There are strong indications that students of public universities in the country would still remain at home despite the Federal government’s directives for immediate resumption.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has dismissed the Federal government’s directive for all educational institutions to resume on Monday next week, insisting on continuing its strike.
The National President of ASUU, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, is quoted as saying that the Federal government is not sincere about negotiations with the union, adding that lecturers would not resume on an empty stomach.
Ogunyemi specifically took a swipe at the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris, for violating a directive of the President Muhammadu Buhari that lecturers’ salaries should be paid.
He hinted that Nigerians should be ready for a long-drawn strike in universities with the way government is handling negotiations.
Also, the Non-Academic Staff Union declared that the Federal government’s Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System is not transparent, saying several of its members are being cheated.
Both NASU and the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities began a 14-day warning strike on Monday over the adoption of the IPPIS in universities and non-payment of minimum wage to their members.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, had, at a media briefing in Abuja on Friday, said that the government had approved the reopening of educational institutions beginning from Monday, October 12.
All educational institutions in the country were shut in March following the outbreak of COVID-19.
But before March, the Federal government and ASUU had been at loggerheads over the IPPIS, which the later said should not be adopted in universities because it would violate their autonomy.
Buhari, during the presentation of the 2020 budget in October last year, ordered ministries, departments and agencies to migrate to the IPPIS as part of efforts to check fraud.
On March 23, ASUU began an indefinite strike to force the Federal government to implement its agreements with lecturers and protest against the IPPIS .
Responding to a question on when the strike would end, Ogunyemi said: “You can’t expect people to go back to their offices on an empty stomach. You don’t expect my members to suspend this action when their demands have not been met. It is a very clear decision that anybody will make in this circumstance.”
He said that on August 18, ASUU wrote the Federal government, stating that it is ready to demonstrate its University Transparency Accountability Solution, which it designed as alternative to the IPPIS.
According to him, the union did not receive government’s reply until September 30.
Explaining contents of the letters, he stated: “They said they were considering our requests for a meeting. Mainly, we raised two points in the letter we wrote to them, that we are ready to demonstrate our platform which is the alternative to the IPPIS. We had earlier presented it to the Ministry of Education, although we told the Ministry of Labour that they should facilitate presentation to other stakeholders, particularly the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation. It is from there we are being dribbled.”