The House of Representatives, has called for a truce between the Academic Staff Union (ASUU) and the management of the University of Abuja, over the current strike.
Rep. Abubakar Fulata, the Chairman, House Committee on University Education, said this when he received the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah and a team of ASUU members from the institution at the National Assembly on Tuesday in Abuja.
“The need to ensure non-disruption of academic activities led to the intervention, which made the Federal Government to remove universities from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
“When we came on board, we promised that there should be no disruption of academic activities in Nigerian universities. We observed that university managements were in complex condition under IPPIS.
“We made the appeal, and President Bola Tinubu listened to us and removed universities and other tertiary institutions from IPPIS,” he said.
Fulata appealed to ASUU to suspend the indefinite strike that began on May 2.
He promised that the National Assembly would soon come up with a bill that would address the problem regarding the appointment of a VC and the running of universities in the absence of a council.
He appealed to ASUU to suspend the strike while further consultations were ongoing to finally resolve the impasse
Ealier, Dr Sylvanus Ugo, the Chairman of the university’s chapter of ASUU, said the meeting was to find an amicable solution to the problems on the ground.
Ugod said the issues in contention that resulted in the indefinite strike included the illegal advertisement for the vacancy of the post of Vice-Chancellor.
He said that it was the governing council that was responsible for the appointment of a new VC, but in the absence of the council, the Senate of the university could elect an acting VC.
Other issues he raised included the illegal appointment of deans, recruitment of staff without due process, illegal promotion, and the removal of ASUU from the University’s Micro Finance Bank in spite of its numerous investments.
Na’Allah, in his response, said the 6th Vice-Chancellor of the University was expected to retire from service in June.
He said the Minister of Education gave the permission to place advertisement in respect of the vacancy for the post of VC of the University.
Na’Allah said that all appointments, recruitments, and promotions carried out were in consonance with the University Act (NAN)
By Femi Ogunshola
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