Alternative Payment Platform Can’t Be Used In Varsities, FG Tells ASUU

The ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may take a long while to resolve, following the position of the federal government.

Federal government on Wednesday pointedly told ASUU that it is not proper to be using different payment platform in the Nigerian Universities.

This is even as the Senior Staff Association of Universities (SSANU), National Union of Universities (NASU) kicked against the proposed University Transparency Account System (UTAS) presented by the lecturers.

The Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige, who stated this while speaking with journalists at the end of budget defence of the Ministry in Abuja, said that the Ministry had already forwarded the UTAS to National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) for accessment.

The Minister said: “We have sent their system to NITDA for assessment, they have to come back from strike to know what we can do in the interim.

“There are other systems in the University that have their own system of payment and they are not going with UTAS.

“We have other associations in the Universities, like the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), National Union of Universities (NASU) and National Association of Technologists in Universities, ASUU is not the only Union in the Universities.

“If we ignore them and what they are saying, even if ASUU comes back, they will close the lecture halls and the laboratories.

“we don’t want that to happen that’s why we are taking measures to carry everybody along.”

Ngige also said that lecturers have no other option than to return to class because they have already violated Labour law with this strike.

He said: “They will not have any other option than to return to work. The ILO principle on strike has some limitations,” adding that the lecturer are aware of Section 18 of Labour law.