FEC Removes Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education From IPPIS

FEC Removes Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education From IPPIS

For members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and their colleagues in the Polytechnic and Colleges of Education,there is always a price for a patient dog as their two – year agitation to be taken off the Integrated Personnel Payment System (IPPIS)paid off on Wednesday as the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved their

For members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and their colleagues in the Polytechnic and Colleges of Education,there is always a price for a patient dog as their
two – year agitation to be taken off the Integrated Personnel Payment System (IPPIS)paid off on Wednesday as the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved their exemption from the controversial payment system.

ASUU commenced an eight- month strike on 14th February,2022 and ended the industrial action on 17th October,2022. Shortly after, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu directed the enforcement of the “no work, no pay” policy to beat the lecturers to line.

The enforcement of the “no work ,no pay ” policy coupled with the ineffectiveness of IPPIS forced some lecturers to abandon their jobs and look for greener pastures.

Last week, ASUU raised the alarm over the mass resignation of lecturers from Nigeria’s universities insisting that government should use the University Transparency Account System (UTAS) which they designed

The Union said most departments and units in Nigeria’s public universities were short-staffed due to the resignation of lecturers in search of greener pastures.

It said poor and delayed salaries, unpaid allowances, poor infrastructure, lack of respect for the academic community, and the seeming dwindling hope were some of the factors responsible for the resignation of lecturers in the past few months.

The chairman, University of Ibadan (UI) chapter of ASUU, Professor Ayo Akinwole, who disclosed this sat week in Ibadan, added that Nigeria’s public universities were in a very pitiable condition with stress and frustration visible in the faces of poorly-remunerated lecturers.

According to him, except President Bola Ahmed Tinubu arrested the situation by reviewing the conditions of service in terms and salaries, allowances, and infrastructure, many good hands would continue to resign and leave the country.

The ASUU boss said it was unfortunate that the same government that is not funding education has a National Assembly proposing to establish 32 more universities.

Worried by the alarming rate of resignation of university lecturers, the House of Representatives last week restated its commitment to remove tertiary institutions from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), to enhance lecturers’ welfare and reduce the brain drain syndrome.

Dr. Abbas Tajudeen, Speaker, House of Representatives who made this known last Thursday in Zaria at the 3rd International conference of the Gender Policy Unit, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria said the House would pursue the interest of academia and one of those issues in contention was the issue of IPPIS.

The Speaker, represented by Dr. Abubakar Fulata, House Committee Chairman on Education, said IPPIS is a single minded computer programme that is anti-intellectual, anti-education and completely ignorant of the issues involved.

“It is our determination to ensure that universities, polytechnics and colleges of education are removed from IPPIS.

“It is also our determination to make sure that education receives a substantial portion in the national budget at least to meet up with the United Nations requirement of 26 per cent of the National budget,’’ he said.

The speaker said that regrettably the system had downgraded education in the country to a level where teachers` survival was put at risk.

But on Wednesday,the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) disclosed while briefing State House Correspondents alongside other ministers on the outcome of the FEC meeting, said the removal of the academics from the IPPIS takes immediate effect.

According to Prof Mamman ,the Council relieved managements of tertiary institutions of the burden of obtaining approval and waiver from the Office of the Head of Service for recruitment.

He said the exemption of tertiary institutions from the IPPIS platform and from seeking the 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.

The Education Minister said the FEC decided to remove the institutions from the IPPIS system because it was concerned with 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 IPPS 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.

His words: “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, that the President has directed that the vice-chancellor 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”, he stressed.

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