The Federal Government on Wednesday announced the exemption of Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, and other tertiary institutions from the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) payment platform

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) passed the resolution during its weekly meeting presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja

The Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Maman, said the heads of the institutions got relief to embark on recruitment exercise without recourse to the Head of Service of the Federation.

The minister said the president had directed that the Vice Chancellor be taken out of the platform that made recruitment difficult to ensure efficient management of those education institutions.

“Simply, the president and the council is just concerned about efficiency of management of the universities and so it has nothing to do with integrity or options of platforms.

“The president cannot understand why Vice Chancellors should be leaving their duty post and run to Abuja to get staff enlisted on IPPIS when they get recruited.

 “The basic concern is that universities are governed by laws. And those laws give them autonomy in certain respects and most respects and the IPPIS has sort of eroded that autonomy granted universities in accordance with their act,” Mamman said.

In his contribution, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammed Idris, said: “The universities and other tertiary institutions have gotten a very big relief from the integrated personnel payroll and information system. You will recall that the university authorities and the others have been clamouring for the exemption of the universities and other tertiary institutions from this system.

 “What that means in simple language is that the university authorities and other tertiary institutions will now be paying their own personnel from their own end instead of relying on the IPPIS.”

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The Academic Union of Universities, ASUU has called for implementation of the ₦1.2 million minimum salary for University Professors

Chairman, ASUU, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, Professor Chinedu Aguba made the call in an interview with ESUT Monitor Newspaper in his office in Enugu.

The erudite scholar who spoke on the side-line of the exemption of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education from the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) payment platform, said although the removal was a good news but added that it is one solution out of several challenges facing the tertiary institutions.

Prof Aguba noted that the struggle for a better university system in the country is a continuous process despite the recent pronouncement by the federal government adding that the last time the lecturers’ salaries were reviewed was 13 years ago wondering how such amount would sustain them in the present day hipper inflation in the country.

“The struggle continues because IPPIS is just one out of various issues that ASUU tabled before the government that led us into that strike. The last time university lecturers’ salaries were reviewed upwardly in Nigeria was in 2009 till date. What was the value of dollar to Naira then compared to now?

“A professor who is the highest person in the university by rank in Nigeria goes home every month with something less than 500 dollars. It is incredible and ridiculous. It tells you why there are cases of bribery these days. Why a professor receives less than 500 dollars, something that is less than what a nanny receives in US in a month is what a professor is receiving today in Nigeria. It is as bad as that. Upward review of salary is very key.

“A Committee was formed under former President Mohammadu Buhari’s regime headed by erudite Professor Nimi Briggs.

“The report was not even a wonderful template but was manageable and said that minimum salary of a professor should be about N1.2 million. The government representatives were there, everybody agreed to that. Only for Dr Chris Ngige, (then minister of Labour) – his name will continue to be in the mud as far as ASUU’s snuggles in this country are concerned. Government representatives were in the agreement, all of a sudden, they did u-turn and said they will not sign it after several months of negotiations because the committee did not arrive at the figure just one day.

“Both Government and ASUU representatives were there, they did it for months and came out with figures. Up till today, ASUU is clamouring that the document, even though that inflation has affected it, but we are saying bring out that document and start implementation.” He said.

A Professor in Nigeria University, it’s gathered, currently earns between N450, 000 and N460, 000 salary every month after deductions. Sometimes, the figure could go down to N420, 000

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The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU ESUT chapter has disclosed that the union received with mixed feelings the exemption of universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and other tertiary institutions from the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) payment platform describing the police as a n evil wind.

The Chairman, ASUU ESUT, Professor Chinedu Aguba stated this in an interview with ESUT Monitor in his office on Thursday. Prof Aguba who said that the ESUT Union is happy with the development, wondered why the federal government allowed the university to suffer loss of academic calendars and man power before realising it should do the right thing.

“The entire ASUU community received the news with mixed feelings; we are very jubilant that our struggle has not been in vain, we have been vindicated. At the same time, we feel that this is what the government ought to have done without the struggles – loss of academic calendar and also loss of man power.

“We are very happy that the entire intellectual community has come to realise that ASUU is an intellectual body that whatever they sit down seeing, many organisations may never see that while standing,” he said.

He described IPPIS as an evil wind that does no one good adding that the proposed system was aimed at crippling the universities and making Vice Chancellors beggars

“The components of the IPPIS is an evil wind that blows no one good in the university system. A situation whereby the university machinery is pigeonholed into a single line that before you recruit any lecturer or staff, do certain things in federal universities, you must go cap in hand to Abuja to beg the IPPIS staff.

“Some of them who are not even qualified to be clerks to the Vice Chancellors and Professors in the universities. We thank God that at last, justice has come.”

The federal government, it could be recalled, on Wednesday after its Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced the removal of the tertiary institutions from the IPPIS system.

The removal of the institutions from the IPPIS system has been one of the reasons the university lecturer had continued to embark on indefinite strikes in recent years including the nine-month strike in 2020 that brought academic activities in the universities to its knees. 

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