(ASUU) The Academic Staff Union of Universities has gone on an indefinite strike after the expiration of its two-weeks warning strike, despite the fact that some education institutions are on break due to fears of the coronavirus spread.
Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU President, Revealed during a press conference in Abuja that the union rejects the use of force by the Federal Government to enroll members of the union on Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS).
ASUU is embarking on the strike over the non-payment of salaries of their members who failed to enrol into the federal government’s IPPIS, payroll software mandated for all public officials.
Last year, the Federal Government gave a directive that all its employees should be enrolled in the IPPIS by December 31st or their salaries would be withheld. The directive did not go down well with ASUU members and they never failed to make it known to their employers, Federal or state government.
Few days to the December 31st deadline, over 70 percent of ASUU members were said to have secretly enrolled in the platform, while some others, especially their leaders, refused to join. All efforts to persuade them failed, rather they embarked on two weeks warning strike.
He maintained that periodic academic disruption in public universities was because of insincerity of government, particularly in honouring agreements signed with the union in years past.
“Nigerian government has chosen to use hunger as a weapon of war against its academics and we are not going to sit and watch. Action and reaction, as they say, are equal but opposite.
“The union has decided to embark on total and indefinite strike from Monday 23, 2020, ” he said.
