Lawan Tackles FG as Senate Intervenes in Govt, ASUU Impasse

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Nwolu Obiajulu

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Ahmed Lawan, President of the Nigerian Senate has reproached the Federal Government for committing to an agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which it knows it will not fulfill.

He disclosed that in a closed door meeting between the leadership of ASUU and the Senate in Abuja on Monday where the body presented its alternative payroll system, the Univeristy Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).

He said,” Sometimes you wonder how somebody would sign some of the agreements and later say I cannot implement them. “Why did you sign in the first place?”
“When we negotiate, we must negotiate in such a manner that the final product will be implementable.”

The senate president urged ASUU to adopt compromise in its demands for the sake of students who had spent so much time at home.

He said, “I am sure that we need to review some of the items on the agreements.

“We cannot have an agreement signed in 2009 and still think this is the only way we can deal with it.

“We should be able to have a look at the agreements signed and see at this time whether or not some of the issues are really practicable at all.”

In his interaction with the press after the meeting, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, President of ASUU said the visit was intended to find a solution to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System dispute.

Speaking on their intended payroll system, Ogunyemi said the UTAS would lead to a suspension of the ongoing eight-month strike action if endorsed by the Federal Government.

“We have developed what we call University Transparency and Accountability Solution. We have presented it to the Senate today and the Senate President commended it.

“We are going to present the platform to other stakeholders. UTAS is home grown while IPPIS is foreign.

“We have shown that we are inventors, we are creators of software and we are also capable of doing what our colleagues are doing in other parts of the world.”

Ogunyemi reiterated the resolve of ASUU to resist the IPPIS, which would not profit members of the union.