The feud between the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has continued into this week, with both sides making conflicting statements aimed at themselves.
While the government said on Saturday that only one issue is left to resolve with ASUU, the academic union on the other hand says they are yet to agree on anything with the government.
As we brace up for the next ASUU meeting this week, Nigerian students don’t know exactly what to expect.
Moreover, it has been a tumultuous year for students of Nigerian tertiary institutions, especially federal universities and polytechnics.
The ray of hope is that the federal government and ASUU has scheduled an all-important meeting for this week.
When is ASUU and FG meeting?
The Federal government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has agreed to again meet in a bid to resolve the now eight months old strike.
The Federal govt says it will meet with ASUU on Friday 20 November, 2020.
This was disclosed by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, headed by Mr. Chris Ngige, which is the federal government’s negotiation team.
The meeting will hold at the conference hall of the Ministry of Labour and Employment in Abuja.
Therefore as the federal government and academic staff union of universities resume meeting, here are few things to expect:
1. IPPIS issue
The Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) is the major talking point for ASUU and FG. That’s because the IPPIS matter is the main bone of contention.
In fact, take away the IPPIS saga and schools would have resumed since.
The federal government has since said it is putting ASUU’s owned Universities and Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) to integrity test. For the majority of Nigerian students, this integrity test has taken too long.
Besides that, ASUU has rejected receiving any funds from the federal government through IPPIS unless the funds come through other channel while UTAS is being tested.
According to ASUU, its just a blackmail by the government to get ASUU members to register for the IPPIS.
Going into this week, there are strong indications that the federal government might finally drop IPPIS in favour of UTAS for ASUU.
This was revealed by a reliable staff of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr. Charles Akpan.
According to Mr. Akpan, the federal government’s only concern is that UTAS is able to eliminate the issue of ghost workers and other corruption associated with salary payments.
Both issues IPPIS was meant to address.
2. Earned Allowances (EA)
The scenario here is a funny, yet ridiculous one.
The federal government had agreed to release ₦30 billion earned allowances to the striking unions during a meeting with ASUU last time.
According to the government at the time, the funds were meant for ASUU, NASU, and SSANU – all university unions.
However, ASUU has said the funds are meant for them only since they are fighting their own cause.
In fact, a statement from ASUU said the union cannot go on strike on behalf of other unions. This has led to another serious issue of contention.
Because the government negotiation team led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Mr. Chris Ngige had said there are no more funds in government’s coffers to release to ASUU alone.
Adding that the government cannot manufacture money from anywhere seeing the effect the pandemic has had on the nation’s economy, urging ASUU to compromise on its stance.
It is however yet to be seen if ASUU will compromise.
There’s therefore no doubt that only students suffer from ASUU strike.
The annual ASUU strike is one of the major reasons there’s a rapid rise in the number of Nigerian students wanting to study abroad.
When is school resuming?
It’s not so clear yet when schools will resume. Though the federal government last week said it will resolve all issues with the academic union this week.
A statement ASUU quickly countered by saying the union had not agreed on anything with government.
Recall that the Academic Staff Union of Universities embarked on this strike in March, starting with a two-weeks warning strike. Now in it’s 8th month, there don’t seem to be an end in sight.
Meanwhile the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) last week gave a two-weeks ultimatum to the FG and ASUU to resolve their differences or face a mass protest from students.
According to NANS, this protest will be aimed at shutting down the economy.
Hope – is all Nigerian students have.
Do you think schools will resume this year? Should schools resume this year or next year?
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Maxwell is a Dietitian with passion for showing people hope. With nearly a decade experience helping people make key decisions on education and career, you can find him almost everywhere on this site. From answering admission and scholarship questions to creating tutorials and helping others live their best lives though nutrition. Connect with me on Twitter.