Education / News / politics

ASUU strike: House of Reps leadership meets Head of Service, others

In continuation of the efforts to find solutions to the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, alongside his deputy, Rep. Ahmed Idris Wase, and other leaders of the House on Thursday met with the Head of Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan; and chairman of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta, among other government officials.

The meeting was a follow up to an earlier one Speaker Gbajabiamila held with the ASUU leadership on Tuesday.

The outcome of Tuesday’s meeting led the House leadership to invite the Head of Service; National Information Technology Development Agency; Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission; and Accountant General of the Federation among others.

At Thursday’s meeting, NITDA told the House leadership the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System, University Transparency Accountability Solution and University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System failed its integrity tests regarding the university payroll, which the agency conducted between March and June this year.

A NITDA official at the meeting told the House leadership that the government directed the agency to test UTAS in October, 2020, and that the platform failed the two integrity tests conducted on it.

He said following the first test, ASUU was asked to go back and review, which it did.

Yet, the platform did not meet NITDA’s requirements the second time.

For the third time, NITDA was then asked to conduct tests on UTAS, IPPIS and U3PS, which the official said all the three platforms failed its requirements regarding the payroll system of universities.

Not satisfied with the explanation, Speaker Gbajabiamila asked if NITDA advised the government to take action on the lapses found on the IPPIS, which has been in operation by government since 2011.

But the NITDA official said they were not in a position to do that.

Gbajabiamila also asked if NITDA queried the IPPIS platform, to which the official responded in the negative.

Wase also expressed reservations at NITDA’s action, saying it ought to have advised government on the appropriate …

News / politics

Insecurity threatens Nigeria’s foundations of nationhood – Gbajabiamila

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila has said that the current security challenges in Nigeria are a threat to the foundations of the country’s nationhood.

The Speaker, however, noted that the Nigerian Government has responded to the challenges by taking certain measures such as increasing funding for the police and the military, recruiting personnel for security agencies, among others.

Gbajabiamila spoke when he delivered a paper titled ‘Democracy in Challenging Times: The Role of African Parliaments in Safeguarding and Delivering on the Dividends of Democracy’ at the School of Oriental Studies, London on Wednesday as part of his ongoing official visit to the UK.

Speaking on the challenges facing Nigeria, Gbajabiamila said: “The most pressing of these challenges today is the national security crisis that threatens the foundations of our nationhood and portends great danger for Africa and the world if it persists. The Speaker, however, said: “First, to address present challenges and then to build resilient institutions that can withstand uncertainty in troubled times, more than anything else, our focus must remain on the young and vibrant youth of Nigeria and Africa who have so much to offer the world and who have proven that they can thrive under challenging circumstances given half a chance.

“However we cannot do this for as long as our present national security challenges persist.

“The government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has responded to the reality of our present challenges by increasing funding provisions for the police and armed forces, accelerating recruitment and training to put more boots on the ground and also acquiring weapons systems designed to give the security agencies an advantage.”

The Speaker said upon the resumption of the 9th House, “the scope of our challenges was evident, matched only by our confidence that we would do what was required to overcome those difficulties and deliver the dividends of democracy for our people.

“Now the topic of this paper speaks to ‘dividends of democracy,’ a term that has been loosely and broadly interpreted to mean different …