Adamu Adamu assures ASUU strike will end next week

Adamu Adamu, the minister of education has assured Nigerians that the impasse between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will be resolved soonest and the strike called off in the next one week.

The minister disclosed this in Abuja while appearing before the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

Adamu revealed that the executive arm of the federal government had commenced plans to ensure that it honours the agreement between it and the striking ASUU.

Meanwhile, Jibrin Barau, the senator representing Kano north senatorial district and chairman of the committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund applauded the minister for efforts made by his ministry so far towards ensuring that the situation is resolved and the strike action called off.

Recall that Emmanuel Osodeke, the national president of ASUU on Tuesday, August 16, announced that t there are hopes that the lecturers would go back to their lecture room as the issues of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) have been put to rest as the federal government has agreed to implement the UTAS payment system.

Read also: ASUU set to call off strike as IPPIS, UTAS issues resolved

According to him, ASUU has agreed with the government to adopt the UTAS as the payment platform for lecturers.

“If we go into that meeting tomorrow and the government says, what you have bargained for, we are willing to sign, the strike will be called off,” he said.

ASUU is demanding that the federal government implement the renegotiated 2009 agreement, jettison IPPIS for UTAS as a payment platform, revitalisation of the universities, visitation of the 2009 salary agreement, payment of the earned academic allowance, etc.

However, the Nimi Briggs committee set up by the federal government to renegotiate with ASUU came out with a monthly salary structure of N2 million for professors in the Nigerian public university system. And this was rejected by the federal government, which caused the deliberations to drag on for some time now.

BusinessDay learned that professors within the university system currently earn an average of N462,000 per month which is far below what their contemporaries are earning outside the borders of Nigeria.