According to the Academic Staff Union of Universities, salaries for lecturers are still being paid by the Federal Government through the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System.
Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the National President of ASUU, expressed dissatisfaction in an interview, stating that the February salary was disbursed via the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), and that the FG has not yet followed through on its pledge to remove tertiary institutions from the platform.
The Federal Government (FG) declared in December 2023 that colleges of education, universities, and polytechnics were free from the platform.
A government initiative called the IPPIS was unveiled in 2006 with the goal of streamlining payroll for government departments, agencies, and ministries.
Later, it was expanded to include colleges and universities, but the workers fiercely opposed it, going on a lengthy strike in 2020 and 2021.
They reported a number of anomalies related to IPPIS.
None of the union’s demands had been met, Osodeke continued.
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The government announced in September 2023 that the salaries of employees at tertiary institutions would be reviewed upward by 35%, with effect from January 2023.
Additionally, it committed to paying four months’ salary out of the seven and a half months that salaries were withheld during the nationwide strike in 2022.
Strikes at government-owned universities have occasionally resulted from ASUU demands, such as the payment of Earned Academic Allowance and the unprogressive renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement.
He insisted there had been no formal word from FG and added that things were at a standstill.
Speaking on whether ASUU would embark on a strike to agitate their demands, Osodeke said, “Our member will decide, that is the reason we have been going on strike, even for salary review, yet, nothing has been done. Our February salary was paid with IPPIS, so nothing has been done or implemented. The government should do the needful and implement all the agreements they had with us.”
Osodeke added that ASUU would issue a press release announcing its decision shortly.
