the flashy Union of Academic Staff of Universities (ASUU) has said that the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) is undergoing another round of testing by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
This is the third test the government agency has conducted on the UTAS accounting software.
ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke said that UTAS passed 90 percent in the first and second tests, but that NITDA concluded that the payment platform failed some tests.
“At UTAS, we are going to do a third test. As I told you, in the second one we got 99 percent. Testing is ongoing,” he said.
Mr. Osodeke, who spoke on Human Rights Radio in Abuja on Saturday, also touched on various issues related to the ongoing strike and why the strike has dragged on.
ASUU had embarked on the current strike on February 14 for an initial period of four weeks. But after the government ignored the union’s requests, it has continued to bring it down, and now it’s more than 140 days.
ASUU previously told PREMIUM TIMES that the deployment of UTAS, which is contingent on NITDA approval, is one of the union’s two main demands. The other is the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement that contains the welfare of teachers.
ASUU’s other demands include the publication of white papers on panel reports of presidential visits to universities and the proliferation of universities, especially by state governments.
When he spoke on Saturday, Osodeke accused NITDA of already “showing signs of bias because the ministry is already interfering.”
The ASUU president suggested that the tests are frustrated by his union’s opposition to the chair given to the minister of communications and digital economy, Isa Pantami.
NITDA is an agency under Mr. Pantami’s ministry and ASUU has consistently suggested that his opposition to his chair is stalling UTAS’s approval certification.
NITDA had previously denied the allegation, saying the software was only undergoing proper testing.
Briggs-led committee meeting
Meanwhile, ASUU said it has met with the Nimi Briggs-led committee on the renegotiation of the 2009 deal, and hopes it will not stall like the Munzali Jibril-led committee.
However, the ASUU president, who said the suspension of the strike depends on the outcome of the meetings with the government, declined to elaborate on the ongoing negotiations.
The FGN-ASUU 2009 renegotiation committee led by Munzali Jibril had concluded the renegotiation with ASUU and submitted a draft document in May 2021. But the government said the recommendations in the draft were not feasible for implementation.
Speaking about the autonomy of universities, Mr. Osodeke criticized a situation where universities need the permission of the head of service before they can employ.
He also condemned the use of the federal character in the employment of personnel, saying that the process should be based solely on merit.
“A vice chancellor cannot hire a professor without obtaining permission from the head of the civil service, which is against all the rules in the world. Who is a civil service chief compared to a deputy chancellor, she said.
He added: “You employ a professor and the federal commission will go after him saying he did not follow the federal principle. In which country is the federal character used to hire a teacher? You hire a teacher on merit.
On the union’s incessant industrial actions, ASUU said that the government’s insincerity has always been the main driver of its actions.
He recalled how former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration promised to pay 220 billion naira a year for six years, “but failed woefully to implement the deal.”
According to Mr. Osodeke, only N50 billion of that amount has been paid out since 2014.
He said: “He (Mr. Jonathan) called us into a meeting and told us; if we have to sit for three days, we have to finish the meeting before we leave. We met with him for 14 hours and agreed that 1.3 trillion naira should be spread over six years as the government cannot provide 1.3 trillion naira at one time. They would release N200 billion initially, then every year they will release N220 billion for the system, which he released, but then we found out that he took from TETFund without informing the public.
“But since 2014 and now, this government has only given N50 billion naira for all the public universities in Nigeria, now there are around 90.”
Mr. Osodeke also condemned the proliferation of universities, especially by state governors, who said they could not fund them and yet go ahead with creating more universities.
He said that ASUU is not against the creation of new universities, but that the government should set aside funds to finance them for five to ten years before they begin to benefit from TETFund.
Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which connects local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on hidden issues around the world.
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