Prevent another ASUU strike in 2022 – NANS warns FG

The South West Zone of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has urged the Federal Government to seize the opportunities provided by the Yuletide break to address all issues involving the Academic Staff Union of Universities to prevent another strike in the new year.

In a statement made available to DAILY POST in Ogun State by Comrade Emmanuel Olatunji, NANS said it was familiar with the genesis of the agreements and disagreement between ASUU and the Federal Government, saying “the government has shown too little or no commitment to the agreement it willingly entered into with the ASUU in 2009 which is an indirect attack on Nigerian students nationally.”

NANS charged the government to accept the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) instead of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) being rejected by the lecturers.

“On UTAS and IPPIS controversy, we have read about the neoliberal policies of IMF and World Bank in the past history of Education in Nigeria, particular during the era of Structural Adjustment Programme(SAP) which almost resulted to the decrease in number of tertiary institutions and severe negative implications on the country but for the tenacity of Nigerian Students and other civil rights movements.

”And we have no doubts that IPPIS as IMF/World bank initiative cannot address the progressive desires of the Nigerian academics but further model the nation at the mercy of these imperial nations.

“Also, we consider an attempted rejection of UTAS developed by the Nigerian academic body by the federal government as an insult to the Nigerian academia and it implies an indirect vote of no confidence in the Nigerian academia.

”If the Federal Government is to be sincere enough that it has created an enabling environment for the Nigerian academic system to produce global standard initiatives, then why would the same government find it difficult to adopt the product of that same system? Hence, we are demanding that the Federal Government either adopt UTAS as proposed by ASUU and make necessary corrections in the interest of public education in Nigeria or they further search and create an homegrown alternative to boost the confidence and assurance that the Nigerian education system can provide solutions to her own challenges.”

Adetunji, who identified himself as the Zone D NANS Coordinator, demanded that the Federal Government prioritise the payment of revitalisation fund to bring about the needed development in the nation’s universities, asking that student unions be given representation in the committees on their respective campuses to monitor the effective usage of this fund for the purpose which it was released.

“Essentially, we are making a timely intervention by this release to ask the federal government to not only meet with ASUU, but include all other academic and non academic bodies in our tertiary institutions to progressively address their demands and resolve them within this period of Christmas and New Year break.

”It would do the government well if adequate and responsible attention is given to this to avert industrial actions in the new year,” he said.