NIGERIANS SHOULD NOT VOTE FOR POLITICIANS, WHOSE CHILDREN SCHOOL ABROAD – ASUU CHAIRMAN

 The NEC of ASUU announced a 12-week strike recently while citing the inaction of the Federal Government. What are some of the issues yet to be addressed by the government?

None of the issues ranging from revitalisation fund, earned academic allowance, deployment of UTAS (University Transparency and Accountability Solution), release of visitation panel reports, proliferation of universities and reforms has been fully addressed; so, nothing has happened.

Isn’t there another way for the union to seek redress, especially seeing that students are home for close to three months?

Which other ways do Nigerians or the press want us to use? We have used all the ways; we issued warnings, we had meetings, we had MoA (Memorandum of Action), we had Memorandum of Understanding, all the visible methods we could talk through with, and then nothing happened. So, what do we do? Strike is the last option remaining, and they (government) are not even responding, so what do we do?

In what way is the UTAS better than the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, which was proposed by the Federal Government?

Well, we keep saying that the IPPIS is a fraud being managed by the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, whose head is also charged with fraud. We have been vindicated; you heard that the AGF has been arrested by the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) for misappropriation of N80bn and suspended; this is not small. The IPPIS is a platform they use to siphon money. UTAS is a platform that has been tested but they refused to deploy it. UTAS will take care of all the sectors in the university, which is not in the IPPIS. Issue of sabbatical, issue of visiting lecturers, all will be taken care of by UTAS, which is not accommodated by the IPPIS.