The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in the South West Zone has asked the Federal Government to take advantage of the Yuletide break to settle all concerns regarding the Academic Staff Union of Universities in order to avoid another strike in the new year.

NANS said it was familiar with the genesis of the agreements and disagreements between ASUU and the Federal Government, saying “the government has shown too little or no commitment to the agreement it willingly entered into with the ASUU in 2009 which is an indirect attack on Nigerian students nationally”,
in a statement made available by Comrade Emmanuel Olatunji.

The lecturers rejected the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), thus NANS urged the government to embrace the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) instead.

“On UTAS and IPPIS controversy, we have read about the neoliberal policies of IMF and World Bank in the past history of Education in Nigeria, particular during the era of Structural Adjustment Programme(SAP) which almost resulted to the decrease in the number of tertiary institutions and severe negative implications on the country but for the tenacity of Nigerian Students and other civil rights movements.

”And we have no doubts that IPPIS as IMF/World bank initiative cannot address the progressive desires of the Nigerian academics but further model the nation at the mercy of these imperial nations.

“Also, we consider an attempted rejection of UTAS developed by the Nigerian academic body by the federal government as an insult to the Nigerian academia and it implies an indirect vote of no confidence in the Nigerian academia.

”If the Federal Government is to be sincere enough that it has created an enabling environment for the Nigerian academic system to produce global standard initiatives, then why would the same government find it difficult to adopt the product of that same system? Hence, we are demanding that the Federal Government either adopt UTAS as proposed by ASUU and make necessary corrections in the interest of public education in Nigeria or they further search and create a homegrown alternative to boost the confidence and assurance that the Nigerian education system can provide solutions to her challenges.”

Adetunji, who claimed to be the Zone D NANS Coordinator, demanded that the Federal Government make the payment of the revitalization fund a priority in order to bring about the needed development in the nation’s universities. He also requested that student unions be included in committees on their respective campuses to monitor the effective use of the fund for the purpose for which it was released.

He said, “Essentially, we are making a timely intervention by this release to ask the federal government to not only meet with ASUU but include all other academic and non-academic bodies in our tertiary institutions to progressively address their demands and resolve them within this period of Christmas and New Year break.

”It would do the government well if adequate and responsible attention is given to this to avert industrial actions in the new year.”