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At “Politics Today”, a weekly evening programme organized by Channels Television, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, disclosed that the face-off between ASUU and the federal government will be settled after 1st October Independence Day celebration. He said the major bone of contention is the refusal of ASUU members to enroll on the IPPIS payment software developed by the federal government. Instead, ASUU insists on using its own payment software UNITAS.
The minister said FG has agreed to honour an invitation by ASUU to a meeting in which ASUU said it would test-run UNITAS to show FG how the system works. The meeting which will be held after 1st October Independence Day celebration will have in attendance, the Minister of Labour, the Accountant General, the Ministry of Finance and the direct employers of ASUU members.
The minister said if the UNITAS addresses the error noticed on IPPIS, then FG would agree to use it instead of IPPIS.
Chris Ngige further debunked the claim by ASUU members that they have not been receiving salaries. The minister said members have been duly paid salaries. He said he had written a memo to Mr. President during the COVID-19 lockdown to appeal to him that ASUU members be paid their salaries.
“… I wrote a memo to Mr. President that ASUU members are still Nigerians. Even the lecturers themselves are being …how do we describe it?… headstrong! Their family members are there; they have children, they have wives, they have relatives that they cater for with their salaries. So we’ve been paying them. So by upper week we are going to arrange for this demonstration,” the minister concluded.
Meanwhile, reactions have trailed the Minister’s claim on the payment of salaries to ASUU members. One of such reactions came from Dr. Chigozie Odum, a lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
“I have not received July, August & September salaries till date. February to May salaries were paid together after much pressure. Let the public know that we (ASUU) are on strike, and federal government is trying to use hunger approach to force us into IPPIS. IPPIS is not the sole reason for the strike. FG entered an agreement with ASUU since 2009. They have failed to honor the terms of the agreement, the said agreement will better the education sector. Scholars from this part of the world are suffering and smiling. We break stones to get water. Let the world know that our environment is not helping us. We have eggheads and geniuses but these folks are hindered by SYSTEMIC FAILURE,” Dr. Odum wrote in a long post on his Facebook wall.
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