The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, briefed President Muhammadu Buhari on the continuing negotiations between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
The union has been on a one-month warning strike since February 14 over the government’s failure to meet agreements reached with it. ASUU also threatened a three-year strike over a fake alert sent by the Federal government to the union account.
Addressing reporters after meeting with Buhari, Ngige said the president was satisfied with his brief.
Also read: ASUU strike unlawful, demands handled- Chris Ngige
The minister said: “2020 December agreement with ASUU is on course in terms of implementation.”
He said N40bn for earned allowance and N30bn for revitalization had been paid. He also said N22.7bn was paid from the supplementary budget as earned allowances for 2021.
Ngige stated the government are not opposed to payment of good emolument to university lecturers currently on strike.
Read also: ASUU Declares indefinite strike
On the most controversial topic, whether to adopt the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) or the University Transparency Accountability Solutions (UTAS), he stated that the committee in charge was given four weeks to submit comments.
Chris Ngige said that the National Information Technology Development Agency completed integrity and vulnerability tests on UTAS and decided that standards were not met after pointing out flaws, a finding that ASUU deemed erroneous.
He stated that a unified technical team will convene to repeat the tests for validation of the original findings and to devise any necessary remedies.
