The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is poised to make some concessions in the union’s demands from the federal government as the time frame given the Nimi Briggs renegotiation committee draws to a close in 3 days.
This is a result of the progress made so far in the meetings between the committee and the leadership of ASUU.
Nevertheless, the concessions may not include ignoring the financial implications of ASUU demands. ASUU is rather willing and ready to give the federal government more time to address the financial issues embedded in the union’s requests.
“Demands that have financial implications such as the payment of Earned Academic Allowance, Revitalisation Fund, the payment of withheld salaries are not negotiable. There are some areas we may shift grounds but until it is officially done, let us wait,” the statement read in part.
Meanwhile, several Twitter handles claiming to be ASUU Twitter handles have expressed optimism about the union’s ongoing meeting with the Briggs committee, describing the negotiation as being progressive.
A statement from some of those Twitter handles claimed that Emmanuel Osodeke, the national president of ASUU told the newsmen, “The union has been negotiating with the Biggs committee since last week over its demands.”
Recall that the federal government had earlier inaugurated a seven-person committee tasked with the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement reached with ASUU.
And that Briggs, the pro-chancellor of the Alex Ekweme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike in Ebonyi State was appointed to chair the committee.
ASUU had on its Twitter handle indicated that the negotiation with the committee is progressive and that the strike might come to an end soonest. “ASUU may suspend strike next week as negotiations are still on,” the Twitter statement read in part.
However, some of the lecturers who spoke with BusinessDay expressed a divergent view of Twitter news.
Stanley Boroh, a lecturer at the Federal University, Otuoke in Bayelsa State told BusinessDay that there is yet no news from the union as pertains to resumption, but that the union is negotiating with the committee over several issues which cut across the payment platform.
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“ASUU is asking the federal government to retest the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) and Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) side by side in order to arrive at a preferred platform for payment,” he said.
The National Information Technology and Development Agency (NITDA) had earlier in the year stated that UTAS did not pass the integrity test, which ASUU described as a deliberate effort to misinform the public and frustrate the union’s goal.
Charles Onwunali, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, denied knowing that ASUU is calling off the strike soonest.
“ASUU does not issue statements through Twitter, it is not the union’s mode of information dissemination, so I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the message,” he stated.
Onwunali disclosed that the federal government is meant to keep IPPIS as its payment platform against the union’s demand for UTAS.
He reiterated that using IPPIS will eventually turn the university system into a ministry and that according to him will amount to destroying the tertiary education sector.
