ASUU Set to Call Off Strike as IPPIS, UTAS Issues Resolves

From Ogundele Olanrewaju

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) gives hope of calling off the strike soon as issues around the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS), and the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), have been resolved.

According to a statement from ASUU, the issue concerning the IPPIS and UTAS was one of the major ones that led to the lingering industrial action by the public university’s lecturers’ union.

Emmanuel Osodeke, the national president of ASUU said there are hopes that the lecturers would go back to their lecture room as the federal government meets with the union today Tuesday.

Osodeke disclosed how the federal government has not done enough to end the strike that is on its sixth month and still counting.

“The issue of IPPIS and UTAS has been put to rest. If the government agrees with us tomorrow, everything will be resolved,” he said in an interview with Channels Television.

“The issues of IPPIS and UTAS have been put to rest as agreed with the chief of staff, the UTAS will be implemented.

“You see, if this government is serious, this strike will not last more than two weeks. The President directed the Minister of Education to finish within two weeks, now two weeks have passed and they didn’t come back,” he said.

On February 14, ASUU declared a 30-day warning strike to allow the federal government the opportunity to address the demands of the union which cut across the preference of the UTAS as payment platform to IPPIS, the implementation of the 2009 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the 2020 Memorandum of Action (MoA), and the Earned Allowances of its members, among others.

On the failure of the federal government to nip the issue in the bud, ASUU rolled over the strike for another four weeks after a 30-day warning strike elapsed.