ASUU wants FG to fully implement IPPIS, Nimi Briggs agreement, others

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Abuja Zone, has decried the continuous payment of members salary thorough the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) four months after the federal government removed the tertiary institution from it.

This is even as it called on the Federal Government to expedite action and conclude the renegotiation of the FGN/ASUU 2009 Agreement, saying lecturers in public universities in Nigeria have been on the same salary structure since 2009 despite the hyperinflation that has engulfed the economy.

The Coordinator of ASUU Abuja Zone, which comprises of University of Abuja, Federal University, Lafia, Federal university of technology, Minna, Ibrahim Badamasi University, Lapai, and Nasarawa State University , Keffi , Salahu Mohammed Lawal, disclosed this during a Press Conference in Abuja on Monday.

He said: “We are surprised that over four months after the FGN realised the inadequacies of the platform and ordered the exit of tertiary institutions from it, our members are now being curiously paid under the “New IPPIS” platform.

“This violates the understanding reached at the 11th January 2024 stakeholders meeting at the National Universities Commission (NUC) which gave birth to a ‘Guidelines for Good Governance and Financial Management in Tertiary Institutions Post IPPIS Exit of 8th April 2024.’

“Government should ensure the autonomy of our university system by allowing them to adopt their preferred payment platform under the supervision of their Governing Councils in the interest of industrial harmony.

“We call on government to ensure the release of all outstanding third-party deductions, which were held without justification by the IPPIS.”

ASUU also called for the reinstating of Governing Councils whose tenures are yet to elapse and reconstitute those whose tenures have elapsed so that the universities can run under their laws.

“Federal and State governments have continued to create universities without plans for their funding. This trend has put much stress on TETFund. We urge the President Tinubu led administration and all State Governors to refrain from unnecessary proliferation of universities and refocus on funding the existing ones.”

The union also advised the Federal and State Governments to brace up to their responsibility of adequate funding to arrest the emergent rot and decay on the campuses of Nigeria’s public universities despite the intervention efforts of TETFund whose funds it is channeling to the Students Education Loan Scheme.

He said: “This is antithetical to the original intendment of the Law establishing the Education Tax Fund which now operates as TETFund. ASUU encourages the Federal Government not to divert TETFund resources to funding loans so as not to water down the impact of its intervention.”

While decrying that the Federal Government is yet to pay the three and half months salaries withheld during the 2022 nationwide strike action, Lawal said “Again, our members in many state universities are being owed arrears of EAA withheld salaries, third-party deductions, and other entitlements due to them.”