‘IPPIS is a deliberate ploy to cripple varsity system’

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has described the Federal and state government’s insistence and forceful application of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) on its members as a deliberate ploy to cripple the university system.

Benin Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Prof. Fred Esumeh in a statement said government’s resolve to implement IPPIS is in bad faith.

Esumeh who blamed the strike on Federal Government’s forceful application of IPPIS, refusal to implement the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreements and the 2013 Memorandum of Association (MoA) government voluntarily entered with the union among other demands, which were aimed at addressing the rot in the sector urged the government to revisit the issues and embrace the proposed university transparency and accountability solution (UTAS) developed by the university teachers to pave the way for the smooth running of public universities in Nigeria.

He added that the irregularities experienced by affiliate unions like the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) as well as the National Association of Academic Technologist (NAAT) who enrolled on the IPPIS in the payment of February 2020 salaries have lent credence to ASUU’s position that “IPPIS has failed all forms of integrity test as the platform for the payment of university workers.

“Consequently, the zone views government’s insistence and forceful application of IPPIS, even when the union is in discussion with government representatives, as a deliberate ploy to cripple the Nigerian university system. The zone calls on government to stop the war strategy of starvation by paying our members salaries. 

“Some of our members who went to enrol on IPPIS have started running to us for help. There was a case where a vice chancellor who enrolled on IPPIS was paid N57, 000 thousand as his monthly salary instead of over a million naira.

“The indefinite strike is against our students or the parents, but it is to compel the Federal Government to do the needful by providing a decent learning environment and improve the quality of Nigerian graduates.” he said.