UTAS comment: ASUU threatens to withdraw NITDA boss’ degree certificate

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Branch, has threatened to initiate the process of withdrawing the degree certificate of the Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency, Kashifu Inuwa, as an alumnus of the university.

This withdrawal, the union said, was being considered after Inuwa’s submission that “the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, had failed integrity test, vulnerability test (security integrity), User Acceptance Test and stress load test, as well as the hardware requirements.”

The union described his submission, which it claimed, was made on March 9th, 2022, after the Federal Executive Council meeting at the prompting of his boss the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, as an “unguarded statement”.

In a press release, on Thursday, titled: UTAS AND NITDA’S LIES, which was read to journalists by the ASUU ATBU Branch Chairperson, Ibrahim Inuwa, the union advised the NITDA boss to retrace his steps to the path of truth and academic excellence.

Failure to align with academic excellence and the path of truth for which the university had awarded him a degree, the union said, it will be left with no option than to carry out its threats.

According to the union, we are not surprised at the calculated attempt by agents of government particularly the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy and DG, NITDA to kill UTAS.

The statement read in part, “They both have demonstrated severe nationalism deficiency syndrome in their dealings and handling of critical issues as it concerns their offices and positions in government, revealing how ill-equipped they are with the current status of public Universities in Nigeria.

“The Union views the comments of the DG NITDA as highly misleading, unwarranted and totally unacceptable, it is a deliberate act to frustrate the deployment of UTAS. We observe that at the time the DG NITDA was making such statements (i.e on the 9th March 2022), he was aware of a joint test of the UTAS application by the ASUU Technical Team and NITDA to iron out discrepancies in the initial NITDA report.

“The current test was arranged at a meeting involving NITDA, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy. To put the record straight, we are obliged to enlighten the public that UTAS was applauded and received positive commendations at different levels of government during its presentation to the leadership of the National Assembly, Joint Committee of NITDA, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Vice-Chancellors and Bursars of Federal Universities (end users), to say the least, UTAS has gone through seven different presentations, reports from the previous test by NITDA scored UTAS 85% in User Acceptance Test.

“ASUU, therefore, wonders why agents of government are insisting on an IPPIS in spite of its obvious weaknesses, maybe this will allow them to continue to steal public funds. We will therefore no longer tolerate the delay tactics of NITDA Technical Team and their collaborators for the endless test on UTAS,” it warned.

“ASUU ATBU Bauchi is particularly sad that both the Minister of Communications Isa Ali Pantami and DG, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa are products of our prestigious University, known for its high standards of learning and discipline.

“The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy should be able to separate his official responsibility from his personal interest. It is our hope that there is no attempt by the Minister and his agents to frustrate UTAS due to ASUUS’ principled stand on the failure of his appointment as a Professor by Federal University of Technology Owerri to satisfy the laid down rules and regulations governing such appointments of the University.

“The DG of NITDA is requested to retrace his steps to the path of truth and academic excellence for which the University had awarded him a degree, failure of which the Union will be left with no option but to initiates the process of withdrawal of his degree certificate as an alumnus of ATBU, Bauchi,” the union said. (The PUNCH)