IPPIS: Withholding our salaries will make us more resolute, ASUU dares Nigerian govt

• 

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU has dared the Federal Government, saying that withholding their salaries for their refusal to enroll in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, will only make them more resolute in rejecting the new payment system.

Recall that last week, the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, had disclosed that the Federal Government did not pay the lecturers their February salaries over their refusal to enroll in the new payment system, just as she added that about 55% of the teachers have been captured in the IPPIS.

Speaking at a press conference held at Bayero University Kano on Friday, the ASUU’s Kano Zonal Coordinator, Mahmoud Lawan, said that the federal government is only inviting more trouble in the university system by forcing the union to enroll its members into the IPPIS.

According to him, students, parents and other stakeholders should brace up for a long stay at home if the situation continues unabated.

The coordinator vowed to resist what he described as “violation of the Universities Miscellaneous Amendment Act by the federal government through the IPPIS”.

Mr Lawan also accused the Federal Government of “consistently and persistently” reneging on addressing the issues contained in the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding, MoU and 2017/2019 Memorandum of Action, MoA.

According to him, the MoU and MoA centred on funding for revitalization of Nigerian universities, renegotiation of 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, state universities, IPPIS, and crises at Kano University of Science and Technology and Kaduna State University.

The coordinator finally called on the government to “implement all the outstanding provisions in the 7th February, 2019/ASUU MoA.

“The FG should also conclude the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement within six weeks.

“The FG should also constitute a visitation panel to all federal universities and the outcomes be fully implemented.

“We also call on the government to declare a five-star state of emergency in the education sector by allocating at least 26% of the federal government budget as well as state government education.

“We call on the government to accept the ASUU’s ongoing innovation of a more robust system of human resource management and compensation, called the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), which will address the peculiarities of universities,” Mr Lawan said.