ASUU
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).
When President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2020 budget proposal
before lawmakers on Oct. 8, 2019, he 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 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.”
Source: Vanguard