TECHDIGEST – The Honorable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) has inaugurated a Presidential Technical Committee review Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information Systems (IPPIS), Government Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (GIFMIS) and the Single Treasury Account (TSA), and appointed National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to serve as Secretary.

Prof. Pantami disclosed that the approval for the inauguration was given by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR.

The members of the Technical Working Committee which will be supervised by the Honorable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy include; the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Folashade Yemi-Esan, the Auditor General of the Federation, Mr. Aghughu Adolphus, the Chairman, Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa CCIE, Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Dr. Dasuki Arabi, Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone Limited, Prof. Muhammad Abubakar, and Chairman, National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), Ekpo Nta Esq.

According to Prof. Pantami, the technical committee has been mandated by Mr. President to ensure the review of the strengths, weaknesses and challenges of these systems while advising the President on the best methods to improve them.

READ ALSO: Pantami Confirms Irregularities on IPPIS, Vows Review

While giving a brief historical overview of the IPPIS, GIFMIS and the TSA which were deployed in 2006, 2012 and 2015 respectively, Pantami hinted that the provisions of the NITDA Act 2007 were not observed and adhered to.

He averred that, “at the time they were deployed, the provisions of NITDA, Act 2007, section A, of setting the standardisation of ICT deployment in Federal Public Institutions were not followed. Because of this, these three systems were not subjected to government certification and IT project clearance as required by law and many other government policies”.

Offering credit to the systems for the achievements made thus far in terms of revenue generation, with IPPIS saving the government 120 billion naira and TSA saving over 10 trillion naira since their deployments, he however noted that there is a need for improvement.

“These figures show us that the government has recorded some major gains with their deployment but there is need to improve on them. Particularly with the recent allegations coming up that these systems are being exploited by evil people where they siphon money”, he stated.

Giving assurances of the government’s commitment to ensure the systems are of high quality, Pantami noted that errors have been detected in the processes of IPPIS when subjected to reviews by NITDA.

He further disclosed that GIFMIS and the TSA will be subjected to critical reviews as well to erode all forms of leakages, errors and challenges in their processes.

While urging the institutions managing the three systems to give maximum support and cooperation to the committee, the Honorable Minister clearly mentioned that any institution who does otherwise would face sanctions by Mr. President.

“In the approval and the directives by Mr. President, it is clearly mentioned that all government institutions that manage these three systems; IPPIS, GIFMIS, and TSA, must give unlimited access to the committee to ensure that they come up with a very strong recommendation to Mr. President for approval”, he said.

Prof. Pantami admonished the Committee to carry out its assignments judiciously by testing the processes and providing recommendations or criticism where necessary.

“We must identify where the challenges are, if any, and see how these systems can be enhanced technically so that we would be able to consolidate the gains we have achieved so far and also improve on them to achieve many more achievements and successes”.

Other dignitaries at the inauguration were the Permanent Secretary, Career Management Office of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Marcus Olaniyi, the Board Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Adeolu Akande, Board Chairman of the Nigerian Postal Service, Barrister Maimuna Yaya Abubakar, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, the National Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Data Protection Bureau, Dr. Vincent Olatunji among many others.

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By Lawan Bukar Maigana

TECHDIGEST – The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has confirmed the irregularities in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS.

The Minister made the confirmation on Friday evening while inaugurating a technical committee on Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), and Treasury Single Account (TSA), in Abuja.

Pantami said that the Committee has been mandated by President Buhari to review the technical systems deployed in the government.

“The committee is expected to thoroughly review the technical systems in the government to find out if there are leakages that were exploited by evil people and advise the government on how to secure the systems to be more effective and functional.”

The minister expressed optimism that the Committee will submit an achievable recommendation by the time they are done with the review, hoping that all problems regarding the technical systems will end.

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TECHDIGEST – Governor Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa State, and presidential aspirant under the platform  All Progressive Congress (APC), , has advocated APC Ambassadors for Good Governance to engage grassroots in propagating achievements of the party across the 774 Local Governments in the country.

Governor Badaru, who was represented by Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa CCIE, made the appeal at APC Ambassadors for Good Governance unveiling of an Appraisal Hub on Good Governance and Official Inauguration of 36 State Chapter Coordinators of the organization which took place in Abuja.

The governor stated that APC as party, has achieved a lot in the last seven years, and what left for its ambassadors is to amplify the achievements recorded under President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, adding that “as Ambassadors for Good Governance, you have a huge role to play in mobilizing voters for our great party during upcoming elections.”

While attributing good governance to APC, the governor noted that the ruling party is known to have mastered the art of consensus, and youth participation in politics, according to him, that credits can never be taken away from the ruling party.

He said President Buhari set a record by signing Disability Bill, a bill that was hanging for about two decades without Presidential assent. But by signing the bill, it allows people living with disabilities to participate on various national issues.

“We all know how this administration gave a special consideration for women, men and youth, and the party follows rule of law. In the history of this country, there were never a government that follows rule of law like that of President Buhari,” he said.

He added that, APC is effective and efficient in project delivery, and initiatives that touch the lives of Nigerian citizens.

“We have so many developmental programmes like Social Investment, first of its kind in the history of this country. We have youth centric and many other programmes that help Nigeria diversify its economy.

President Buhari initiated the Home-Grown Feeding Programme which is designed to put an end to importation and market monopoly of farm produce that can be grown here in Nigeria, which was a pilot vehicle to sustainable economic, agricultural, academic and job creation across the length and breadth of the nation.

The Buhari administration followed steps to improve the standards of Nigeria’s agricultural exports to align with global standards due to the rejection of our produce at the EU Border Controls.

The Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria under the Buhari-led administration has made available billions of naira to farmers of rice, wheat, maize, cotton, cassava, poultry, soy beans and groundnut.

President Buhari-led administration set up the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) to deliver commercially significant quantities of affordable and high-quality fertilizer to the Nigerian farmers at the right time

“Before we came to power, Nigeria’s economy was oil dependent but today, oil contributes less than 8% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This shows how this government is effective and efficient in economy diversification.

READ ALSO: FLOEWS, MEDTECH AFRICA Emerge Winners At Abuja GITEX 2022 Pitch Competition

Speaking further on accountability, Governor Badaru said no government in the history of Nigeria will match APC administration. Noting that President Muhammadu Buhari holds everyone accountable and gives autonomy to all political appointees to discharge their responsibilities in accordance with the rule of law.

“We have never had a transparent government like this APC administration. It is under APC we have IPPIS and Treasury Single Account (TSA) working. This is what makes government more accountable and transparent. Every kobo this government spent can be tracked. Today, you can’t take government money just like that, the way it was happening before; where government officials transfer money without accounting for it,” he added.

He said the APC has done quite a lot in terms of infrastructure and social development, and politically, the President Buhari has had 12 million votes in the last election, and he will not be on the ballot in next election, so it is the responsibilities of APC Ambassadors to go back to their states, mobilize people, showcase to them the achievements of APC.

“Our selling points should be our visible achievements. Nigerians should be abreast about the good work we have done, and what we will do in future. Of all the policies we had, it is time to assimilate what we have achieved and pass them on to Nigerians.

“Gathering like this would be the beginning to show Nigerians what good governance is, and this will create a sense of urgency. As Ambassadors, you have to go back to your locality and sell the good governance of this great party.

“You formed a coalition and inaugurated state chapter coordinators, you have a mission and vision you are going to sell which is Good Governance, sell it to Nigerians. Take it to every ward across the 774 Local Government Areas we have in the country,” he stated.

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TECHDIGEST – President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA to subject the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System, IPPIS and the two other proposed payment solutions proposed by University workers to integrity test.

This is as the Federal Government is making efforts towards ensuring that the Consiquential Adjustment/ minimum wage arrears are paid to the striking university workers this week in order to persuade them call off the ongoing strike.

Recall that the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU and the non teaching staff Joint Action Committee, JAC, comprising the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, have lamented that they were being shortchanged in their salary payment since the government introduced IPPIS as the official payment platform.

As an alternative, ASUU proposed to the government the University Transparency Accountability Solution, UTAS, while SSANU and NASU on their own, proposed the University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System, U3PS.

SSANU and NASU claimed that the proposed U3PS accommodate the peculiarities in the Nigerian University system as it handles all employees’ financial records in a hassle-free, automated fashion.

The peculiarities include employees’ salaries, bonuses, deductions, net pay, generation of pay-advice and other financial reports using accounting best practices and also seek to essentially automate those micro administrative tasks performed by accountant general office and bursars of federal institutions, thereby giving the office the mental bandwidth to focus on the macro.

In a tripartite plus meeting attended by the leadership of the university-based unions including the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige and other relevant stakeholders, at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, President Buhari directed NITDA to subject the three payment solutions to integrity test.

The Tripartite Plus meeting chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, gave NITDA three weeks to carry out the integrity test and report back the results.

A source at the meeting hinted that the Chief of Staff during the closed-door session pleaded with the university unions to go back to their duty posts while discussions will be ongoing to address all their concerns but the workers were adamant insisting that the strike would only be called off when the federal government honours agreement reached.

However, a source at the meeting told Vanguard that the Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige was mounting pressure to the relevant government agencies to ensure that some of the contentious issues are addressed as soon as possible.

The source said, “we rebuffed all the plea by the Chief of Staff for us to call off the strike. There was nothing on the table for us to do so. However, we heard that the Minister of Labour is making effort to ensure that the minimum wage arrears and the consequential adjustment are paid. We are waiting.

“We know that the Minister is trying his best to conciliate but after memorandum of understanding and memorandum of action are entered into, the government will fail to implement them and will turn back to blame the unions.”

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TECHDIGEST – The rejection of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) as a payment platform for university workers took another dimension on Tuesday as the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) presented its preferred payment platform to the minister of education, Adamu Adamu.

Tagged “University Peculiar Payroll and Payment System (U3PS),” JAC, comprising the representatives of SSANU and NASU, said IPPIS has been found to be inconsistent with the peculiarities of the university system.

Speaking at the meeting on Tuesday, the permanent secretary at the ministry of education, Andrew Adejo, said the ministry of labour and employment had, at a meeting in October, 2020, agreed to the presentation of JAC’s preferred payment system.

“About some time last month, we got a letter from the (ministry of) labour forwarding it to us (the ministry of education) to take the necessary action. So we met last week and computed it and this is the formal presentation,” Mr Adejo said.

U3PS

Presenting the U3PS, the general Secretary of NASU, Peters Adeyemi, said it grants the universities the autonomy of preparing their payroll that is consistent with the peculiarities of the system.

He said the union had keyed into the IPPIS for the first few months before it was prompted to create U3PS due to the inconsistencies involved in the IPPIS.

He said: “Since the government said IPPIS was going to be used to fight corruption, we should join hands with the government to give IPPIS a trial and we went into IPPIS.

“But from the first month to second, third and fourth month or thereabout, it was full of inconsistencies. Avalanche of inconsistencies. So much that our members could no longer bear it and they were on our nerves.

“And we look within and among us and we realised that we have technical and ICT experts that can help us to develop an alternative to IPPIS which we called the University Peculiar Payroll and Payment System (U3PS) where we believe that all the inconsistencies in the IPPIS will be resolved.”

Mr Adeyemi added that the U3PS was developed “in such a way that will accommodate all the stakeholders in the university system; be it academics, non teaching staff, or academic technologists.”

Minister speaks

Speaking, the minister of education said he was impressed with the platform and wondered why the unions did not develop it before the introduction of IPPIS.

Mr Adamu urged the unions to document the inconsistencies involved with the IPPIS to help bring to the government’s attention.

He said: “I would like to congratulate you for this thing that you have done. I congratulate Nigerian intellectuals who could do this, because I believe IPPIS is being paid large amounts of money to experts who are foreigners.

“So, we have experts in our higher institutions who could do this. I don’t even know why they never did it before.

“I would like to call on you. The inconsistencies that you say we have in the IPPIS which are many, please articulate them, because there is a need for us to know how things went wrong.

“I am sure when IPPIS started, it was working very well. But now everybody is complaining including those who are running it”.

The minister also directed the union to make the same presentation to the minister of finance and the accountant general of the federation “so that it can be subjected to tests by NITDA.”

“I hope you are up to the task and you can defend yourself. But I believe NITDA will be waiting for you,” he said.

NITDA absent

Meanwhile, the representatives of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) were absent at Tuesday’s meeting.

NITDA is the government agency saddled with the responsibility of “creating a framework for the planning, research, development, standardisation, application, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and regulation of information technology practices in Nigeria.”

It is expected to subject the new application to rigorous tests before it could be approved for deployment.

During the meeting, the permanent secretary at the education ministry said an invite was sent to NITDA, but he didn’t know why its representatives were absent.

However, Hadiza Umar, NITDA’S head of corporate affairs and external relations told PREMIUM TIMES that she was unaware of the invitation. She promised to make enquiries and provide a reply. But she was yet to provide a response as of the time of filing this report.

Source : Premium Times

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TECHDIGEST – Dr Dasuki Arabi, the Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reform (BPSR), has said the Federal Government is set to implement a road map for blockchain technology in the country.

Arabi said this at a two-day workshop organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in collaboration with BPSR in Abuja on Thursday.

The theme of the workshop is “Distributed Ledger Technologies (Blockchain) Ecosystem, Decentralisation and Adoption Methods as Growth Plan for the Telecom Sector- Development of Bold Blockchain Strategy for Nigeria”.

READ ALSO: NCC To Consumers: Protect Telecom Infrastructure

According to Arabi, “a blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain.’’ The D G said blockchain was real and had come to stay, adding that the government needed to innovate the technology.

He said the public service was underperforming due to lack of efficiency in operations, adding that it was the biggest beneficiary of blockchain. He said there was a National Government e-masterplan that was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), which had set strategies for digitisation from paper to paperless governance by the year 2030.

Arabi said from year 2023, assessments would be done electronically for everybody that is on Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) and working for the government of Nigeria.

“There is a National Government e-Masterplan approved by FEC, which has set the strategy for digitisation for this massive movement of paper government and public service to paperless by the year 2030.

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TECHDIGEST – A youth led coalition of civil society group, the Youth and Civil Society Coalition for Development (YCSCD) has cautioned the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)over it’s threat to withdraw degree certificate of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)’s Boss, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi.

In a statement signed by it’s National President, Comrade Aminu Aminu which was made available to newsmen, the group said ASUU was threatening the DG for simply discharging his statutory duties.

READ ALSO : ASUU Threatens To Withdraw NITDA Boss Degree Certificate

According to YCSCD, even although the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has developed its parallel payment platform to the nationally accepted Integrated Payroll and Personel Information System (IPPIS) the University’s Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), it should be humbled to accept in good faith NITDA’s constructive criticism and collaborate with the agency to make the platform more effective and enable it stand the test of time and world dynamics.

“ASUU cannot claim ignorance of the fact that, NITDA has acted on the mandates bestowed on it by its establishing act which requires it to create a framework for the planning, research,development, standardization, application, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and regulation of Information Technology practices in Nigeria,” the group argued.

It said far from ASUU’s claim that NITDA is working to frustrate the operability of its newly developed payment platform UTAS, it is not news to enlightened Nigerians that NITDA has over the years issued several regulatory instruments which include software testing and quality assurance framework as well as guidelines for the design,development and testing of software projects in the country.

“On this note, it is counterproductive for an academic Bloc like ASUU to resort to threat instead of finding a workable solution to address the issues raised by NITDA’s integrity test results on UTAS

“ASUU’S reaction to the professorial title awarded to the minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, by the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), and the present one trailing the UTAS’ failure to meet the NITDA’S vulnerability test, user acceptance test and stress load test leading to the issuance of threat to withdraw Malam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi’s degree certificate by the ATBU branch of the ASUU, could amount to witch-hunting of its own successful products as both are alumni’s of the University.

YCSCD called on ASUU to channel the same energy it is using to issues degree withdrawal threats, to explore workable solutions bedevilleing the country especially the lingering insecurity, youth restiveness and ongoing strike action.

It vowed that no amount of threat can deter the DG NITDA from doing the right thing as far as the discharge of his mandate is concerned.

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TECHDIGEST – The Academic Staff Union of Universities, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Branch, has threatened to initiate the process of withdrawing the degree certificate of the Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency, Kashifu Inuwa, as an alumnus of the university.

This withdrawal, the union said, was been considered after Inuwa’s submission that “the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, had failed integrity test, vulnerability test (security integrity), User Acceptance Test and stress load test, as well as the hardware requirements.”

The union described his submission, which it claimed, was made on March 9th, 2022, after the Federal Executive Council meeting at the prompting of his boss the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, as an “unguarded statement”.

In a press release, on Thursday, titled: UTAS AND NITDA’S LIES, which was read to journalists by the ASUU ATBU Branch Chairperson, Ibrahim Inuwa, the union advised the NITDA boss to retrace his steps to the path of truth and academic excellence.

READ ALSO : Finally, NITDA Reacts to ASUU Over UTAS Platform

Failure to align with academic excellence and the path of truth for which the university had awarded him a degree, the union said, it will be left with no option than to carry out its threats.

According to the union, we are not surprised at the calculated attempt by agents of government particularly the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy and DG, NITDA to kill UTAS.

The statement read in part, “They both have demonstrated severe nationalism deficiency syndrome in their dealings and handling of critical issues as it concerns their offices and positions in government, revealing how ill-equipped they are with the current status of public Universities in Nigeria.

“The Union views the comments of the DG NITDA as highly misleading, unwarranted and totally unacceptable, it is a deliberate act to frustrate the deployment of UTAS. We observe that at the time the DG NITDA was making such statements (i.e on the 9th March 2022), he was aware of a joint test of the UTAS application by the ASUU Technical Team and NITDA to iron out discrepancies in the initial NITDA report.

“The current test was arranged at a meeting involving NITDA, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy. To put the record straight, we are obliged to enlighten the public that UTAS was applauded and received positive commendations at different levels of government during its presentation to the leadership of the National Assembly, Joint Committee of NITDA, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Vice-Chancellors and Bursars of Federal Universities (end users), to say the least, UTAS has gone through seven different presentations, reports from the previous test by NITDA scored UTAS 85% in User Acceptance Test.

“ASUU, therefore, wonders why agents of government are insisting on an IPPIS in spite of its obvious weaknesses, maybe this will allow them to continue to steal public funds. We will therefore no longer tolerate the delay tactics of NITDA Technical Team and their collaborators for the endless test on UTAS,” it warned.

“ASUU ATBU Bauchi is particularly sad that both the Minister of Communications Isa Ali Pantami and DG, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa are products of our prestigious University, known for its high standards of learning and discipline.

The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy should be able to separate his official responsibility from his personal interest. It is our hope that there is no attempt by the Minister and his agents to frustrate UTAS due to ASUUS’ principled stand on the failure of his appointment as a Professor by Federal University of Technology Owerri to satisfy the laid down rules and regulations governing such appointments of the University.

“The DG of NITDA is requested to retrace his steps to the path of truth and academic excellence for which the University had awarded him a degree, failure of which the Union will be left with no option but to initiates the process of withdrawal of his degree certificate as an alumnus of ATBU, Bauchi.”

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TECHDIGEST – The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday resolved to put on hold its decision on strike. The varsity teachers’ union took stand to give room for further consultations and after receiving reports from its branches.

According to the union, the decision was taken after a December 18 meeting to review the level of government’s implementation of the FGN-ASUU Memorandum of Action (MoA) of December 23, last year and other related matters.

In a statement issued after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Sunday, ASUU welcomed the recommendation of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) that the payment platform – University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) developed by the university lecturers be deployed in government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

ASUU National President Prof Emmanuel Osodeke said areas highlighted by NITDA in its report would be addressed.

Prof. Osodeke referred to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS), engineered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank as evil, stressing that the continuous use of the IPPIS had created distortions in the payment lecturers’ salaries.

He wondered why it took more than one year to get the needed feedback on the home-grown solution – UTAS – at a time Nigeria is yearning for “local content”.

He said: “NEC is pleased that the end-user evaluation report overwhelmingly endorses UTAS for immediate deployment by government for Nigerian universities. On our part, ASUU is fully prepared to address all the technical observations made by NITDA in order to make this happen.

“Our hope is that the National Universities Commission (NUC) and other agencies of government would promptly respond to issues that concern them in the NITDA’s report to pave way for speedy migration to UTAS and spare Nigerian universities of the evil effects of the IMF/World Bank-engineered IPPIS.”

The varsity teachers regretted that the Federal Government had turned its back on the plan to set up an inter-ministerial committee to review the draft Renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement.

The ASUU boss described as worrisome the efforts made government agents to reduce ASUU’s demands to a regime of intermittent payment of watered-down revitalisation fund and release of distorted and grossly devalued Earned Academic Allowances (EAA).

The union specifically accused the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, of failing to follow through with the promise made during a meeting with the House of Representatives Speaker on November 19.

Part of the ASSU statement reads: “NEC was worried by the spirited efforts of government agents to reduce the demands of ASUU to a regime of intermittent payment of watered-down revitalisation fund and release of distorted and grossly devalued Earned Academic Allowances.

“ASUU shall not relent in demanding improvement in the welfare and conditions of service of our members. However, we shall resist any attempt to blackmail the union and derail our patriotic struggle for a productive university system by official propaganda founded on tokenism and crumb-sharing.

“NEC concluded that government has failed to satisfactorily address all the issues raised in the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement and subsequent MoUs and MoAs.

“However, considering the ongoing intervention and consultation efforts, NEC resolved to review the situation at a later date with a view to deciding on the next line of action.

“The minister assured us that the process of reviewing the document would be set in motion within one week from that date. Nwajiuba’s failure to fulfill a promise made in the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly is not only provocative but reminiscent of trust-deficit that has bedevilled all agreements and understandings reached with this government and those before it since 2009.”

ASUU had announced plans to embark on a strike over the federal government’s failure to meet its demands.

Apart from the EAA, ASUU list its demands to include: the review of the NUC Act to curb the proliferation of universities by state governments who are not funding the existing ones; adoption of UTAS with concurrent discontinuance of the IPPIS and distortion in salary payment.

Others are the release of accumulated promotion arrears; and the review and signing of the draft document on the Renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement.

Source: the nation newspaper

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