Why Federal Universities Can't Reopen — ASUU

The Abuja Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has given reasons why public universities will not resume.

The ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Dr. Salawu Muhammed Lawal, during a press conference at the University of Abuja in Gwagwalada on Monday revealed that Federal Universities will not resume until the Federal Government signs and implements the renegotiated 2009 agreement and the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) is accepted.

Lawal said, if these demands are met, members of the union are more than ready to resume duty.

“Owing to the failure of the Federal Government to act within that period, the national action was rolled over for another eight weeks following the resolution taken at an emergency NEC meeting at the Festus Iyayi National Secretariat on March 14.

“The action as you are probably aware is to among other things, compel the Federal Government to sign and implement the draft renegotiated 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement submitted to it by the Prof. Munzali Committee in May 2021.

“Deploy for use in the Nigerian university system, was the home-grown payment and personnel solution called UTAS developed by ASUU as a replacement for the failed IPPIS.

“As usual, the Federal Government has ignored ASUU’s call for full implementation of that famous agreement and other memoranda signed with the union.

“No meeting has been held between the two parties since the commencement of the ongoing strike. The only exception is our union’s re-submission of UTAS for a retest.

“The summary is that unless and until the renegotiated 2009 agreement is signed and implemented and UTAS deployed, there will be no work in public universities,” Lawal explained.