By Bimbola Oyesola and Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), yesterday, gave the Federal Government 21-day ultimatum to resolve the impasse in the university system or face the wrath of workers.
The NLC, in a statement by its President, Ayuba Wabba and General Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja gave the ultimatum after a meeting with its affiliates, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU); Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU); Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU); and National Association of Academic Technologist (NAAT) on Tuesday.
The statement read: “NLC called on the Federal Government to immediately set up a high powered panel constituted of members with requisite mandates to resolve within 21 days the foregoing issues militating against industrial harmony in Nigeria’s university system.”
It warned that pursuant to the foregoing resolution,it would be convening a special meeting of the Central Working Committee (CWC) of all the affiliate unions of the congress to decide on the next line of action.
Meanwhile, the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has called on the Federal Government to drop its ego and accept the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a payment solution for all tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
The union in a statement by its president, Dr. Smart Olugbeko, yesterday, said the challenge created by Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) had remained a source of worry and constituted one of the major issues of industrial crisis in College of Education (COE) system.
He said IPPIS breaches the establishment integrity of tertiary institutions’ system, undermines the statutory functions of the Governing Councils, and opens the payroll up to unilateral manipulations.
“Within a short time after its unilateral imposition on tertiary institutions by the Federal Government in February 2020, academic unions’ opposition to it was vindicated as the IPPIS pay platform engendered several irregularities, such as salary omission, accommodation of ghost workers, mutilated salary, and inconsistency in payment of salary of staff on sabbatical and study leaves. The payment system also enables the Federal Government to impose baseless deductions under the guise of a new tax regime shrouded in calculative mysteries at the detriment of our members,” Olugbeko said.
He commended ASUU for developing UTAS as an alternative to the controversial IPPIS.
He said UTAS, being a home-grown and hack-proof payment system, addresses the union’s concerns on payroll security and the peculiarities of the tertiary education system in general.
Olugbeko further said audit findings show that despite the huge amount expended by the government in developing the IPPIS, it has not yet fully been developed, thereby robbing government of billions of naira.
“All over the world, research is the fulcrum of the academic community where academics proffer solutions to problems and evolve templates for development,” he said.
He suggested that UTAS be adopted for the entire tertiary education sector as it took care of the peculiarities of the institutions, including financial autonomy, sabbatical service, and administration of discipline.
“We are therefore thrown aback by the latest game of shear ego resorted to by the Federal Government through the lazy and mischievous blackmail of UTAS because of unsubstantiated claims of inadequacy. The National Information Technology Development Agency’s (NITDA) assessment of UTAS done between 8th and 16th of March 2022 which subjected it to 698 cases gave UTAS 97.4 per cent and 99.3 per cent before and after remediation respectively.
This great feat is enough for the Federal Government to give kudos to ASUU for providing a home-grown solution to the problem of payment system in the country and quickly adopt it for payment, rather the Federal Government’s resorted to blackmailing of ASUU and UTAS…