GABI TAINMENT

The leadership of the House of Representatives will seek an audience with President Muhammadu Buhari on the resolution of the ongoing face-off between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) with the outcome of its interactions with stakeholders in the dispute, Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila said on Thursday. This is as the office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AOGF) revealed its readiness to accommodate issues of concern to ASUU over the payment platforms, Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) that constituted a major part of the issues that led to the strike. According to the Speaker, the leadership, in the next couple of days, will put up a report of its interactions with key stakeholders in the dispute and come up with recommendations that will enable the President to view the issues at stake from an informed second option. Speaking at the last me

Fresh Facts have emerged on why the Federal Government quickly reversed its order to the various university management to reopen public universities amid the ongoing strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU. Recall that the Federal Government had earlier ordered Vice-Chancellors to re-open schools. It had asked the Vice-Chancellors of universities “to ensure that the striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) resume and commence lectures immediately.” However, it later issued another directive withdrawing its earlier circular. DAILY POST gathered that the opinion leaders and other stakeholders interested in resolving the face-off between the ASUU and the government mounted pressure on government requesting that the circular, earlier sent to mandate the reopening of the universities, be withdrawn. A senior official in the Ministry of Education, who didn’t want his name mentioned, disclosed that “the circular was withdrawn t

The Federal Government on Monday ordered the vice-chancellors of universities to re-open schools and allow students resume lectures, immediately. Recall that Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike for about seven months now as the union is demanding from FG the funding of the Revitalisation of Public Universities, Earned Academic Allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) and promotion arrears. Others are the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FG Agreement and the inconsistency in Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System. However, with the deadlock in negotiation between the FG and ASUU team, the federal government went to court to challenge the action of the association. Last week the national industrial court through Polycarp Hamman, the judge in the NIC, granted the federal government’s application for an interlocutory injunction to restrain ASUU from continuing with the strike. ASUU had since filed 14 ground