By Becky Adi
The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has said the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System as the payment platform for university employees is unsuitable for the Nigerian university system.
The former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, who categorically stated that he was not a fan of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, said the union had a point to fight for regarding their pay.
Oloyede said this during a virtual lecture titled ‘Synchronising cacophony: Interrogating some issues of concepts and perception in the Nigerian higher education topology,’ held in honour of a former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Professor Peter Okebukola, to mark his 71st birthday.
He said, “I am not a fan of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, but they have a point here. IPPIS is unsuitable for the university system.
“Let me cite an instance, when I was the VC at the University of Ilorin, I went to Australia on an official assignment and there I met a Nigerian with PhD in an area of Botany where we lacked the manpower.
“I spoke with the man and convinced him of the need to work with us and he agreed. Immediately, I put a call to the Dean of the Faculty of Science and told him about the development and that was how we secured the services of the man. He is now a professor in one of the nation’s universities.”
In the lecture, Oloyede also called for moderation in the setting up of universities by government agencies noting that there were institutions already created which could cater to the training of other agencies.
He added that the government should instead focus on the adequate funding of the already existing universities in the country.
“Also, we must be careful of the number of universities we are having, especially the ones being set up by government agencies and the military.
“We already have the Nigerian Defence Academy which trains officers for all the arms of the military. We also have the Police Academy that trains police officers, it can also help in training para-military men too.
“In that regard, we don’t need more than one or two. If care is not taken, we will soon have the ‘University of Road Safety’ or the ‘University of Civil Defence’. Adequately funding existing universities should be our focus,” Oloyede added.
