight on their demands, remaining on strike.
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The lecturers also demanded payment of owed earned academic allowance, which is in billions, but top on the list of ASUU’s demands was a rejection of the Integrated payroll and personal information system. IPPIS.
The ASUU had argued that the system is fraudulent and went ahead to present its own alternative, The university Transparency and accountability solution, UTAS.
However, the government remained adamant about ASUU’s alternative insisting on the use of IPPIS to pay salaries of all federal government workers
In one of the FG/ASUU meetings, the government stepped down the use of IPPIS for lecturers’ salaries and also offered ASUU 70 billion naira.
The amount includes Earned Academic Allowance and university revitalization fund.
On Tuesday, December 22, 2020, a six-hour meeting between the government and ASUU led to a briefing on Wednesday, December 23, 2020, where the lecturers agreed to return to the classrooms.
But the scary second wave of COVID-19 pandemic may pose a bigger threat to the reopening of universities as the federal government has already fixed January 18 for schools reopening and has directed public servants on grade level 12 and below to stay at home for five weeks.
(Editor:Abaje Usekwe)
