ASUU May Go On Strike In January 2020

It all but seems that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may proceed on strike in January 2020 should the Federal Government decide to maintain its stance over the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
Both the government and the union are yet to resolve their contentious point of differences concerning the registration and implementation of the platform.
President Muhammadu Buhari had while presenting the 2020 budget in October directed that IPPIS officers be deployed to universities by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation between October 25 and November 7.
The president said it is compulsory for all federal employees to enrol on the platform.
However, ASUU kicked against the directive, saying it negated the principle of universities’ autonomy. It also directed its members to shun the registration for the IPPIS.
But a top officer in the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning disclosed that lecturers who did not enrol on the IPPIS platform will not receive their December salaries.
“The government has been very clear that everyone must be on the IPPIS to be able to get salaries. So if you are not enrolled, how do you get paid?” the officer told the Punch.
The officer, who pleaded for anonymity, also revealed that no fewer than 90,000 employees in at least 43 federal universities have enrolled on the IPPIS, out of which 9,000 are academic staff.
The source described the exercise as successful, especially with the huge number of lecturers enrolled on the platform.
“The IPPIS officials have done the enrolment across the universities based on the window given for the exercise to be conducted and they are back to the office.
“So, we are reviewing the data and whatever action that is going to be taken will be from there. But what I can tell you is that we have over 90,000 university workers on the IPPIS.
“So, if we have over 90,000 that enrolled, it shows that it is good enough. And out of this figure, we have quite a number of academic staff. We have over 8,000 from academic staff that have enrolled.
“So, definitely, we had a very good outing because over 90,000 were enrolled during the period and people are still calling to be enrolled,” the officer said.
The Finance Ministry official also said lecturers who missed the registration while it went on in their campuses but are still interested in enrolling for the programme should come to Abuja.
“If they want to enrol, they should come here (Abuja) and we will enrol them. If you give people opportunity to enrol and they wasted it, we can’t go to their houses to enrol them.”
“The IPPIS is a presidential directive and for now, it is the Presidency that will determine what will be their (ASUU’s) fate.”
But Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU National Chairman, on Wednesday said the Federal Government has left the union with no other option but to proceed on industrial action.
He stated that the union maintains its stance as encapsulated at its National Executive Committee meeting in Minna, Niger State last week.
Ogunyemi had said, “As resolved at the ASUU-NEC meeting at FUT Minna, should the Accountant-General make bold his threat of stopping the salaries of our members, the union shall activate its standing resolution of “No Pay, No Work.”
“NEC did not only reiterate its unequivocal rejection of IPPIS as an ill-wind that will blow the Nigerian University system no good, it also resolved that no amount of blackmail, intimidation and outright misinformation of the Nigerian public will make ASUU lose focus on its historic role as the conscience of the university system.”