The Academic Staff Union of Universities, Lagos Zone, has warned that the rejection of University Transparency and Accountability Solution by the National Information Technology Development Agency will continue to elongate the strike action.
The union declared that the strike would not be suspended until the government addresses the adoption of UTAS, implements the renegotiated agreement, and pays all outstanding allowances.
Speaking at a press briefing held at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, on Tuesday, the coordinator of ASUU Lagos Zone, Adelaja Odukoya, insisted that the UTAS proposed by the union passed the test and quality assurance requirements, having scored 99.3 per cent.
Odukoya described the rejection as an attempt to play politics with the public universities.
He maintained that the statement of the NITDA discrediting the union’s efforts on the University Transparency and Accountability Solution is false and a deliberate attempt to misinform the public.
He called on Nigerians to join the union in the fight to meet their demands.
He said, “We, however, wish to draw the attention of all concerned to the deliberate misinformation and disinformation of the public by the National Information Technology and Development Agency on the state of the integrity test and adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution by the government.
“The utterances of the NITDA spokesperson are capable of deliberate elongation of the ongoing strike action, suppose the government allows itself to be misinformed and misdirected through the managerial incompetence of the NITDA officers. In that case, our union considers it the peak of insensitivity to the plight of the universities, including staff, students, and indeed the country.
“Nonetheless, it is the considered opinion of our union that we owe the Nigerian people the onerous responsibility of providing the truth in discharging our patriotic duty as Nigerian Academic and the intellectual conscience of the Nigerian state.
“ASUU, therefore, wants the Nigerian public to call the DG, NITDA to order on the point of integrity not to play politics and vendetta with the future of Nigeria and that of our public universities as National treasures and collective patrimony of all Nigerian citizens. We are convinced that the DG of NITDA is only out to carry out the hatchet job of a Minister whose professional fraud was challenged by our union.
“ASUU wants to inform you that the current strike action will not be suspended until the government addresses the adoption of UTAS, implement the renegotiated agreement, pay all outstanding allowances without prejudice to the donation of $1 million to Afghanistan and fulfill all other issues contained in the Memorandum of Action signed with our Union.”
(PUNCH)
