The Academic Staff Union of Universities has vowed to continue the strike it has been holding since December 2020, citing the Federal Government’s claimed inability to honor many of the agreements it made with the Union.

Dr. Ibrahim Inuwa, the Chairperson of the ASUU at Bauchi’s Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, announced this to a group of media at the Union’s Secretariat.

He said the long-running strike, which was intended to press their demands for the continued existence of Nigeria’s public university system, was called off in December after the two parties agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding on the various issues, which included timelines for implementing each of the eight items.

Earned Academic Allowance, Funding for revitalisation of public universities, Salary shortage, Proliferation of state universities, and Visitation Panel, according to Inuwa, have been addressed only two out of the eight issues seven months after the MoU was signed.

Renegotiation, the replacement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) with the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), withheld salaries, and non-remittance of Check-off Dues are among the others, according to him, but “only salary shortfall and visitation panels to federal universities have been addressed.”

He said, “Renegotiation of the 2009 agreement which would have been completed within eight weeks from the date of inauguration of the committee has up till now not been concluded, even though the Committee was inaugurated since December 2020.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria willingly agreed that the UTAS will replace the IPPIS as a payment platform in Federal Universities after it passed an integrity test. However, soon after the agreement, agents of the FGN are doing everything possible to frustrate the coming of UTAS onboard.

“Meanwhile the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation through the IPPIS office have continued to omit our members from payment of salaries while others experience serious salary amputation. We are convinced this is done in connivance with the University Administration through the distortion of our members’ personal details.

“In the meantime, IPPIS appears to be the corruption headquarters of the Federal Civil service, as exemplified by double payment of salaries to employees, payment of salaries to non-employees, over taxation, dubious amputation of salaries, etc.”

The federal government’s body language on the development of state universities, according to Inuwa, reveals that they are unwilling to put a stop to it, and that instead, the federal government has cooperated in the proliferation of universities, despite the clear budget issues.

He further claimed that it is clear to the Union that the OAGF is intentionally omitting its members from salary payments and withholding check off dues as a tactic to victimize and coerce ASUU members into enrolling in IPPIs.

“This plague,” he said, “has been evident across all Federal Universities in Nigeria since February, 2020. This to us is an outright act of ingratitude on the part of the Government for the sacrifices members of ASUU are making in order to establish a progressive nation. A clear case of punishing citizens for being patriotic.”

Inuwa declared that “Enough is enough. ASUU is fed up with deceptive antics of the federal government of Nigeria.

“The University Campuses are becoming restive across the length and breadth as Academics are threatening to shut down activities once again. This is coming as a result of the failure of the FGN to implement many aspects of the memorandum of Action it willingly signed with ASUU that ended the last strike in December, 2020.

“Given the glaring and deliberate failure of Government to honour the agreement it willingly signed with the Union, it is becoming obvious that industrial harmony is gradually being destroyed in the University Campuses.

“We, therefore, call on well-meaning Nigerians to wake up the FGN from its slumber to avoid another disruption of academic activities on Universities Campuses across the nation” adding that “the atmosphere is tensed and charged.”