The leadership of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Wednesday asked governments at federal and state levels to immediately pay all the arrears of the withheld salaries of its members to pave for further talks on the issues that led to indefinite industrial action declared in March 2020.
ASUU unveiled its most touted Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), saying the software is now ready for integrity tests as required by the federal government that approved it in principle.
UTAS was developed by university lecturers as an alternative platform to the government’s Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which the union had rejected.
ASUU president, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, said that UTAS was ready for integrity tests at a news conference in Abuja. He also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the University of Lagos (UNILAG) crisis by setting up a special visitation panel to the university.
He rejected and condemned the purported removal of the vice chancellor of UNILAG, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, by the Governing Council chaired by Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN) without due process, saying the president as visitor to the university must act immediately to save the crisis from further degeneration.
Ogunyemi stated that UTAS software was presented to the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu and other senior management of the Federal Ministry of Education, including Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Rasheed, for government to subject the software to integrity tests.ASUU embarked on an indefinite strike in March 2020 over an attempt.
