The Federal Government has disclosed that over 90,000 (70 per cent) out of about 130,000 (less than 30 per cent) university lecturers have already enrolled in the federal Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
This is even as the leadership of Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), as well as the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed; the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige; Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu; and the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; all declined comment after an hour meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja.
The Union’s National President, Biodun Ogunyemi, led his colleagues to the meeting which started at 3 pm and ended at a few minutes after 4 pm.
Ogunyemi, accompanied by ASUU Vice President, Victor Osodeke, and other members of the leadership of the union submitted a presentation to President Buhari.
The meeting is believed to have focused on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
According to a source, the meeting was at the instance of the lecturers who have been resisting enrollment in the IPPIS.
The source added that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, had disclosed that over 90,000 out of about 130,000 university lecturers had enrolled in the IPPIS, stressing that the number of ASUU members yet to enrol was less than 30 per cent.
“The Minister of Finance told ASUU that about 90,000 out of 130,000 members of the union have enrolled in the IPPIS. The ASUU President was surprised to hear this. It is less than 30 per cent of the members that have not enrolled,” the source said.
“To make the matter worse, the staff that went to register the lecturers were brutalised.”
The source also disclosed that the N25billion Academic Earned Allowances was also tabled at the meeting.
ASUU had kicked against its inclusion on IPPIS which is a directive from President Buhari, describing it as enslavement.
However, a faction of the union, Congress of University Academics (CONUA), mandated its members to comply with the Federal Government’s directive, some universities have complied with the directive, others are yet to do so because of ASUU’s stance.
Buhari had directed that all ministries, departments, agencies of government, including staff of the Police, the Armed Forces and educational institutions, be included in the IPPIS.
The union had developed an alternative solution called University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), which it claims is equivalent to IPPIS.
Buhari had during the 2020 budget presentation at the National Assembly, on October 8, 2019, ordered all public sector workers to register for the IPPIS to save cost and fight corruption.
The IPPIS scheme is domiciled in its secretariat, which is a department under the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
The secretariat is responsible for the payment of salaries and wages directly to government employee’s bank account, with appropriate deductions and remittances of third party payments such as Federal Inland Revenue Service, States’ Boards of Internal Revenue, National Health Insurance Scheme, National Housing Fund, Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), cooperative societies, trade unions dues, association dues and bank loans.
However, President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, in Abuja, said Federal Government will give more attention to improving personnel and infrastructure of universities to produce quality graduates, assuring that education will, henceforth, be a top priority in development goals of the country.
Buhari, who received leadership of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) led by Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi at the State House, said effective and efficient operations of universities will go a long way in improving the economy, especially with focus on science and technology.