Emmanuel Osodeke, who is the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities( ASUU) has called on President Muhammad Buhari to sign the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment platform for lecturers.
In a programme on channel tv, Mr. Emmanuel Osodeke said the Union is ready to call off the strike as long as the agreement is signed by the federal government of Muhammadu Buhari.
“As far as ASUU is concerned, the strike can end tomorrow, we have finished the negotiations, let the government call us this night that we should come tomorrow and sign the agreement, we will be there.
“Let the government tell us they have finished testing the UTAS, we have accepted it. By tomorrow, we will call off the strike. We are finished (with negotiations),” Mr. Osodeke said.
The union has concluded that the federal government will replace Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) with UTAS.
Mr. Osodeke said, instead of the federal government to meet their demands, they instead failed to pay striking lecturers their salaries for the past five months.
“We are just waiting, and challenging the government. When will they sign the agreement, and when will they accept UTAS? Those are the two questions we need to ask the Nigerian government,” the ASUU president added.
Due to the failure of the federal government to honor the 2009 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the union has been on strike since February 14th.
The demand was for the FG to sign the UTAS payment platform for their salaries and address other issues affecting the universities.
