The Academic Staff Union of Universities, has warned that its members will likely embarked embarking on a total strike over the failure of the Federation Government to honour agreements reached with the union.
They also cited as reason for the impending strike, the insistence of some subversive individuals reaping off the government through the Integrated Personnel Payment Information System, IPPIS, to disregard the directive of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to remove ASUU from the payment platform.
The union further decried the failure of the government to release the balance of the eight months withheld salaries of ASUU members likewise the non-payment of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) and other emoluments and entitlements to its members.
Addressing the media in Makurdi on Friday, the Chairman of ASUU-Nzukka Zone, Raphael Amokaha who read from a text titled “Averting a Crisis” emphasised that those determined to undermine the directive of FEC had gone ahead to introduced Government Integrated Financial Management System instead of embracing the homegrown University Transparency Accountability Solutions, (UTAS) offered free to the government.
According to him, “it can be inferred from observations that the people that are benefitting from IPPIS are not ready to let go of the federal universities for their pecuniary benefits hence the transformation from IPPIS to new IPPIS and now GIFMIS. We urge the government to immediately fish out those behind this recalcitrant rent seeking and bring them to book.”
While acknowledging the reconstitution of the Governing Councils of Universities by the Federal Government, the Union frowned at the illegal dissolution of some of the Councils that were yet to complete their tenure saying “the failure to reinstate these councils has added to the list of contentious issues.”
