ASUU suspends proposed strike – TheNigerialawyer

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).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 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 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.”