The Federal Government and the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are set to slug it out over the implementation of the Integrated Payment and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as the latter has directed all its members across the country to ignore a circular intended to be used for their enrollment today.
The academic union leaders advised their followers to disregard the purported circular from the office of the Accountant General of the Federation to enrol academic staff. The Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities, University of Ibadan Chapter, Professor Deji Omole said this on behalf of the Union. ASUU stated that the same Accountant General of the Federation had challenged the union to develop a template that would accommodate the peculiarities of academic staff and present the same to it. ASUU, therefore, instructed its members not to submit themselves for the enrollment “into slave plan of the Accountant General whose office stinks with corruption”.
He hinted further that the union leadership was still in discussion with the Federal Government to help it develop a more robust template. According to Omole, the Vice President of the Country, Professor Yemi Osinbajo as an academic understands these peculiarities and had benefitted immensely from it. The ASUU boss said no ASUU member should appear before the Accountant General team until further directive of the Union. According to him, while ASUU supports the fight against corruption, it will resist an attempt by the government to trample on existing University autonomy Act.
ASUU urged members to remain steadfast and stand firm to protect public universities by not filling any form or submit their bio-data for enrollment into the IPPIS. The Office of Accountant General of the Federation through a newspaper advert had said it would dispatch her staff to Universities from 25th November 2019 for enrollment of staff into the IPPIS. However, ASUU has described it as a scam and offered to design a template that will accommodate university peculiarities. The union says it is not opposed to IPPIS but the current template will undermine the uniqueness of university academic and the autonomy.
“This is to remind you that the Union’s position on IPPIS has not changed. Pending the resolution of the matter evidence, of which shall be communicated to all members of our Union, no member of the union is to enlist on the platform.” “NEC position on the matter has not been reviewed. Therefore, no ASUU member should fill the form or submit their bio-data before any team”. “We are not slaves that can be subjected to routine humiliation from the office of the accountant general. No nation has ever developed or survived through the humiliation of her intellectuals. United we bargain, divided we beg,” the union concluded. Vanguard
