By O.V Collins

The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that the federal government has agreed to adopt the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) as the payment platform of university lecturers in the country.

This was revealed by Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the president of ASUU, on Monday during an interview with Channels Television.

ACJ UNIBEN reports that the Industrial action commenced on February 14, 2022 over Nigerian government’s failure to resolve the issues on salaries and earned allowances of lecturers, improved funding for universities as well as the adoption of UTAS against the federal government’s preferred payment platform — Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

The protracted strike embarked by ASUU entered its 183rd day on Monday and has led to frustration amongst many students and lecturers.

Speaking on Channels Television Monday, the ASUU president said the federal government invited the union for a meeting on Tuesday for further negotiations.

The ASUU president announced that the union will suspend the strike, if the federal government agrees to its demands at the meeting which is scheduled to take place today.

“We have not had any serious communication though they have invited us for a meeting on one issue, tomorrow (referring to Tuesday), which is the issue of renegotiation,” Osodeke said.

“You know that there are seven issues why we are on strike. They are inviting for discussion on issue of renegotiation, tomorrow, which is renegotiation of the 2009 agreement.

“The issues of IPPIS and UTAS has been put to rest because the test has been done and it has been agreed with the chief of staff, UTAS will be implemented to cover the university.

“Two, if this government is serious, this strike will not last more than two weeks. If you recall we were going to suppose to go on strike in November, we didn’t start it because NIREC came in and intervened. We conceded to them.

‘’They met with the president, he set up a committee headed by the chief of staff that should resolve this quickly, the world saw it in the press, they did nothing. The president set up the Munzali committee, we met them , nothing, they didn’t come back.

“They set up the Nimi Briggs committee, it’s now more than three months, two months we finished negotiating with them, they didn’t come back. The president directed the Ministry of Education to finish within two weeks, two weeks has passed, they didn’t come back.

“If we go into that meeting tomorrow and government say what we have negotiated, we are willing to sign, the strike will be called off,” Osodeke added.

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