ASUU condemns Nigerian govt over hike in fuel, electricity prices, justifies strike action

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has condemned the Federal Government of Nigeria led by President Muhammadu Buhari over the recent hikes in petrol price and electricity tariff.

ASUU made the comments during a press briefing in the Adamawa State capital, Yola, on Monday, through the Yola Zonal chapter of the union which comprised members from Adamawa, Taraba, Yobe and Borno States.

The union also asked students during the press conference to understand that its strike was caused and sustained by imposition of the new remuneration regime by the federal government on lecturers.

“The coercion of our members into IPPIS (Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System) with no recourse to peculiarities of the Nigerian university system, university autonomy as well as attrition of the previous agreements between FGN and ASUU culminated into the present crisis,” the Yola Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Comrade Augustine Ndaghu said at the press briefing in Yola.

READ ALSO: Reopening of schools without adherence to COVID-19 protocols dangerous —ASUU

“The imposition of IPPIS on ASUU members has resulted in mutilation or outright non-payment of members’ salaries since February 2020, and the problems that payment of salaries through IPPIS has caused justified ASUU’s preference for the alternative platform – University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).

He asked the government to delay no further in adopting UTAS and assured students that ASUU’s strike is meant to make the government not only to see the point of ASUU against IPPIS but other issues affecting universities.

“If government had faithfully implemented the 2012 NEEDS Assessment report which identified the intensity of the rot in the Nigerian public universities, by now the universities would have been more involved in COVID-19 testing and developing solutions,” he said.

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