The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government have agreed on the payment of academic allowances to the university lecturers, who have been on strike for the past six months owing to controversies surrounding some issues affecting university administration in the country.
The Federal Government on Thursday agreed to release N30billin earned academic allowance to the university lecturers in tranches to be paid between May 2021 and February 2022.
The FG also promised to spend N20billion on the revitalisation of the education sector as part of concessions meant to end the seven-month strike declared by ASUU members.
The government’s negotiating team was led by Dr Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, his minister of state, Festus Keyamo (SAN), and others while the ASUU delegation was led by Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, its President.
Ngige, before going into a closed-door session, has expressed hope that ASUU would call off the strike soon, noting that the government had been finding ways to end the seven-month strike, stating that students were being recruited into the #EndSARS protests following the closure of universities occasioned by the ASUU strike.
“For the past one week, we have all been on our toes; we have been meeting and we pray that this meeting will yield some good fruits.
The Federal Government has said it might consider the adoption of the University Transparency Account System (UTAS) following ASUU’s rejection of the government platform, IPPIS.
Ngige said that the alternative payment platform presented by ASUU was homegrown and worth giving a thorough assessment test.
“We agreed at the meeting to give required consideration to the UTAS alternative they came up with as a way of finding a lasting solution to the lingering crisis over implementation of IPPIS.
“We have neither jettisoned the implementation of the IPPIS nor fully accepted UTAS.
“The level we moved to now is to subject ASUU’s scheme to integrity tests and in doing so, it will be presented to users like the office of Accountant General of the Federation on Wednesday,’ he said.
