#EndASUUStrike: Union Backs NANS, Urges Nigerians To Mount Pressure On FG

• ASUU Strike Irresponsible – Education Ministry Spokesperson

Following the recent hashtag #EndASUUStrike floated by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) has supported the call for an end to its industrial action against the Federal Government.

ASUU Chairman, University of Lagos chapter, Dr Dele Ashiru, disclosed this in an exclusive interview with THE WHISTLER.

Ashiru maintained that the union wanted the best for university education in the country.

“The students should keep up the tempo, they should support the reopening of the universities by mounting pressure on government to implement all their agreements that they signed with ASUU. If you look at it, ASUU and the students, we share a common aspiration and the aspiration is for a better university system that can be globally competitive and there is no way one segment of that institution can fight the battle alone.

“So, what NANS is doing is a welcome development, they should encourage their parents and other Nigerians to join in the struggle so that the strike can come to an end as quickly as possible.

“The demands of ASUU before federal government are clear and they are: they should inject money into the university system so that there will be more classrooms, laboratories and libraries for our students, they should renegotiate the 2009 agreement with our members which will increase the welfare of those who are teaching the students and motivate them to teach well and also to ask federal government to send visitation panels to our universities to check corruption and governance issues in the university system.

“Once Government meets these demands, ASUU is ever ready and willing to go back to classroom,” he said.

But, the Federal Ministry of Education’s Spokesperson, Ben Bem Goong, countered that regarding the prolonged ASUU strike which kicked off on March 23 , the government was not at fault.

He said that the ministry was on the side of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, particularly with regards to its payment platform, the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

“The Federal Ministry of Education is not on strike, go and ask those that are on strike; we are not taking any step, the President has said emphatically, that if you are not on IPPIS , you will not get salary, what step do you want to us to take again?

“Government has made itself clear, if ASUU wants to be on strike for ten years let them be on strike for ten years; we must know who we are paying,” he said.

“Everybody who is an employee of the Federal Government should float its own payment platform? It is the paymaster who determines how to pay you.

“Do you know about how many people are on the payment platform? The Army, The Navy, Airforce, Police, Schools and every other person that earns salaries from CRF, is on IPPIS platform.

“If ASUU say they have peculiarities, is there any peculiarities that is far more peculiar than fighting in the war front like soldiers are doing?,” he asked.

Goong was of the view that there was something fishy about ASUU’s call for its own payment platform known as the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).

“Government said everybody should be on the platform so that we will know how much we are paying or spending; we cannot take bulk money and pay to university administrators who will embezzle it, they’ve been embezzling billions of naira.

“We can only end the strike by putting the pressure on ASUU because it is an irresponsible strike; we can’t solve the problem by shying away from the truth.

“There is nowhere in the world where an employee dictates to his employer, how he should be paid, except Nigeria’s ASUU.

“How many platform are we going to end up with if we allow ASUU to bring it’s own platform,” he said to THE WHISTLER.

On his part, ASUU UNILAG Chairman, described the spokesperson’s comment on the payment platform issue as arrogant.

Ashiru said that in a democracy, citizens could air their views and their views should be heard.

“That is a very arrogant argument, arrogant because if we say that we are in a democracy, is he saying that citizens cannot interrogate Government policy?

“If Government says it wants to dictate how to pay its workers, and the workers says that from the experience that we’ve had with this payment platform, it is unsuitable for our own condition, in a democratic government, should that government listen?

“The relationship with government and citizens is it that of slaves and master? If democracy is about the people, what is wrong with government listening to the voices of the people who voted them into office.

“And ASUU is not only saying it that doesn’t want that platform, it has developed an alternative, which is believed to be better than the one(IPPIS) that they have now; why are they running away from testing and comparing the two?

“These are critical questions that citizens should ask, we are citizens of Nigeria, we are not subjects or servants, we have a right to interrogate Government policy and where we feel that the policy is harming our members, as a Union of Intellectuals we have a right to challenge it and which is what we have done,” he said.

He also said that the IPPIS had fault and that it would short-change lecturers.

He assured that if the federal government fulfilled its agreement with the union, federal universities would reopen.

“Government has said that once we finish the development of UTAS, they would adopt it and we have finished it and it has been demonstrated to the Federal Ministry of Education; we are waiting for Government to implement that decision which they reached with our union; once that is done, our union is willing to go back to work.

“Not only that, we have gone ahead to help Government to develop an alternative, why are they running away from comparing the two.

“Yes, Government can determine how it will pay its workers but workers also have a right to say that this thing you are doing is injurious to me; by the deployment of IPPIS our members are loosing more than 100,000 naira in their monthly payment.

“And what will interest you is that those who were deceived in getting enrolled in the IPPIS platform are not only regretting it today, they have joined ASUU in a warning strike against Government which will turn into a full blown strike at the end of this week if nothing is done by Government.

“It’s not only ASUU that is saying that that platform is not good , SANU, Polytechnic lecturers, Federal Colleges of Education lecturers are saying so,” he said.