UTAS: Coalition of Civil Society Group Carpets ASUU Over Threat to Withdraw Kashifu’s Degree
A youth led coalition of civil society group, the Youth and Civil Society Coalition for Development (YCSCD) has cautioned the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)over it’s threat to withdraw degree certificate of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)’s Boss, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi.
In a statement signed by it’s National President, Comrade Aminu Aminu which was made available to newsmen, the group said ASUU was threatening the DG for simply discharging his statutory duties.
According to YCSCD, even although the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has developed its parallel payment platform to the nationally accepted Integrated Payroll and Personel Information System (IPPIS) the University’s Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), it should be humbled to accept in good faith NITDA’s constructive criticism and collaborate with the agency to make the platform more effective and enable it stand the test of time and world dynamics.
“ASUU cannot claim ignorance of the fact that, NITDA has acted on the mandates bestowed on it by its establishing act which requires it to create a framework for the planning, research,development, standardization, application, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and regulation of Information Technology practices in Nigeria,” the group argued.
Read Also:
It said far from ASUU’s claim that NITDA is working to frustrate the operability of its newly developed payment platform UTAS, it is not news to enlightened Nigerians that NITDA has over the years issued several regulatory instruments which include software testing and quality assurance framework as well as guidelines for the design,development and testing of software projects in the country.
“On this note, it is counterproductive for an academic Bloc like ASUU to resort to threat instead of finding a workable solution to address the issues raised by NITDA’s integrity test results on UTAS
“ASUU’S reaction to the professorial title awarded to the minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, by the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), and the present one trailing the UTAS’ failure to meet the NITDA’S vulnerability test, user acceptance test and stress load test leading to the issuance of threat to withdraw Malam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi’s degree certificate by the ATBU branch of the ASUU, could amount to witch-hunting of its own successful products as both are alumni’s of the University.
YCSCD called on ASUU to channel the same energy it is using to issues degree withdrawal threats, to explore workable solutions bedevilleing the country especially the lingering insecurity, youth restiveness and ongoing strike action.
It vowed that no amount of threat can deter the DG NITDA from doing the right thing as far as the discharge of his mandate is concerned.
