There is no indication that students in public universities will resume anytime soon as the payment option offered by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been rejected by other unions.
The ASUU had proposed a Unified Tertiary Account System to the Federal Government in opposition to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) of the federal government.
The government had promised to subject the UTAS to scrutiny to establish its authenticity.
But there was a twist on Wednesday as the Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige, said the Senior Staff Association of Universities (SSANU) and Non Academics Staff Union Universities (NASU) had rejected UTAS.
He spoke to journalists after he defended his ministry’s budget before the Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity.
Ngige said it was not proper to be using different payment platforms in the Nigerian Universities.
He, however, said that his ministry had already forwarded the UTAS to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) for assessment.
He said, “We have sent their (UTAS) system to NITDA for assessment but the lecturers have to come back from strike to know what we can do in the interim.
“They have to come to hear that there are other systems in the University. Other workers said they have their own system of payment and they are not going with UTAS.
“The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, the Non-Academic Staff Union Universities Union, 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 why we are talking measure to carry everybody along.”
The minister appealed to the lecturers to return to class because they had already violated the Labour law with their protracted strike.
“They will not have any other option than to return to work. The International Labour Organisation principle on strike has some limitations,” he said.
