The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has accused the Federal Government of not showing concern towards the agreement it entered with the union in 2009.
They further stated that many of their members were coerced into IPPIS and have been forced into abject poverty because a sizeable number of them have not been paid for several months.
Dr Patrick Ineji, Chairman of the University of Cross River State (UNICROSS) branch of the Union, said this in Calabar on Thursday after a congress with union members in the institution.
He called on the Federal Government to deploy the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) and other demands of the union with a view to averting the planned industrial action by ASUU.
He said that the Union has given the Federal Government enough time to implement its demands, but rather no substantive implementation has come forth.
According to him, hundreds of members of the union have been owed salaries for over 10 months due to the abnormalities of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), hence the reason they wanted the deployment of UTAS for payment of their salaries.
He highlighted other demands of the Union yet to be implemented to include, the refusal of the Federal Government to sign and implement the 2009 renegotiated agreement with ASUU and revitalization of public universities.
The ASUU Chairman maintained that UTAS has passed an integrity test and found it worthy to be used for payment of salaries for universities lecturers.
His words:” After a congress of the union, we looked at the areas that may cause ASUU to embark on strike if the Federal Government does not do the needful.
“The Federal Government has refused to sign and implement the 2009 renegotiated agreement with ASUU.
“The Federal Government forced ASUU into IPPIS with all the abnormalities that followed the exercise and refused to deploy UTAS that is a better option to IPPIS.
“The Federal Government is not bothered about the deplorable state of our public educational institutions; if there is strike, it is the Federal Government that declared the strike and ASUU will be merely obeying the Federal Government”, he said.
He further said that the 2009 Federal Government and ASUU renegotiated agreement contained a holistic package that includes the welfare of universities staff, how the universities should be operated and the scheme of service, and others.
Also speaking, Secretary of the Union in UNICROSS, Dr, Emeka Ategwu said that the union also frowned at the proliferation of universities in Nigeria by some state governments.
According to him, the current universities were lacking infrastructural development and basic amenities, yet some state governments were going ahead to establish more universities.
“What is the need of establishing many universities when the ones on the ground have not been properly funded?”
“Some of the governors are establishing more universities to gain political gains, this is not right because the standard of our educational system is degrading with this kind of proliferation of more Universities,” he said.
