FG not showing seriousness to negotiate – ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has accused the Federal Government of showing levity in its ongoing negotiation with the union whose members are currently on a four-week warning strike.

The union, therefore, said ending the industrial action was dependent on the readiness of the government to take the issue at stake seriously and do the needful.

National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, told Vanguard, yesterday, that the last meeting between the two sides did not achieve anything because the government team acted as if it did not know the issues at stake.

He said: “Our last meeting did not lead to anything meaningful because the government team acted as if they were not aware of the issues at stake. We have been on this thing for some years now. What we expected from them is to come to the meeting with answers to what we are demanding.

“We were surprised that their team came with no action as to how to resolve the issues. Another meeting is slated for Tuesday and we hope they would change and do the needful.

“What we are asking for has been in public domain for long that almost everybody knows what the issues are. It is surprising that they did not come with any action plan to meet our demands and resolve the issues.”

Asked whether the next meeting would resolve the faceoff, Osodeke said government’s action and readiness would determine that.

He added that the demands of the union were still the same, including revitalising university education, discontinuance of Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System, IPPIS, as the payment system in the universities, payment of promotion and salary arrears, among others.

Vanguard, however, discovered that the two major areas of disagreement were the IPPIS that the lecturers want to be replaced with the University Transparency and Accountability System, UTAS, and adequate funding of the sector.

On the call for more money to be pumped into the sector, the government is claiming that it was currently having paucity of funds, a claim the union said could be tackled by the government setting its priority right.

If the two sides fail to resolve their faceoff by March 13, this year, the union may go on an indefinite strike.