Editorial
Still On ASUU, FG’s Imbroglio
Again, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, last week, threatened to mobilise its members for a
nationwide strike if the Federal Government stops the salaries of lecturers for resisting enrolment on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
The union, this time claimed that its experts had designed a “unique prototype of the IPPIS for the university system named, University Transparency and Accountability Solution, which it urged the Federal Government to implement in universities instead of the IPPIS.
Addressing a news conference in Abuja, the ASUU National President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, said the UTAS designed by a team of crack software engineers, who are based in the Nigerian universities, unlike the IPPIS, would address the uniqueness of the university system, particularly the flexibility of the payroll and personnel management.
He alleged that the attempt to impose enrolment in the IPPIS on university lecturers by the Federal Government was a plot to distract the union from the ongoing 2009 agreement renegotiation.
The Tide still disagrees with ASUU’s argument on IPPIS. In fact, ASUU’s peculiarities are in a way different from those of MDAs such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), military, police, para-military agencies, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), among others, with the Constitution and special laws providing for their autonomy, which had since enrolled into IPPIS.
We are indeed, aware that IPPIS, a World Bank recommended tool, took off in 2007 with key goals to ensure effective and efficient management of Federal Government staff records; timely and accurate payment of salaries and wages of employees; deduction of taxes and other third-party dues, remittance of payroll deductions to third parties; and the enrolment of employees into IPPIS database; in addition to helping government in development planning; management of payroll budget and appropriate control of personnel cost. Its features include the Treasury Single Account (TSA), Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), among others.
We reckon that the first phase of implementation of TSA in 217 MDAs in 2012 helped government save about N500 billion, thus encouraging its implementation across board. And between 2015 and July, 2019, about N10 trillion have been saved through the blockage of leakages in government finances; more than 20, 000 unnecessary bank accounts operated by MDAs closed; over N45 billion in monthly interest on borrowings from banks saved; and about N50 billion revenue stranded in different accounts mopped up.
On the other hand, PICA has eliminated 50,000 ghost workers, and enabled government save N76 billion in 2017 and N130 billion in 2018 from bloated workers’ emoluments, thus, allowing for employment of 70, 000 new civil servants. Besides, with well over 512 MDAs with more than 740,000 workers captured, it is clear that IPPIS would give government the window to budget and plan for its workers with precision and efficiency, and also inject transparency, accountability and probity in the expenditure of scarce public funds. Also, CPS has reformed pension administration and made it more transparent and efficient, with over N5 trillion in capital base.
We are surprised that ASUU, which had hitherto bandied itself as advocate for good governance, transparency and accountability in the management of public funds, is kicking against a system designed to guarantee just that. We like to remind ASUU that even at state levels, most governments across the country have been conducting biometric exercises since 2007, and between 2015 and now, some governors have implemented more than three biometrics exercises for all government workers, including academic staff of state universities to facilitate a state-wide database of government workers for effective budgeting and development planning. And we are not aware that such biometric exercises have affected their ability to receive salaries, Earned Academic Allowances, or access to retirement benefits, among others.
Perhaps, ASUU should know that the government needs to have a database of all its employees for adequate budgeting and future development plans, including infrastructure projects across the education sector, the universities inclusive.
ASUU should also know that for government to guarantee regular flow of funds and adequate personnel management while at the same time meeting other ancillary commitments, it needs to have a clear understanding of what is on the ground, challenges facing them and prospects, going forward. IPPIS provides the launch pad for that while checking corruption and sharp practices in the system.
This is why we consider as baseless ASUU’s position that the introduction of IPPIS is not backed by law, just as its introduction into federal universities will only compound the problem of regular flow of fund and personnel management. If ASUU believes that IPPIS’ “objectives include centralisation of payroll systems of the government, facilitating easy storage, updating and retrieval of personnel records for administrative purposes and pension processing”, then it should have no problem with the initiative.
We, therefore, advise ASUU to have a rethink on its stance so that the tertiary education sector of the country will not futher if battered.
For us, IPPIS provides that meeting point! This is why we say ‘No’ to another ASUU strike this time around, and urge it not to walk back its suspension of any industrial action over IPPIS. This remains our stand!
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
