The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu has said the Federal Government will never accede to the demand by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to be paid salaries for the six months it has been on strike.
The Minister explained that the issue of “No work, No Pay” remained the only stumbling block in the negotiations between the union and the Federal Government.
Adamu who made the disclosure at the weekly State House briefing at the Presidential Villa Abuja on Thursday said President Muhammadu Buhari had vehemently kicked against the demand by ASUU when the report was presented to him.
He explained that while “all other issues between government and ASUU had been settled, the demand for salaries for the period of the strike remained contentious”.
The Minister said that the President’s position had been communicated to the lecturers who are expected to call off the strike.
He explained that the rejection was to curb the excesses of trade unions that want to be paid for work not done.
Adamu also disclosed that the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment system proposed by ASUU has outscored the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) already in use by the government.
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He however pointed out that IPPIS has been updated to now accommodate payment of those on sabbatical.
“Just one thing that I was reminded of even the current IPPIS has been made to accommodate sabbatical. I didn’t know this. Somebody just told me.”
The lecturers had accused the government of not considering the peculiarities of tertiary institutions in the IPPIS.
The Minister debunked the report that UTAS had not been approved by the government as the payment platform for University lecturers.
He said that the government has proposed a new salary for the unions which he said the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian University (SSANU), the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Allied Institutions (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists, (NAAT), have accepted in principle and are now consulting with their members with a view to calling off the strike in the next one month.
He, however, commended the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) for calling off its own strike.
Speaking more on the recurring strike that has crippled the university system, the minister said it is important for the public to be aware that “the Federal Government is paying the salaries of every staff in its tertiary institutions, academic and non-academic staff, while these institutions are also in full control of their internally generated revenue (IGR).
“We are doing everything humanly possible to conclude the negotiations. It is our hope that the outcome of the renegotiations will bring lasting industrial peace to our campuses. In the main time, I am sure that the current efforts would yield the desired results and return our children back to school.”
The minister also said that the Buhari administration has expended over six trillion Naira in capital and recurrent expenditure in the education sector in the last seven years.
He said this was in addition to interventions from TETFund and UBEC amounting to N2.5 trillion and N553,134,967,498 respectively in capital investment.
“We must also note and appreciate the huge investments from States and the private sector at all levels of our educational system. We will continue to improve on the implementation of the Ministerial Strategic Plan (MSP) all through to 2023 for the overall development of the education sector and the Nigerian nation.
“We will continue to create the necessary enabling environment to attract more and more private sector investment. We shall hand over a better education sector than we met it.”
Adamu said that the number of out-of-school children has dropped from an estimated 13 million to 6.9 million, with an impressive enrollment from frontline states of Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto, Gombe, Bauchi, Adamawa, Taraba, Rivers and Ebonyi.
He linked the increased enrollment to activities of the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA).
( Editor, Omor Bazuaye)
