ASUU: FG using hunger to intimidate us

• Commends Kolade-Otitoju of Journalists Hangout

THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nsukka zone has alleged that the Federal Government is using hunger to intimidate them into accepting the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information Service (IPPIS).

Addressing a press conference yesterday in Makurdi, Benue State, the union vowed they would continue to resist any action capable of frustrating educational and national development.

ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Nsukka zone, Dr. Igbana Ajir, flanked by members of the union in the zone, stated that the federal government consciously adopted the instrument of hunger to force them to submission, having not paid them for over nine months on insistence that they must enrolled in the IPPIS.

His words: “The refusal of the Government to accept the alternative platform, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) which has been developed by our union and offered to the government at no cost, calls for serious concern.”

“ASUU has pointed out apparent deficiencies inherent in and the widely reported fraud being perpetrated by operators of IPPIS within and outside the Auditor General of the Federation’s (AGF) office. The excuse that the platform (UTAS) must be presented to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) before certification for adoption and usage without a timeline is a ploy to delay and frustrate the union efforts,” he added.

The Union urged the government to show understanding and exhibit flexibility in addressing the issues at hand in order to bring students who have long stayed at home back to school.

“The imposition of IPPIS on our members and the denial of salaries for our members who refused to enroll on IPPIS with a few of creating starvation is completely unacceptable to the union,” Ajir stated.

In another development, a member of ASUU-LASU, Dr Olufemi Whenu, has commended Babajide Kolade-Otitoju of Journalists Hangout, a talk show on Television Continental (TVC), saying his well-informed position on why government should be blamed for the prolonged ASUU strike shows his grasp of the issues since 2009 and the incompatibility of IPPIS to the universality concept of university system in the world.

According to the don, “many uninformed lazy commentators including the spontaneous duplicitous moralists, the toadyish and blabbermouthed individuals have commented wrongly by blaming ASUU even when they have not read or read but didn’t understand the ASUU demands and the concrete binding agreement reached with government.

“This may be because the agreement was not written in their native languages, yet they are everywhere farting in the public space, thus ending up fouling public discourse on why the government should honour its agreement with ASUU since 2009. 11years!” the union stated.

He continued: “Some pretentious anti-corruption mob still ensnared in the anti-corruption yo-yo game of the Buhari regime even alleged that the refusal of ASUU for its members to be enlisted on IPPIS platform is because of corruption.

This is despite the fact that ASUU has suggested UTAS as an alternative ‘corruption proof’ payment system if the aim of the government is to truly fight corruption.”