ASUU: IPPIS Has Not Stopped Corruption, Driven By Selfish Interests

-As SSANU Threatens Indefinite Strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday declared that the Federal Government Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) had not achieved much in its effort to stem corruption but rather is driven primarily by neo-liberal as well as selfish interest and motivations.

In a statement signed by Chairman, ASUU, University of Benin (UNIBEN) Branch, Prof. Monday Omoregie and Secretary, Fabian Amaechina, said the body’s members in seven federal universities as of May 27, 2020, who shunned enrolment into the IPPIS had still not been paid their February and March salaries against order that everyone be paid unconditionally.

Omoregie alleged that all members of ASUU in federal universities, who refused to be signed into the IPPIS platform, have their salary withheld.

“This is in addition to the fact that all academic members of staff that are on sabbatical in federal universities have also not been paid,” Omoregie said.

In a related development, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has equally threatened to embark on total and indefinite strike action arising from unpaid allowances of members of the union.

The university workers lamented that four months after they enrolled into the compulsory IPPIS platform introduced by the Federal Government, they are yet to get their allowances.

In a statement signed by Chairman and Secretary of SSANU, University of Benin (UNIBEN) Branch, Broderick Osewa and Enoma Aigbovoriuwa, after an executive committee meeting of the body on Monday in Benin City, the SSANU members kicked against the removal of all allowances such as hazard allowance, responsibility allowance, call duty allowance, shift duty allowance, among others, that were formerly enjoyed by members of the association and which were part of the Memorandum of Action (MoA) agreement the Federal Government voluntarily entered with SSANU in 2009.

They vowed to begin the strike as soon as institutions, which were locked down due to the novel COVID-19 pandemic, are reopened. Meanwhile, ASUU has accused Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, of benefitting from the ongoing face-off between the union and the government.

The union, however, rechristened him as Minister of Dispute Escalation and Disinformation.Chairman, University of Ibadan Chapter of the union, Prof. Ayo Akinwole, in a statement made available to newsmen in Ibadan yesterday, said that the posture of Ngige on the ongoing strike had exposed him as someone benefitting from the strike and lacking the leadership qualities to solve problem for his principal.

Akinwole, who accused Ngige of misinforming Nigerians about the reasons for going on strike, said that ASUU went on strike because of the failure of the Buhari government to honour the Memorandum of Action it signed with the union on February 7, 2019.

He listed the reasons to include non-payment of revitalisation fund, non-payment of outstanding balance of the earned academic allowances, proliferation and non-funding of state universities and the failure of the government to set up visitation panels to federal universities.