ASUU Likely To Embark On Strike, Maintains Opposition To IPPI

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUS) says it might direct its members to proceed on a nationwide strike following the decision of the Federal Government to stop salaries of lecturers who are yet to enrolled on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
This was made known during the National Executive Council meeting held at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu, reports PUNCH.
It was learnt that the Federal Government would this week pay February salaries of its workers, including university lecturers, who had registered on the IPPIS.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in October last year directed all Federal Government workers to enroll in the IPPIS to ensure transparency.
But ASUU kicked against the directive on the grounds that it negated the principle of autonomy of universities.
The news medium reports that at the Enugu meeting the lecturers had been asked to go on strike if their salaries were stopped.
Dr Christina Opata, Chairman of ASUU at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, on Sunday, said lecturers at the university were waiting for directives from the leadership of ASUU at the national level.
She said, “They started on Saturday and by the end of today’s meeting (Sunday), the body will come up with a decision.”
The ASUU branch chairman said the integrated payroll system was defective and full of corruption.
She said, “The Federal Government has not told Nigerians the truth about what it wants to achieve through the IPPIS because the IPPIS is an embodiment of corruption itself. There is evidence to prove that many people are on the payroll under IPPIS yet they are not working anywhere. If they are sincere they should decentralise it.
“Each university should have desk officers so that anytime somebody has a complaint, it doesn’t require the person going to Abuja; you walk over to the desk officer in your university and put up your complaint. But as it is now, if you go to Abuja you will hire a hotel and you may spend three, four days without meeting the officer in charge. These are the things that people have been pointing out but they don’t want to understand it that way.