ASUU declares no plans insight to reopen Universities

 Two months after the complete shutdown of public universities across the country, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday said there was no hope for students to return to school.

In addition, ASUU challenged the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) position on the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), a solution developed by ASUU to replace the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) local software.

ASUU's Kano district coordinator, Professor Abdulkadir Mohamed, told reporters in Kano that the reopening of the university was contingent on the federal government's willingness to meet the union's terms.

Abdul Kadir insisted that the ASUU is ready to maintain the current general strike as long as the government fails to address key issues.

Asked if he thought the government could not meet the demands of the unions, mainly because of the current recession, Abdul Qadir said the government was playing with galleries.

He said the current government had never made investment in education a priority, although it had spent on things beyond education.

He said the union had met all the demands of the federal government's recently formed renegotiation panel and insisted it would not withdraw its position until the government signed and implemented the new terms of service and authorized the use of UTAS.

ASUU leaders accused NITDA of deliberately sabotaging ASUU's locally developed payment system and urged him to publish his credibility test template on UTAS.

NITAD claims that the well-known ASUU's UTAS fails all known credibility tests and therefore cannot guarantee the certificate of compliance it uses.

But ASUU responded that NITDA's comments on UTAS were confusing because the 85 percent score achieved by the software could not be considered an error by any standard.

Abdulkadir added: “The Kano District of ASUU believes that the NITDA-GD error reminds all discerning Nigerians of the need to prioritise character and competence when appointing public officials. We hope that the Federal Government will honour this honour to complete the ongoing process of Integrity review conducted for the rapid deployment of UTAS for the benefit of the Nigerian public university system.

“Failure to do so will only exacerbate industrial discord in this critical area of ​​our national life. We call on all stakeholders – students, parents, civil society organisations, religious and traditional leaders, the media and the public – to remain vigilant and join our to defend the Nigerian university system from the neoliberal shock embodied in IPPIS.”