… Over 70% of Academic Staff Alleged To Have Enrolled
Williams Anuku, Abuja
Indications emerged on Thursday, that the federal government is still insisting on the enrollment of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS.
The position of government was maintained when the ASUU officials met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
But a source privy to the meeting revealed to our correspondent that an estimated 70 percent of ASUU members have voluntarily enrolled in the IPPIS, despite the opposition from the union’s leadership.
ASUU had opposed the IPPIS policy of the government and had threatened to down tools if the government should stop the payment of salaries of its members who refused to enrol, claiming that it was against the university autonomy law.
Instead ASUU had said it was always open for dialogue with the government as it proposed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution as an alternative to the government’s centralised payroll system of IPPIS.
The opposing views of both parties necessitated the meeting which lasted few hours at the presidential villa.
But the ASUU officials declined comments after the meeting which had in attendance the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, Minister of Education Adamu Adamu and the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
Investigation revealed that the meeting was at the instance of the university lecturers who have been resisting enrollment in the IPPIS.
Buhari had ordered the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning to stop the payment of salaries of Federal Government workers, including members of ASUU, who failed to enrol on the IPPIS platform by Oct. 31, 2019.
The government later extended the deadline to Nov. 30, 2019.
A source at the meeting revealed that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, disclosed that over 90,000 out of about 130,000 university lecturers had enrolled in the IPPIS, stressing that the number of ASUU members yet to register was less than 30 percent.
According to the source, “The Minister of Finance told ASUU that about 90,000 out of 130,000 members of the union have enrolled in the IPPIS. The ASUU President was surprised hearing this. It is less than 30 percent of the members that has not enrolled.
” To make the matter worse, the staff that went to register the lecturers were brutalized.”
The source further revealed that the issue of N25 billion Academic Earned Allowances was also tabled at the meeting.
At the meeting, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, urged ASUU to comply with IPPIS in national interest as his office was already in the process of streamlining all issues of human resources in government.
President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi said the educational sector needed more Federal Government attention, noting that implementation of agreements over the years will go a long way in improving the quality of education in the universities.
Prof. Ogunyemi said, “Nigerian universities can make meaningful contributions to addressing the challenges of the country (economy, security and corruption) if given the opportunities. Appropriate funding level, competitive conditions of service, university autonomy and academic freedom are critical to creating such an atmosphere.
“With adequate and effective education, particularly university education, Nigerians will be less susceptible to manipulation, our economy will grow and problems of insecurity and corruption will be drastically reduced,’’ he said.
The ASUU President said Nigeria could learn from countries like China, Malaysia and Singapore that have encouraged universities to drive their educational development through tripartite linkages of government, industries and universities called Triple Helix Principle.
On IPPIS and university operations, Prof. Ogunyemi said the Federal Government’s Visitor initiative to the universities, at least once in five years, was the best guarantee for monitoring accountability processes that include internal and external audit processes.
The ASUU President said the IPPIS will be a “disruptive intrusion’’, adding: “IPPIS violates the laws of the federation, violates university statutes, and violates agreements between the Federal Government and ASUU.’’
“The Government should welcome ASUU’s ongoing innovation of a robust system of human resource management and compensation, called the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, which will address peculiarities of universities and end inappropriate recruitments.’’
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu and Labour and Employment , Dr Chris Ngige, assured that the Federal Government was committed to improving the educational sector, promising to work closely with ASUU.
