The speaker, the Accountant General of the Federation and the President of ASUU at a meeting in Abuja.
The Academic Staff Union of the Universities (ASUU) says its agreement to be paid through the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) was an interim arrangement.
ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke made the clarification in a meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Accountant General for the Federation.
This according to the ASUU president, is because IPPIS cannot accommodate the union peculiarities demand.
He said the union would revert to its demand to be paid through the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
“There is no way IPPIS can represent the universities, the greatest problem university has is funding. No university can invest again because of Treasury Single Account (TSA).
He said the union called off the strike based on trust and pointed out that the country’s education was in dire need of human resources.
The Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Sylva Okolieaboh called for a comprehensive peculiarities list of ASUU, assuring that in three months the issues will be cleared.
He said contrary to insinuation by ASUU, IPPIS was designed locally by Oracle and appealed to the union to trust executive and let the issue be laid to rest.
“We will sit down with ASUU and look at what could be done and the material peculiarities that ASUU was complaining about”, he said.
The Speaker, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, said it was up to ASUU to submit its peculiarities to the AoGF so that the issue could be addressed immediately.
On the issue of funding, the Speaker said the union’s fear had been addressed, asserting that about N500bn was included for ASUU in the budget.
He however demanded for a timeline that would be acceptable to ASUU to accommodate the peculiarities of the union on the IPPIS.
He pleaded with the union to let bygone be bygone, adding that by January and February the AGF had promised that everything would be sorted.
Gabjabiamila said the House would be having a summit on universities with critical stakeholders next month and that all the issues raised by ASUU as to funding were slated to be addressed for a long-term solution.
Reporting by Ibrahim Shehu; Editing by Muzha Kucha and Annabel Nwachukwu