The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Lagos Zone, has berated the Federal Government (FG) for allegedly being insensitive to the yearnings of the Nigerian citizens.

The ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Comrade Adelaja Odukoya, said none of the issues that necessitated the current impasse in the universities has been resolved by government, just as he called on all Nigerians to rally round the union rather than criticising it for the strike.

Addressing a news conference held at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) on the lingering strike, Odukoya warned that the deliberate misinformation by some government officials was capable of elongating the industrial action.

The Lagos Zone comprises Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye; Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED); University of Lagos (UNILAG), Lagos State University (LASU), and FUNAAB.

According to the zonal coordinator, the key issues include the re-negotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement, payment platforms in the Universities (IPPIS/UTAS), proliferation of state Universities, non-payment of Earned Academic Allowances, promotion arrears and check-off dues and the release of White Papers of Visitation Panels to Federal Universities.

Odukoya declared that the ongoing strike action would not be suspended until the Federal Government addresses the adoption of UTAS, implement the renegotiated agreement, pay all outstanding allowances and fulfil all other issues contained in the Memorandum of Action signed with ASUU.

He said ASUU should not be blamed for the current situation, urging well-meaning citizens to prevail on the Federal Government to do the needful.

“Our Union wants to use this opportunity to call on well-meaning Nigerians to call the Federal Government to question on the lingering industrial face-off. The future of this country lies in the hand of our educated youths and government has the responsibilities to live up to the constitutional provision of educating all Nigerians.

“Our country is currently bleeding with the activities of bandits and terrorists simply because of lack of education. The political class continues to sow the seeds of insecurity due to the criminal neglect of the education sector,” he added.

The ASUU leader asked the Federal Government to desist from frivolous spendings and be more responsible in handling the affairs of the citizens.

Odukoya noted that the unsolicited donation of $1million by the Nigerian government to Afghanistan and the N12billion spent monthly on school feeding programme ought to be channeled to more productive use, especially in the education sector.

Odukoya also accused the Director-General of the National Information Technology and Development Agency (NITDA), Inuwa Abdullahi, of deliberately misinforming the Federal Government and members of the public on the result of the integrity test conducted on University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).

UTAS is a payment platform developed by ASUU to replace the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), which is one of the issues that necessitated the ongoing strike by university lecturers.

Odukoya said if the government allows itself to be misinformed and misdirected through the managerial incompetence of the NITDA officers, the union has a duty to properly inform the public on the true state of things regarding UTAS.

He insisted that the IPPIS was imposed on the universities, despite its demonstrated shortcomings.

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The zonal coordinator explained that government has run out of reasons and lies not to accept, approve and adopt UTAS, saying the NITDA DG was allegedly playing politics with the process and doing a hatchet job of the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Ali Pantami.

Odukoya said: “Government’s forceful migration of our members unto the platform, even when our union has clearly demonstrated that the system does not accommodate the peculiarities of the university system should not just worry Nigerians but should equally raise the curiosity of lovers of Nigerians on the main reasons for imposing IPPIS.

“IPPIS is a bastion of fraud that permits the enrolment of ghost workers and constitute financial drain on the scarce resource of the Nigerian State.

“IPPIS, as a payment platform is yet to be subjected to any Integrity Test by the government. Our union challenged government to similarly subject IPPIS to Integrity Test as done to UTAS by independent technical teams.

“NITDA was directed to conduct Integrity Test on the UTAS platform before deployment by government. However, in a report of the first test sent to the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami on December 3rd, 2021, NITDA indicated that the UTAS platform failed some fundamental test cases, despite a summary score of 97.4% and therefore, declined issuance of Certificate of Compliance. ASUU however, disagreed with the NITDA report and wondered how 97.4% could have amounted to failure.

“Consequent upon this disagreement, it was agreed at a meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employmentthat joint re-assessment tests between the technical teams of ASUU and NITDA be conducted and these were done on Tuesday March 8th  Friday 18th, 2022. Expectedly, the assessment of all the 698 tests conducted was successful with an overall score of 99.3%. The few exceptions are five cases requiring modifications.

“However, while the re-assessment tests were ongoing, the DG, NITDA released misleading information to the public from the discredited report of the first test that UTAS failed again, leaving out the result of the jointly conducted second test of 99.3%. Our Union then wonders how and where 99.3% test score would be adjudged as fail.

“We are aware that the position of the DG, NITDA, Inuwa Abdullahi, is not consistent with the enthusiasm of the Technical Team from the agency he superintends over and the DG is unduly politicizing the entire process to the disadvantage of the country, possibly in the interest of the Minister for Communication and Digital Economy.

“Their dispositions amount to passing a vote of no confidence on the Nigerian intelligentsia and our union would not allow this to fly. Good enough, we are convinced that the Technical Team from NITDA, are quite abreast of the process and the responsibilities around their certified qualifications.

“ASUU therefore, wants the Nigerian public to call the DG, NITDA to order on the point of integrity not to play politics and vendetta with the future of Nigeria and that of our public Universities as National treasures and collective patrimony of all Nigerian citizens,” Odukoya stated.

The Star