Lawan faults FG as Senate tackles govt, ASUU logjam

Senator Ahmad Lawan

The President of the Senate , Ahmad Lawan, has berated the Federal Government for signing an unrealistic agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities .

He said , “When we negotiate , we must negotiate in such a manner that the final product will be implementable.

“This is to say that we have to accommodate each other with government doing what it is supposed to do and ASUU , being the body of our lecturers , stands to protect its members .”

Lawan said these on Monday when ASUU presented its alternative payroll system , the University Transparency and Accountability Solution , to the Senate .

He also pleaded with the ASUU not to be too rigid in its demands in order to move the country forward .

He said , “I am sure that we need to review some of the items on the agreements .

“We cannot have an agreement signed in 2009 and still think this is the only way we can deal with it.

“We should be able to have a look at the agreements signed and see at this time whether or not some of the issues are really practicable at all .”

The President of ASUU , Prof . Biodun Ogunyemi , who addressed journalists after a three - hour closed -door session with the leadership of the Senate , said the visit was a follow up to the earlier one held between ASUU and the Senate in October 2019 to find a way out of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System crisis .

The university teachers had told the Senate leadership at the October meeting that ASUU would design an alternative to the IPPIS , which would accommodate the peculiarity of the university system .

Ogunyemi said the UTAS was a home -grown system that would end the eight - month industrial action by ASUU if embraced by the Federal Government .

He said , “We had a positive meeting which was cordial and we are going to continue from there . We will still meet again to continue from where we stopped .