Fg Reach Agreement With Asuu
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has denied media reports that, after meeting on Friday with the government`s negotiating team led by Senator Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, it agreed to halt the ongoing strike. He said: “With quality and accessible university training, we can guarantee a supply of knowledge in scientists, doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians and other medical and paramedical personnel to deal with a global pandemic like COVID-19. But it seems that our universities have no place in the government`s current efforts. In an exclusive report from TheNation, which reports that the branch of Ahmadu Bello University has been agreed with the government on the N40 billion Earned Academic Allowance (EAA). The University Union (ASUU) has threatened to strike until November if the federal government withholds the October salary of teachers because of its refusal to enroll in the “new” payment system “Integrated Personnel Payment Information System” (IPPIS). The University Academic Union (ASUU) yesterday accused the federal government of failing to implement a six-point agreement negotiated during a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on 9 January. Regarding the impact of IPPIS on teachers, Mr. Abubakar said: “The university may no longer be able to help a teacher who has problems with his research allowances or his housing allowance or his retirement benefits, because such a teacher would have to go to Abuja before he can do so. But the higher education system is too dynamic for these delays and bottlenecks. The Academic Union of University Staff (ASUU) has threatened to strike if the Federation`s general accountant stops the salaries of lecturers in January of this year. This was followed by a circular from the Federation General Accountant`s Office (AGF) to all public universities last week with information on the January listening salary of teachers who refused to enrol in the IPPIS platform The Minister mentioned that he made efforts to get ASUU for negotiations, but because of the blockage It was therefore not possible.
According to the president of the ASUU, the union has never refused an invitation to a negotiating meeting with the government. He said the union had asked government officials to send a response to the last letter the union had sent them. “How can they claim to have invited us to a meeting without a clear agenda or invitation letter?” He asked me. As far as we are concerned, we have no problem getting back to work, but we want more sincerity on the government side. But ASUU President Prof Biodun Ogunyemi denied any knowledge of an agreement to cancel the strike and stressed that at the meeting it had only been agreed that the union was sending the government`s message to its bodies and would return to the government. Ngige said the two sides would meet again on Monday after the ASUU delegation consulted with its National Executive Council (NEC). He called on the federal government to manage the union`s turmoil with the necessary seriousness and stressed that mismanagement of the industrial crisis could lead to a new wave of brain drain, which will have a crippling effect on science and the nation as a whole. According to Labour and Employment Minister Chris Ngige, the money would be paid in increments from May 2021 to January 2022. Budget defence begins, with the Senate suspending the Assembly for two weeks.
