ASUU to Nigerians: Hold NITDA Responsible for the Prolonged Strike
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has urged Nigerians to hold the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Ministry of Communications responsible for the prolonged ongoing strike in Nigerian Universities.
ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Buchi Zone, Prof. Lawan Abubakar disclosed this on Monday during a press briefing in Jos and urged NITDA to stop misleading Nigerians on the credibility and acceptability of UTAS which has passed the integrity test.
He explained that the University Transparency and Accountability Solution was developed to address the peculiarities of the University System which IPPIS does not.
Prof. Abubakar noted that the deployment and adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) by NITDA would go a long way in resolving the current strike.
“One of the seven demands ASUU is impressing on the Federal Government to address is the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to replace the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) for personnel payments and management in the University System.
“UTAS, which was developed as a payment platform and for personnel management in accordance with the University Laws is one of the core issues in ASUU’s current struggle.
“Ironically, NITDA in conjunction with its parent Ministry, (The Ministry of Communications) is seriously sabotaging the government’s efforts at resolving the impasse. This is obviously capable of prolonging the current strike thereby bringing untold hardship on Nigerian University students and the University System.”
He explained further that after the successful development of UTAS by ASUU, Federal Government directed NITDA in line with its core mandate to integrity tests in the software which he said was rated high.
Prof. Abubakar said, “The tests conducted are User Acceptance Tests (UAT), and Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Tests. The first test conducted by NITDA score UTAS software 97.4%.
“After scoring UTAS this high, NITDA went further to contradict itself by making a fallacious statement that UTAS has failed integrity tests. The union wonders how a score of 97.4% will amount to failure.
“The Union still agreed to another Test by NITDA on March 8, 2022, in the presence of observers front the Federal Ministry of Education/National Universities Commission (NUC), Federal Ministry of Finance/OAGF, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission.
“This most recent test still scored UTAS 99.3% in all the Tests metrics. ASUU is Therefore surprised that NITDA, having scored UTAS this high on two different occasions, unpatriotically went to the press to deliberately mislead the public into believing that UTAS has failed Integrity tests again.”
He called on Nigerians and the Federal Government to call the Ministry of Communications and NITDA to order to avoid prolonging the current strike to the detriment of Nigerians students.
