Why Asuu strike has not been called off.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has explained why the lecturers are yet to call off eight months old strike.

According to its leadership, the federal government has neither implemented nor fulfilled any of the offers it made to ASUU.

For instance, the Union explained that the salaries of its members were refrained by the government have not been paid despite the latest offer from the government negotiating team.
The Government, in its latest offers to Asuu leadership, pledged to pay N40 billion as Earned Allowance and N30 billion for the revitalization of the university system, bringing the total amount to N70 billion.

The government also agreed to settle the arrears of salaries of the lecturers before December 2020, but after proper consultation with the government side.
They agreed to the demands by Asuu that they be exempted from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), pending the approval of their proposed payment system, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).

Before the government introduced the IPPIS to the Union last year, the lecturers were receiving their salaries through the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).

Prof Abiodun Ogunyemi, Asuu president, said that its members would not return to class on empty stomachs. He said some of the offers made by the government had timelines which the government was yet to implement.

According to Ogunyemi; “We are still consulting but certainly before the end of this week, we still report to the minister the findings and feedback from our members.

The offers people are talking about are proposals that are timeless and some of these things are expected to have been happening. If those things they promised with the timeline can happen before we conclude our consultation, I think the process will go smoother.

A concrete example is the payment of our members’ salaries which have not been paid. If people are not paid, I don’t think anybody will be willing to go back to work and other things that have timelines that we expect the government to implement.
You don’t expect people, after eight months, to go back to the classroom on empty stomachs. That is where we are.

Before the end of this week, we will get back to government, but we keep on telling them each time they contact us that they (government) should fulfill their end of the bargain, things that have timelines”.