The Bauchi zone of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) today in a press conference held at the University of Jos, disclosed that the Union will soon take up Nigerian politicians who are feeding on the payment platform of IPPIS.

Addressing journalists, the Zonal Coordinator, Professor Lawan G. Abubakar accused the NITDA as “unpatriotic elements” standing against the implementation of the homegrown payment platform built by Nigerian academics.

It will be recalled that one of the seven demands of ASUU is the deployment of UTAS to replace the integrated payroll and personnel information system (IPPIS) for payments and management in the University system due to deficiencies observed by the union that hinged on university autonomy among others.

The union stressed that: following the successful development of UTAS by Asuu, the Federal Government of Nigeria directed the Nigerian information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in line with its core mandate, to carry out integrity tests on the software.

The union further explained that: “the tests conducted are user acceptance test (UAT) and vulnerability assessment and penetration tests. The summary of the first tests conducted by NITDA scored UTAS software 97.4%.”

Bauchi Zone of ASUU wonders why the misinformation from NITDA to the general public that UTAS failed the Integrity test haven scored so high. The union is challenging the ministry of communication to keep up to its mandate quoting the FGN local Content Act of 2010. The union stress that they will not fold their arms and watch NITDA suppress and oppress the wholly homegrown solution aimed at advancing the operations of the Nigerian university system.

To this end, while the union continue to accuse government agencies like NITDA, students are feeling the heat of the strike while parents continue lamenting. Certainly, ASUU might roll over this strike again and the system will continue to be down.

count | 449

ASUU STRIKE: We shall soon expose politicians feeding on IPPIS