JAGISTS

The House of Representatives wrapped up its stakeholder consultations on the ongoing dispute between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities on Thursday, saying it will shortly offer its recommendations to President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

The government side asked ASUU to accept their accommodation under the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System during the third of a series of marathon sessions conducted in Abuja.

The National Information Technology Development Agency was challenged by the ASUU side to demonstrate that the University Transparency Accountability Solution it had advocated failed the integrity test. The ASUU side pushed for an independent and domesticated platform for university teachers.

On Thursday, the invited parties came before the House, with government officials presenting a new offer to ASUU to permit a change of the IPPIS to account for the uniqueness UTAS wishes to acknowledge.

At the conclusion of the two-hour meeting, Gbajabiamila urged with ASUU to accept whatever the House ultimately advises in good faith.

“I think this would be, ideally, the last meeting we are going to have on this topic,” he added. “The leadership of the House will put our reports, our suggestions, and our ideas together from here, and take them to Mr. President.

“I am hopeful that whatever we have done, ASUU—this is an autonomous arm of the government—would take it in good faith, and that the government will accept it in good faith as well, because that is the whole point of this—so that our children may go back to school.”

According to The PUNCH, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had said that under the current circumstances, the Ministers cannot sign any deal with ASUU before receiving the President’s approval.

Additionally, the Head of the Federation’s Civil Service, Folashade Yemi-Esan, urged ASUU to for the university system to be integrated with IPPIS because of the significant cost implications of running two separate systems for employee payments.