Hope raises for Nigerian university students as the Federal Government on Friday shifted grounds on some of the demands raised by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
After over eight hours of deliberations, the Federal Government eventually made some adjustments, offering an additional sum of N15billion to ASUU, making it a cumulative sum of N65billion.
The amount is for the settlement of revitalisation funds for Universities and Earned Academic Allowances.
With no commitment from ASUU whether it will consider suspending the ongoing strike, the meeting was however adjourned to Friday next week, for both government and ASUU to further digest the resolutions.
On the contentious Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System, IPPIS, ASUU informed the meeting that it had carried out a demonstration of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution UTAS, to all stakeholders and end-users on Thursday, November 5, 2020.
Also Read: ASUU vows not to enroll in IPPIS as strike continues
ASUU said the demonstration was done at the National Universities Commission, NUC, where some questions raised about the functionality and credibility were immediately addressed.
On withheld salaries and non remittance of check off dues, both parties agreed that the Federal Ministry of Education and Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment should reconsider the “No Work, No Pay” with a view of getting approval for the withheld salaries to be paid.
The meeting also agreed that the mode of payment applied for the payment of those that had not been captured in the IPPIS platform between the months of February and June 2020 be adopted for the purpose of payment during this transition period.
ASUU and FG have locked horns over these issues, causing a protracted strike by the lecturers.
( Editor: Omor Bazuaye)
