ASUU threatens fresh strike over IPPIS, others

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has threatened to go on a fresh strike over claims that the Federal Government had failed to honour many of the agreements it signed with the union.

The Chairperson, ASUU, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Ibrahim Inuwa, said this while speaking with journalists at the union’s secretariat.

According to him, the strike had been suspended in December after the two parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding on many issues providing timelines for the implementation of each of the eight items.

Inuwa added that seven months after the MoU was signed, the FG has yet to address six of the eight issues raised the union raised.

The listed unaddressed issues are Earned Academic Allowance, Funding for the revitalisation of public universities, Proliferation of state universities, Renegotiation, Replacement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) with the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) and withheld salaries and non-remittance of Check-off Dues.

He said: “Renegotiation of the 2009 agreement which would have been completed within eight weeks from the date of inauguration of the committee has up till now not been concluded, even though the Committee was inaugurated since December 2020.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria willingly agreed that the UTAS will replace the IPPIS as a payment platform in Federal Universities after it passed an integrity test. However, soon after the agreement, agents of the FGN are doing everything possible to frustrate the coming of UTAS onboard.

“Meanwhile the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation through the IPPIS office have continued to omit our members from payment of salaries while others experience serious salary amputation. We are convinced this is done in connivance with the University Administration through the distortion of our members’ personal details.

“In the meantime, IPPIS appears to be the corruption headquarters of the Federal Civil service, as exemplified by double payment of salaries to employees, payment of salaries to non-employees, over taxation, dubious amputation of salaries, etc.”

Inuwa said that “enough is enough”, and that well-meaning Nigerians should “wake up the FGN from its slumber to avoid another disruption of academic activities on Universities Campuses across the nation”