The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has
suspended its proposed strike over Federal Government’s directive to enroll its
members into the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
President Buhari while presenting the 2020 budget proposal
before lawmakers on October 8, 2019, had vowed that Federal Government
Employees not captured on the IPPIS platform by 31st Oct. 2019 would no longer
be receiving their salaries.
ASUU President, Prof.
Biodun Ogunyemi, in a phone interview, noted that the union had decided to
maintain status quo, pending further meetings. ASUU had at different fora
rejected the deadline, stating that universities operated differently from the
civil service and should, therefore, not be seen as appendages of ministries,
departments and agencies of government.
“What we have been saying is that the reaction of our
members will depend on what happens in the government. Our members will meet at
the appropriate time to take appropriate decision.
“The Senate has intervened in the matter and we are engaging
the Senate, the Senate has appealed to us for now, When they pay other workers,
they pay them also.”
According to him, the union is proposing another template
which would factor in the peculiarities of the universities and promote their
interest.
“The point we are
making is that we have visited the Senate President, told him that there is an
alternative to IPPIS, the IPPIS as we see it, will not promote the interest of
the university, there is no university or country in the world where the
payment of university workers is centralised with the government.”
On the World University ranking, Ogunyemi stressed that
enrolling its members would affect Nigeria’s status, and discourage visiting
lecturers come into the system.
“IPPIS will affect our ranking, because now scholars from
different parts of the world will not be encouraged to come to Nigeria. Imagine
somebody come for short six months and because of IPPIS he is not paid from
three to four months, whereas, if they are domesticated in the universities,
ASUU will pay them.
“Any university can attract scholars from any part of the
world and you do not expect scholars to come from India, China, Australia,
America or UK and be coming into Abuja to enroll in IPPIS. It is ridiculous,
and that is what the autonomy means, that universities should govern their
personnel, and their pay role system.
“We are saying it is not safe, we are going to become a
laughing stock among committee of universities. In Ghana, there is something
like IPPIS, but universities are not part of it. There is nowhere in the world
that payroll is centralised and managed by consultants.”
He, however, noted that what the union wanted was a
“Governing Council’ that would govern and manage the payroll of ASUU members.
“If government does that, it is the council that the government will hold
responsible, that is what the law says, and where a council is found to be
corrupt, or incompetent, that council should be dissolved and another council
should be put in place.
“Our proposal is that there should be a mechanism that will
enable the government to monitor the payroll system and the personnel. At the
appropriate time, we will release it to the Nigerian public.
“The mechanism, when we centralise the payroll system of
academics in Nigeria, you are taking a risk, cyber criminals can break into it
at any time. There is nothing you put on the internet that cannot be hacked and
that is not accessible in any part of the world.”
He stressed that the IPPIS will erode autonomy of the union,
noting that the universities are unique environment, and are called “universal
cities, because they are universal market places of ideas.”
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