The Federal Government through the National University Commission, NUC has directed University Vice Chancellors, VCs to immediately open schools and resume lectures for students. The matching order was issued through a letter signed by the Director, Finance and Account of the NUC, Sam Onazi, on behalf of the Executive Secretary, ES, of the Commission, professor Abubakar Rasheed. Vigil360 learned that the letter was made available to all VCs; pro-chancellors and chairmen of governing councils of all federal universities.

Officials of the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, have disclosed that the integrated Personnel Payroll Information System, IPPIS, the university Transparency Accountability Solution, UTAS and the University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System, U3PS all have failed the integrity test as a payment platform for the university system. NITDA made this known when it was summoned by the House of Representatives together with the Head of Service, Folasade Yemi-Esan, and officials of the Academic Staff Union, ASUU.

The National Industrial Court of Nigeria, NICN, sitting in Abuja has directed the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities, ASUU to immediately suspend the industrial action and resume back to work. Justice Polycap Hamman, the presiding judge ruled today that the industrial action was an affront to section 18(1)(2) of Trade Dispute Act that frown the action of the academicians. The Judge posited that the use of “shall” in the Act means a Mandatory provision restraining the industrial action pending the determination of the suit before the court.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has prayed on a House of Representatives committee to exclude it from annual budgetary allocation. Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB registrar, made the request on Wednesday when he appeared before the House of Representatives committee on finance at the interactive session on the 2023-2025 medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF). Oloyede said the board should be allowed to make an upward review of its examination fee as a “condition” for JAMB to be excluded from budgetary allocation. The committee is currently holding a public hearing on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) ahead of the 2023 budget presentation by the executive arm. “There is nowhere that the government funds this type of examination,” Oloyede said.

The House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on Basic Education and Services on Tuesday warned governors in the country to prioritize basic education or be ready to face the consequences. The chairman of the committee, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, who spoke in Ilorin, Kwara state, at the conclusion of a two-day oversight visit to inspect completed and ongoing Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), and State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) projects in the state said bulletproof cars won’t save the governors. Prof. Ihonvbere advised state governments to take basic education very seriously in their own interest. Stressing that bulletproof cars, dogs and barbed wire cannot save them from the anger of uneducated, abused and marginalised children in the consequences”.
According to him, no efforts will be spared to sanction the states found to have diverted the UBEC grants.

The Academic Staff Union of Nigerian University, ASUU has extended its ongoing industrial action for another time. The decision to extend the strike action came after the National Executive Council of the academicians voted for the industrial to continue at the ASUU headquarters this morning in Abuja. After a series of debates and discussions by the ASUU for and against whether the industrial action should be extended until the federal government concedes to their demand, ASUU finally voted for the strike to continue.