ASUU strike: FG agrees to pay N30bn earned allowance

The Federal Government has agreed to release N30 billion earned academic allowance to the university lecturers.

The money would be paid in tranches between May 2021 and February 2022.

The N30 billion is for all unions in public universities in the country.

These were some of the agreements reached at Thursday’s meeting between government side led by Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige.

The meeting however failed to agree on the Integrated Personnel Payroll System (IPPIS).

ASUU insisted the shortfall of salaries of its members be paid through the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) until its University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) was fully operational but the Federal Government team refused.

This led to a stalemate on the controversial Payroll system.

The meeting, which started around 3:15pm, was still ongoing as of the time of this report.

The meeting broke out after 30 minutes to allow ASUU considers government offers.

The government team was led by Ngige, his Minister of State, Festus Keyamo and others while ASUU delegation was led by its President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi.

Before the meeting went into closed session, Ngige said he was hopeful the meeting will be fruitful.

Ngige said: “For the past one week, we have all been on our toes, we have been meeting and we pray that this meeting will yield some good fruits. We don’t take very great pleasure, to the fact that the children who are supposed to be in school are being recruited into the #EndSARS, #EndStrike, #EndSWAT and all the kind of situations.

“As much as possible, we will try to see how we can meet ourselves halfway, so that we can resolve this crisis to the benefits of all and the country at large.”

ASUU President, Ogunyemi said there was need for everyone to look at the issues affecting the university system as a national emergency in the country.

He commended the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, Ngige and Accountant-General of the Federation Idris Ahmed among others for making it possible for the discussion.

Prof. Ogunyemi said: “We came here with an open mind and at the same time we need to put it on record that our members out there expect much from this meeting.”

ASUU commenced an indefinite strike on March 23, 2020 citing failure on the part of the federal government to honour the Memorandum of Action it signed in 2019.