Eniola Akinkuotu , Chukwudi Akasike , Ademola Babalola, Raphael Ede and Ada Wodu
There
are indications that some members of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities are enrolling for the Integrated Personnel Payroll
Integrated System contrary to the directive of the union .
Investigations
by The PUNCH on Wednesday revealed that institutions where lecturers
were registering for the IPPIS included the University of Calabar and
the University of Nigeria , Nsukka.
ASUU had last month opposed
the IPPIS despite the Federal Government ’s directive that any worker
that failed to register for it would not be paid his December salary .
The
union directed its members not to enrol for the IPPIS , which the
Federal Government said was aimed at fighting corruption through payment
of salaries to each employee ’ s bank account.
But ASUU wondered
why the Central Bank of Nigeria , the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation , the Federal Inland Revenue Service and a few other
agencies were not on the IPPIS .
But on Wednesday , the Federal
Government said the agencies were not on the platform because they were
revenue generating entities . It said 937 ,000 workers had registered
for the IPPIS . The IPPIS registration started in universities on November 25 and ends on December 7 .
UNN staff register
At
the UNN , The PUNCH correspondent, who was in the institution ,
observed that workers were registering for the IPPIS , despite ASUU’ s
opposition .
The PUNCH reliably gathered that some ASUU members
had joined non -academic staff unions in the enrolment on both the Enugu
and Nsukka campuses .
A worker of the university , who didn’ t
want his name mentioned , told one of our correspondents that members of
the Non -Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities , Senior Staff
Association of Nigerian Universities and the National Association of
Academic Technologists were the first to come out for enrolment before
ASUU members started joining them .
Some UNICAL lecturers register
Also
at UNICAL, it was gathered that some ASUU members had been sneaking to
the IPPIS registration area to enrol for the scheme . A source said, “ The exercise has been highly successful. Many lecturers have been sneaking into the venue to register . ”
There are isolated cases – UNICAL ASUU When the Chairman of ASUU in UNICAL, Dr John Edor , was contacted , he said there were only few isolated cases .
He
said, “ They are not sneaking . No ASUU member is sneaking . If the
people are sneaking , I am not a witch to discover that. But I tell you
on good authority that we have very high level compliance ( boycott ) .
What you may find is a situation like Faculty of Agriculture where we
have about 140 lecturers and only two lecturers defaulted . You have
those isolated instances . On a general note, we are coasting away with
about 98 per cent victory .”
Confusion in UNIPORT, security guards disrupt ASUU meeting
There
was confusion at the Delta Park axis of the University of Port Harcourt
on Wednesday as ASUU members were stopped from holding their congress
inside their secretariat .
The meeting , which was slated for 2
pm ( Wednesday ) could not hold as the ASUU, UNIPORT branch secretariat
was barricaded by some uniformed men suspected to be the institution ’s
security guards.
The blocking of the entrance to the ASUU
secretariat , it was learnt , forced over 150 members of ASUU, who came
for the aborted meeting and other persons, who came to witness the
situation , to be trapped on the road along the Delta Park section of
the institution .
The situation had halted vehicular movement
temporarily as motorists had to come out of their vehicles to find out
why the road was blocked . One of ASUU members , Dr . Sunday Edum ,
and a member of the National Youth Service Corps were said to have been
arrested by security guards of the university and taken to Choba
Divisional Police Station .
Both the lecturer and NYSC member were later released after several hours at the police station. Recall
that the UNIPORT authorities and the branch of ASUU had been at daggers
drawn over the sack of a lecturer , Prof. Frank Uguimoh, just as a
press conference organised by the union was disrupted last week
Wednesday by a group of students .
A statement signed by ASUU ,
UNIPORT Branch Chairman , Dr . Austen Sado , the Secretary , Dr . O. F .
Ndioho, and obtained by our correspondent , claimed that the disruption
of the union ’s congress was masterminded by the university
administration .
Reacting, UNIPORT spokesman, Dr William Wodi ,
dismissed the claim that there was terror on campus, adding that if
there was any form of lawlessness , it was instigated by ASUU.
Wodi
told our correspondent that the secretariat was locked up because both
ASUU and a breakaway group from the union known as Congress of
University Academics planned to hold meetings at the secretariat on the
same day , adding that the vice chancellor was preventing a breakdown of
law and order at the ASUU secretariat.
UNIPORT said that IPPIS officials in the university would end the registration of its staff on December 7, 2019 .
The
Chairman of the University of Ibadan chapter of ASUU, Prof . Deji Omole
, in a statement on Wednesday in Ibadan , stated that it was
unfortunate that vice chancellors had become errand boys of the AGF .
Omole
maintained that the union had made useful suggestions to the Federal
Government but stated that Nigerian intellectuals would not be turned to
errand boys .
Why CBN, NNPC are exempted – FG
Meanwhile,
the Federal Government has explained why the CBN and the NNPC are
excluded from the IPPIS . It , however, said the agencies migh be
enrolled on the platform later . The Director of the IPPIS , Olufehinti Olusegun , said this on Channels Television’ s Sunrise Daily programme on Wednesday .
Olusegun
said this while reacting to complaints by ASUU t that the Federal
Government was partial in its implementation of the IPPIS initiative by
exempting the CBN , NNPC and other government agencies.
Responding
to a question, Olusegun said, “ The President ’s directive was direct
that all ministries , departments and agencies or institutions drawing
their salaries from the consolidated revenue fund , which is a Federal
Government account, are to key into the IPPIS .
“ The government
knows that all agencies cannot be brought on the drawing board at the
same time . But for those who draw their salaries and personnel costs
from the consolidated revenue of the Federal Government , they must come
on the drawing board.
“ For the CBN , FIRS and NNPC , they are
revenue agencies and they live on cost of collection. They are revenue
generating agencies and they don’ t draw from the consolidated revenue
fund . So, it is left to the government on what to do next but it is a
journey that just started . ”
He said so far, over 937 , 000 federal employees including the military were on the IPPIS . The
director said the initiative had been able to save billions of naira
belonging to the government which had hitherto been entering private
pockets.
However, the President of ASUU, Prof . Biodun Ogunyemi ,
argued that universities could not be categorised as a ministry ,
department or agency.
Ogunyemi said in the IPPIS blueprint , universities were not supposed to be captured in the scheme .
The ASUU President said IPPIS , if implemented, would affect the ability of universities to attract visiting professors .
He
said, “ Just three weeks ago we were at the headquarters of the African
Union in Addis Ababa , where scholars in the Diaspora came together to
think of how best they could help revitalise higher education in Africa
and a lot of case studies were presented .
“ The case of our late
friend , Prof. Pius Adesanmi , who was until his death , the Director
of African Studies in Carlton , Canada, came up for mention . This
professor was a visiting professor to more than three universities in
Africa.
“ In fact, the Director of African Studies in Legon ,
Ghana, recalled that Adesanmi was on their payroll as a visiting scholar
and he would be visiting for at least three months and he would go back
and he did that for more than five years. He did the same for two other
universities in South Africa .
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