The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have insisted that the Federal Government is to be blamed for frustrating effort at resolving the issues that resulted in the ongoing strike action by the union, which encompasses all lecturers in Nigeria.
This was made know in a statement by the union's National President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, who disclosed this on Politics Today, a programme aired on Channels Television.
Prof. Ogunyemi invited that the Federal government has refused to take the necessary steps in addressing the strike action.
According to him, the delay in adopting ASUU’s preferred platform, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, is one of the major reasons the strike has not been suspended.
“The strike is still on as a result of the FG not taking the necessary steps. We gave them two weeks to address our five points demands.
“We engaged the government but they were not forthcoming. They had a whole year to address those issues. They gave us positions that were not acceptable to our members.
“During our first meeting, we thought they were almost resolving the issues.
“What compounded the problem is the issue of IPPIS. We have said that it is a distraction. There is no university in the world that uses IPPIS.
“We have done three presentations of UTAS to the Minister of Education and his team, the leadership of the Senate and Office of the Accountant-General. They only agreed that UTAS is accepted in principles.
“We are almost getting UTAS approved but the government is saying that our members should first migrate to IPPIS before returning to UTAS. That makes no economic sense. The government has made it difficult for smooth negotiation. They said our members will be paid when they move to IPPIS.”
Universities in Nigeria have been locked down for more than six months now as the union have embarked on an indefinite strike to press home a lot of demands, which includes non payment of salaries and other allowances due her members by the Federal Government.