BREAKING: ASUU Begins “Indefinite” Strike

Despite the closure of all tertiary institutions by the federal government, the Academic Staff of Universities Union (ASUU) has declared an indefinite strike after the expiration of its two-weeks warning strike.

The national president of the union, Biodun Ogunyemi, announced the strike at a press conference in Abuja on Monday.

“The union has decided to embark on total and indefinite strike from Monday 23,2020, ” he said.

He said the union rejects the use of force to enroll in the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS).

The National Universities Commission ordered universities across the country to close for a month, beginning from March 23, due to the outbreak of coronavirus.

The union commenced its warning strike on March 9, 2020. Since the commencement of the strike, the government met with the union twice.

ASUU is embarking on the strike over the non-payment of salaries of their members who failed to enroll in the federal government’s IPPIS, a payroll software mandated for all public officials.

The government, last Thursday, also reached an interim agreement with striking university lecturers to integrate the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) into the IPPIS.

The IPPIS is the government’s accountability software that has been made compulsory for all public institutions, mainly for personnel payroll.

ASUU is opposed to the use of IPPIS for lecturers, saying it does not consider some of the peculiar operations of universities. The lecturers’ union then developed its own UTAS which it wants the government to adopt for universities.

More details later…