The Network of Advocates for Digital Reporting (NADIR) has lambasted the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over its recent statement that its Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) chapter to withdraw the degree of Kashifu Inuwa, the director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
The NITDA DG had questioned the integrity of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) adopted by ASUU. Inuwa said that the UTAS payment platform failed integrity tests after undergoing screening.
A spokesman of NADIR, Bello Shehu, on Friday, however, described the plot as laughable and ill-advised, adding that no one should be intimated for doing their job.
Shehu stated that the lecturers should know better than throwing caution to the wind and making a fundamental blunder.
Part of the statement read: “This action seeks to portray ASUU as the sole authority in conferring or retracting degree awards, rather than limiting itself to protecting the rights of university workers.
“In a desperate bid to blackmail a public official into lowering the bars of his mandate and succumbing to selfish inclinations, ASUU has resorted to threats.
“Beyond the NUC regulations, each university self-regulates its academic programmes through the power vested in its senate.
“Precedents have severally shown that only the University Senate has the powers to do what ASUU is ignorantly threatening to do.
“NITDA has over the years, issued a series of regulatory instruments including the Software Testing and Quality Assurance Framework and Guideline, issued in 2016. R
“This regulatory instrument, currently under review, provides guidelines for the design, development, and testing of software projects in Nigeria.
“If institutions can threaten their products who are standing up for what is right, and get away with it, excellence and sterling track record is endangered.”