The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has registered its displeasure over the Federal Governments' continous usage of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System to pay lecturers salaries.
In an interview, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, the National President of ASUU, expressed his dissatisfaction with the FG's failure to fulfill its promise of removing tertiary institutions from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System platform. He further mentioned that the February salary was paid through IPPIS.
The FG exempted tertiary institutions, including universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, from the platform, according to the announcement made in December 2023.
The IPPIS, which was unveiled in 2006, is a government initiative with the aim of streamlining payroll for government ministries, departments, and agencies.
The Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) was introduced in 2006 to make it easier for the government to manage payroll for its various departments. However, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, the National President of ASUU, is not happy with how things are going.
He noted that the government has failed to keep its promise of removing universities and other tertiary institutions from the IPPIS platform. Despite this promise, February salaries were still paid through IPPIS. In December 2023, the government announced that universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education would be exempt from using IPPIS.
It was later extended to universities and colleges but was vehemently rejected by the workers who embarked on a protracted strike in 2020, and 2021, after complaining about several irregularities associated with IPPIS.
Osodeke added that none of the union’s demands had been fulfilled.
An upward review of the salaries of tertiary institution workers by 35 per cent was announced by the government in September 2023, with the increase being backdated to January 2023.
It further committed to paying four months' salaries out of the seven and a half months of withheld salaries during the 2022 national strike.
At various times, the demands of ASUU, such as the payment of Earned Academic Allowance and the unprogressive renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, have led to continuous strikes in the government-owned universities.
According to him, there had been no official communication from FG, and everything was at a standstill.
When asked about the possibility of ASUU going on strike to push for their demands, Osodeke responded, "Our members will make that decision. This is why we have been going on strike, even for salary review, but nothing has been accomplished." Our February salary was paid with IPPIS, so nothing has been done or implemented. The government should do the needful and implement all the agreements they had with us.”
Osodeke also mentioned that ASUU would soon reveal its decision through a press release.
