The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Wednesday commended the Federal Government’s directive to remove universities and other tertiary institutions from the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) platform.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by President Bola Tinubu approved the exemption of public tertiary institutions, particularly universities, polytechnics and Colleges of Education from the controversial Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information Systems (IPPIS).
Minister of Education, Professor Mamman Tahir, who disclosed this to journalists after the week’s FEC meeting, on Wednesday, said Council relieved managements of tertiary institutions of the burden of obtaining approval and waiver from the Office of the Head of Service for recruitment.
According to the minister, the exemption of tertiary institutions from the IPPIS platform and from seeking Head of Civil Service’s authority for recruitment would allow the institutions to deal with salary issues of their staff, as well as recruitment internally.
He said FEC took the decision to remove the institutions from the IPPIS system because of its concern for efficiency and the management of the institutions.
According to him, apart from the opposition to the payment system by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the IPPIS issue had proved time consuming for university vice chancellors.
The minister explained that as the tertiary institutions are governed by laws, they should be allowed to exercise their autonomy.
“It was a very happy day for the education sector because one of the problems which the vice chancellors, rectors and provosts of Colleges of Education, those managing the tertiary sector in Nigeria, have been complaining about has been the subscription to the IPPIS.
“You know what IPPIS does, which has made recruitment and many other activities of the university remitting to personnel very difficult. Now, today’s Council decided, the president has directed that vice chancellors should no longer…they have been taken out of that service. So this is a very, very important development for the vice chancellors that will allow for efficient management of the universities and tertiary education generally speaking.
“Then secondly, which is connected to that, before now when the tertiary institutions want to make an appointment, they have to write to the Office of the Head of Service for waiver or approval or that sort of thing.
“Today, the Council, through the directive of the president, has exempted them. They don’t have to go to the Office of the Head of Service because it is actually not in their line of supervision.”
The IPPIS had been a bone of contention between university lecturers under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In 2020, ASUU, which went on an eight-month strike due to disputes with the Federal Government regarding the payment platform opted for the University Transparency Account System (UTAS).
The IPPIS was introduced by the Federal Government in October 2006 as part of its reform initiatives to effectively store personnel records and promote transparency and accountability.
Giving a bit more clarity to the approval on IPPIS, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammed Idris, said, “Today, 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.
“Today, council has graciously approved that. What that means is that going forward, the universities like the Honourable Minister of Education has said and other tertiary institutions, the polytechnics and colleges of education will be taken off the IPPIS.
“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”, he said.
The education minister also said council approved the construction of Senate building at University of Nigeria and funds to National Examination Council (NECO).
Meanwhile, the President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said the development would bring universities back to their track.
“It is a good step in the right direction. We commend the administration for that. That’s what we’re talking about. We are now coming up as universities gradually.
“This was one of the major reasons we were on strike which was not attended to, for which our salaries were held,” ASUU president said.
According to him, the universities had lost their glory due to that singular act of putting them on the payment platform, calling on Tinubu to also address the issue of punishment meted out on their members while calling for the right things to be done.
“We are also saying that while correcting those issues, the government should also correct the issue of our members who were punished for asking for the correct things. That is the next step to talk about”, Osodeke said.
“On this one, this is a good development. We commend the government for listening to our concerns after three years.
“Although, that’s not the only issue, there are a lot of issues, but if the government has done this, they should also do other things so that we can have a flawless issue where there will be no strike.”
