***We are beaming our searchlights on the AGF – ASUU
*** Says ASUU didn’t go on strike because of IPPIS
*** Says Buhari’s govt is a govt of shifting blames
ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, for being the architect of obstructing the resolution process between the Union and the federal government which has resulted in the lingering strike.
Speaking at a press conference at the ASUU Secretariat of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Chapter, the Zonal Coordinator, Prof. Lawan Abubakar, said that the Union is beaming its searchlight on the AGF and will soon “take on him.”
He said that Nigerians thought the federal government’s frantic efforts made between 12th and 15th October, 2020, to engage ASUU in order to end the seven-month prolonged strike, was being done out of genuine seriousness not knowing it was doing it because of the #EndSARS protests going on at the time.
Abubakar said: “With the then #EndSARS protest over, government is appearing not interested in engaging ASUU, therefore, being responsible for prolonging the strike and wasting students’ time and their parents’ meagre resources.
“The sole architect of stalling and retarding the resolution process is none other than the AGF as he kept insisting that ASUU members must enrol into IPPIS before he would be able to pay their withheld salaries and any other subsequent payment.
“We are not enrolling in IPPIS. The AGF should understand that our searchlights are currently on him and that we are going to take on him, past, present and future. He is hereby warned to stop wasting people’s time henceforth.”
Asked how the Union will take on the Accountant-General of the Federation, he said: “We are saying enough is enough to this man (AGF), in fact, we are researchers and we have already dug into his past, his present and we are forecasting his future ambition and very soon, we will let the cat out of the bag.”
He faulted the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, who recently blamed a past administration for the lingering ASUU strike because it signed an agreement with the Union to pay it N1.3 trillion when, according to him, the knew they could not pay the money.
“He is blaming the past government but this government should also take the blame. He said the government does not have money now because of the economic situation in the country but we entered into this MoAs before this economic meltdown and they simply refused to implement the MoAs.
“When they need money, there is always money but when the money is supposed to be used in the interest of the country and the common man, they will say ‘understand, there is no money’. We take exception to this his position and he should include this government in the blame game.”
Contributing, a former Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Prof. Nanmwa Voncir, said that the Buhari administration is a government of shifting blames pointing out that the government should be serious with governance.
“I don’t know which government the Minister (of Education) was blaming, because by 2013, we signed an agreement with the Jonathan administration, we are all witnesses, go to our campuses and check, the Jonathan administration released the first tranche of N220 billion to universities and that is what is in the agreement.
“Why is he blaming the past government? This is a government of shifting blames, every time the government faces problems, it will shift blames. Let this government face squarely the issue of governance because government is a continumm, they cannot continue to run away and shift blames. They should take the blames and correct what is wrong,” he said.
He declared that ASUU did not go to strike because of IPPIS as being portrayed saying it was brought in by the government as a distraction.
Voncir said: “This union did not go on strike because of IPPIS at all and IPPIS is in the center stage, it is being portrayed as if we are on strike because of IPPIS.
“If government likes today, let it activate UTAS, and adopt it, the strike will not yet be over. The issue of IPPIS is a distraction brought by the government through the backdoor and everytime you talk about strike, they talk about IPPIS.
He said that even if the issue of IPPIS is settled today and even if the government pays them the backlog of their salaries, “the strike will still continue.”