The Federal Government through the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the Ministry of Labour and Employment have been engaging the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on the need to enroll in the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) platform set up by the government for a unified payment system for all federal government workers. The Union has vehemently turned down this government directive. Instead it proposed that the government should adopt the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) for all public universities.
The University Transparency Accountability Solution was developed by the union to accommodate the peculiarity of the public university system which IPPIS did not consider. The union argued that it was left without any other option than to take the challenge of developing the system when the Federal Government would not consider any alternative apart from the IPPIS.
The ASUU claimed the integration of university teachers into the IPPIS negates the principle of autonomy for public universities, thus the need to have the UTAS. They argued that government agencies like the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS), Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) and some other agencies are not incorporated into the IPPIS platform. What these university teachers ignore is that the contribution of the mentioned agencies to the economic development of the country. Yet universities depend on funds from the federal government like most other public offices for their operations.
ASSU insisting it would not enroll on the platform based its argument that it has already established the University Transparency and Account System. But the minister for Labour and employment, Chris Ngige, trying to bring the lecturers to the same page with the government, suggested the integration of both platforms to achieve transparency and cut cost.
Ngige said at a meeting with the lecturers that “both sides realized we are working for our country. ASUU already has the University Transparency and Account System. We had a preliminary agreement to accommodate the two systems. ASUU will have to get back to its members and agree on how to couple the two systems. We will continue the discussion after ASUU consults with its members and decision making authority.”
IMPACT NEWS asks, what is ASUU’s impact to the development in Nigeria? The dearth of Research and Development in all universities across the country lies at the door step of these lecturers. Universities are expected to turn out researches and development, using its immediate environment as testing ground of positive impact for the larger society. It is unfortunate that these institutions have become monotonous with lecturing, textbook vendor, and cases of student harassment. The redundancies of these institutions thanks to complacency of ASUU led to clashes between students and host communities.
ASUU has for too long lagged in its core duties to the nation, yet they expect more. There are allegations that one of the reason they have refused to join the unified payroll system is due to moonlighting most of the lecturers engage in, which IPPIS would definitely exposed and blocked.
The Federal government should demand more from ASUU. Nigeria has not invested enough into the education system yet the little that has been invested in tertiary education is nothing to be proud of. No Nigerian university is represented in global top 500 best universities. Yet ASUU would claim for better package and welfare.
We advised that ASUU join hands with government in contributing to the development of the country through research and development, then they can challenge government on whatever platform they want for their payroll.
