The battle of wits between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) may soon come to an end, with the recent compromise that seems to be close at hand.

Even though the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris is being ferociously attacked by the leadership of ASUU over his insistence on the full implementation of the IPPIS across the board, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), where IPPIS is domiciled, is also responsible for all receipts into and payments from the Federation and Consolidated Accounts.

The IPPIS was introduced in 2007 to provide accurate and reliable data on personnel in the public service, for the purpose of budgeting for recurrent expenditures and other challenges. The scheme is a form of identity system management aimed at providing a centralised database to support personal planning and decision-making, including the automated storage of personnel records to aid staff enrolment and monitoring, as well as to prevent wastage and leakages on the basis of factual personnel records and information.

Some of the features of the IPPIS are the facts that it captures facial images and fingerprints of government employees and stores them in a digitalised data-based library, which can be accessed with authorisation from anywhere.

President Muhammadu Buhari has always been passionate about IPPIS, so much that in his 2020 budget speech, he directed that all Federal Government workers must be enlisted in the scheme.

During a presentation of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) in September 2019, the Finance Minister, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, announced the deadline of October of the same year for all federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government to enroll their staff on the IPPIS platform. She insisted that based on a presidential directive, staff members who were not captured on the automated payroll system would not be paid their salaries.

At a meeting with vice-chancellors, registrars and bursars of federal universities at the National Universities Commission Auditorium in Abuja in June 2019, the AGF, Ahmed Idris, told these senior university officials that the centralised payroll would be prepared by individual universities but coordinated through the IPPIS, while the total management of the human resources involved also rests squarely with the universities.

At subsequent meetings with the leadership of university-based unions, including ASUU, NASU, SSANU and NAAT in the same venue, Idris assured that the IPPIS platform would accommodate all financial peculiarities pertaining to university staff, including those involving sabbaticals, visitations, honoraria and other earned allowances. He added that deductions for the National Housing Fund (NHF), National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Check-off and other dues from staff would be remitted to the appropriate accounts when due.

While appealing to them, AGF said the university community, being the bedrock of knowledge production and the centre of reforms that has always striven for probity, transparency and accountability, towards good governance, would contribute tremendously in bringing to bear all such unique qualities in the implementation of IPPIS.

In his remarks during the meetings, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the host, Professor Abubakar Rasheed said the IPPIS scheme would engender transparency, accountability and probity in government expenditure, as well as centralise the payroll systems that would address challenges affecting the country’s public universities.

The ASUU President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, at one of the meetings, expressed the fear that if implemented, IPPIS could erode university autonomy and the powers of University Councils.

Possibly what provoked the anger of lecturers with the AGF was when he allegedly issued a letter dated December 2, 2019, advising vice-chancellors that universities which were not yet enrolled on the IPPIS should do so promptly or face appropriate sanctions.

Many ASUU members appeared very furious with the threat. In a reaction, Professor Deji Omole, the ASUU chairman at the University of Ibadan, said it was unfortunate that vice-chancellors had now become errand boys who were being threatened by “an account clerk”.

Meanwhile, in rejecting IPPIS, Professor Ogunyemi considered it wrong for universities to adopt a payment platform that was not designed for the peculiarities of their system. According to him, the platform does not recognise the negotiated agreements that had been reached on allowances that were not academic in nature, and those relating to research journals, among others.

Some lecturers also pointed out that IPPIS is a one-line salary scale, in which taxes are even being deducted from allowances. As an alternative to IPPIS, ASUU produced and recommended the adoption of the University Transparency Account System (UTAS), regarded as a robust software solution that would be sensitive to the uniqueness of the university system in addressing personnel information and payment system, among other things.

It is gathered that the UTAS platform has been sent to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) for integrity tests to verify its efficacy and ascertain that the final product would pass the necessary technical requirements.

During recent closed-door meetings, the AGF appealed to ASUU executives to agree to receive their salaries through the IPPIS platform, pending when the UTAS will be ready for use after the integrity tests on it have been concluded. The Union is said to have rejected these pleas by arguing that the functionality of the IPPIS was not demonstrated to them before government started using it for workers, while equally wondering why the demands for the adoption of the UTAS became the basis for the stoppage of their salaries.

It is heart-warming that after extensive negotiations and foot-dragging, the Federal Government has finally accepted the demand of ASUU that its members be exempted from the IPPIS.

Even though 697 ministries, departments and agencies of government (MDAs) and 1,139,000 staff, including those of the Nigerian Police, para-military and military establishment have been enrolled on the IPPIS as at June, the Labour Minister, Senator Chris Ngige informed the public last week, that the government has also agreed to ASUU’s demand to pay the salary arrears of its members, from February to June, through GIFMIS, the old payment platform, until UTAS is ready for use. The government equally has agreed to lift the ‘no work, no pay’ policy, which necessitated the withholding of the salaries of striking lecturers in the first place.

While I pray and hope that the impasse between the Federal Government and ASUU would be resolved as soon as possible, no matter the eventual winner in this crisis, Nigerian youths, especially the students in public universities are the big losers, wasting eight-month at home, rather than being productively engaged in their citadels of learning.

I wish the accomplishments of the AGF in the last five years will not be rubbished or trivialised by certain unresolved issues. Even though the Federal Government extended his tenure for another four years in June 2019, I believe that it is however judicious to exit a scene when the ovation is loudest, especially as the AGF clocked the age of 60 on November 25, 2020.

The record of achievements and special interventions of Ahmed Idris, a chartered accountant and certified fraud examiner, on worthy causes, are quite numerous. Under his leadership, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) successful implemented a number of far-reaching reforms in public finance management (PFM), including the introduction of the IPPIS and the treasury single account (TSA); the adoption of the International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS), the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) and the Assets Tracking Management Project (ATMP); alongside the transformation of the Federal Treasury Academy, among others.

I will appeal to the Federal Government and ASUU to place the interests of the nation and those of young Nigerian students, who have experienced a very disturbing disruption of their education so far, above all other considerations, as they move forward in ending the ongoing impasse. May the best decisions for the ultimate good of the public prevail.

Yushau A. Shuaib,
www.YAShuaib.com
yashuaib@yahoo.com

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ASUU Strike and Nigeria Students

Open Letter to ASUU: Have Pity on Poor Students
By Yushau A. Shuaib

This missive is to appeal to members of Academic Staffs Union of Universities (ASUU), individually and collectively to consider the plight of innocent students and their helpless parents and return to work.

Since July 2nd, 2013 when they declared a “total and indefinite strike” over issues they claim have remained unresolved pertaining to 2009 agreement, innocent students and their poor parents have been at the receiving end of the stalemate.

While some government officials are lousy and combatant in their approach to resolving the faceoff over the strike, it is difficult to fault their arguments and the statistics they reel out over the level of government’s intervention and implementation of the contentious 2009 agreement.

It is therefore a welcome development the recent disbursement of N100 billion by the government for the implementation of the first phase projects listed in the Needs Assessment Report of Universities and another N30 billion to support Federal university Councils in the payment of arrears of Earned Allowances to deserving staff.

As I wrote in an article on the problems of public and private universities in Nigeria in October 2011, the deregulation of education in Nigeria is a deliberate effort to break government’s monopoly on education and by allowing the establishment of private universities to check the incessant strikes by lecturers in public institutions.

I then pointed out that that most of the current leaders attended public universities that were well-funded. Our leaders, including some of the current activist-lecturers enjoyed scholarships and crisis-free academic sessions which unfortunately, the current students could not enjoy.

While we accuse political leaders of selfishness, there is no difference between them with some of the lecturers in their seeming connivance in the promotion of private universities and patronage of foreign institutions, to the expense of our public universities.

It is regrettable that while attempting to register their grievances against inadequate funding from the government, ASUU members take some actions that are inimical to the progress and development of their poor students. Yet, the flexibility of academic environment with job security and huge severance packages influence the decision of many lecturers to remain on the payroll of public universities. We are also aware that some of the lecturers provide part-time lecturing to the private universities in the name of private practice (PP), while others would rather lobby or take political appointments and consultancy jobs than attend to the needs of their students. Surprisingly too, some professors are yet to adapt to the new use of information technology. They still rely on old books and theories of past centuries when the internet provides the theory of reality and practicability.

We must also blame ASUU for indiscipline and lack of adequate inspection on the campuses which have caused cultism, drug addiction, gang rape and other criminalities on campuses. For instance, the incessant ASUU strikes influence idle students to engage in prostitution, robbery and kidnapping to earn a living and to occupy their times. It is therefore not surprising that some of the institutions are alleged to churn out certificated illiterates who can barely write their names and place of origin.

Not every parent can afford or willing to send their children to expensive private universities that widen the social gap between the rich and the poor. The private institutions, too have their weaknesses with some of them operating medieval laws that weaken independence and freedom of expression on the campuses. Like regimented garrisons where all forms of feudal measures are taken, the private institutions do not treat their students as adults but pupils in boarding schools who must observe strict wake-up time and bedtime light-out.

The option of missionary universities also have some challenges. Instead of making the fees affordable, some of them develop unwritten house-rules that ‘no student will ever fail to graduate because of spiritual interventions.’ Apart from discriminatory policies against those that do not believe or practice their faiths, some of them conduct virginity tests on students upon resumption. While worshippers, occasionally act as part time lecturers, whose allowances could be paid ‘only in heaven,’ some of the recruited scholars are actually lecturers from established public universities within their vicinities.

We know that we have crises in our hands and it seems the government with recent moves have demonstrated willingness to resolve the crisis. After a recent meeting of key government officials with Vice-Chancellors and Chairmen of Councils of Public Universities, it was disclosed that the government had implemented some of the agreements it entered with the academic staff. These include implementations of the Consolidated Salary Structure for Academics and non-teaching staff; National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for staff of universities; Amendment of Pensionable Retirement Age of Academics in the Professorial cadre as Professors and Readers now retire at 70 years while others now retire at 65 instead of 60 years.

Government has also provided a counterpart funding of N250 million to help ASUU meet up with the mandatory deposit required for registration of Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company (NUPEMCO) while it continues to assist state universities through the Federal intervention agencies.

There should be a way to resolve demands pertaining to commercial ventures, especially the alleged request by ASUU for the transfer of government landed properties to universities, which government resists because ASUU has no structure to manage or maintain such property.

While we must call on our policy makers to ensure that our universities are adequately funded, our lawmakers should enact laws that would compel lecturers to be responsible to their duties and concentrate on the job for which they are discriminatorily remunerated. The law should also compel public officers to send their children to public institutions where they can relate and compete with other poor students.

Regulatory bodies such as NUC, JAMB, NECO and WAEC should be more proactive and responsive in monitoring responsibilities so as to ensure that Nigerian universities comply with international best practices.

This article by Yushau A. Shuaib has been published in September 2013 in the print editions of the Economic Confidential, People’s Daily, Daily Sun, Thisday, Daily Trust, Nigerian Tribune, Vanguard, National Mirror and Blueprint.

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Cultism exists in few universities in Nigeria

The major aim of establishing tertiary institutions is to build high-level manpower for national development. It is a place where people acquire the needed tools; social, mental and intellectual skills, which will be required by the beneficiary to become self-reliant and resourceful member of the society.

In Nigeria today, there are public universities owned and funded by the governments, on the other hand are the private universities, owned by individuals, business enterprises and religious bodies. Statistics show that as at October 2011, there are 36 federal universities, 37 state universities and 45 privately owned universities.

The deregulation of education in Nigeria is a deliberate effort to break government’s monopoly on education, thereby giving freedom to private participation in the provision and management of education in order to check the incessant strikes by lecturers in public universities improve the quality of education and return the lost glory in the nation’s university system. These factors largely influenced the decision of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar’s administration to endorse and approve private universities of which they are also beneficiaries of the licences.

Ironically, most Nigerian leaders benefited from the public universities when they were well-funded with scholarship, free meals, free accommodation, stipends and high quality facilities for learning. Unfortunately these same beneficiaries could not maintain the standard which they enjoyed as students of public universities; instead they have allowed it to go into near total demise.

While one could observe the selfishness of some of our leaders and their seeming connivance in promoting private universities to the expense of the public institutions, yet the so-called leaders would rather sponsor their children to study in foreign universities rather than allow them attend any of the private or public higher institutions in Nigeria.

There are clear justifications for the establishment of private universities, these include increase access to education due to acute shortage of places in the existing institutions, overcrowded and deplorable physical facilities. The lecturers in public universities under the auspices of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) could also be blamed for the bastardization in that system. Members of the union, in their efforts to register their grievances against inadequate funding from the government take some actions that are inimical to the progress and development of their poor students.

In fact the flexibility of academic environment with job security and huge severance packages influence lecturers to retain their offices in public universities while providing part-time lecturing to the private universities in the name of private practice (PP). Some of them would rather lobby or take political appointments and consultancy jobs than attend to the needs of their students. Surprisingly too, some professor are yet to adapt to the new information technology. They still rely on old books and theories of past centuries when the internet provides the theory of reality and practicability. Only in Nigeria University one could find a lecturer that does not have an email.

Indiscipline and lack of adequate inspection and close monitoring on the campuses by relevant authorities have caused some students at the public universities to engage in cultism, drug addiction, gang rape and other criminalities. The situation becomes worrisome whenever there are strikes, where some idle students engage in prostitution, robbery and kidnapping to earn a living and to occupy their times. At the end, these institutions churn out certificated illiterates who could barely write their names and place of origin, not to mention the application and demonstration of their expectedly acquired knowledge.

The federal character principle that permits universities the right to give priority attention to the catchment areas in admission of students and recruitment of staff also has its negative effect on the university system. This results in situation where dunderheads are admitted and unqualified workforce recruited. The outcome of such policies is clear for everyone to see.

Private universities as profit-making ventures, apart from being expensive have also widened the social gap between the rich and the poor as a new status symbol. Proprietors are not required to understand the knitty gritty of managing an academic environment but can give directives to recruited administrators. Requirements for admission into private universities are not stringent as under-aged applicants and failed candidates in national common entrance examinations could easily get admissions once they could afford to pay the exorbitant fees into private universities. There is also an arbitrary inflation of tuition fees annually. There are also medieval laws put in place by some schools to weaken independence and freedom of expression on the campuses.  Like regimented garrisons where all forms of feudal measures are taken, the universities do not treat their students as adult and matured persons but like boarding schools’ boys and girls. For instance, one of these universities is reported to have strict wake-up time and bedtime light-out to be observed by the students.  In another instance, a university is reported to conduct virginity tests on students upon resumption.

The missionary universities established by religious organisations have some tactics to woo prospective students for enrolments. Some have unwritten house-rules that ‘no student will ever fail to graduate because of spiritual interventions.’ They also have discriminatory policies against those that do not believe or practice their faiths. Apart from employing the service of some of their worshippers as part time lecturers, whose allowances could be paid ‘only in heaven’, most of the other recruited scholars are actually lecturers from established public universities within their vicinities. Since well-qualified tutors would rather take offer in public universities because of the flexibility I mentioned early, the less qualified and jobless candidates are mostly in private universities where they are reengineered to work tediously to bring out the best in their students.

The establishment of private universities could be a blessing to Nigeria’s education system but not an alternative way of funding the public ones, because there are huge federal budgets and various revenues generated in the name of taxes for education available to government institutions of learning. Therefore government has no excuse not to adequately fund the universities.

The private universities should remain private for the very rich who could afford them but without government’s financial interventions, since they are established for maximization of profit on investment. They could utilise other avenues of revenue generation through charity organisations as well as private entities that are willing to provide endowments and sponsorships as parts of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes.

Policy makers and lawmakers should ensure that our universities are adequately funded and make laws that would compel lecturers to be responsible to their duties and restrict them from Private Practices once there are improvements in their salaries. Top public office holders should be compelled to send their qualified children to public institutions of learning so that the poor would have confidence in getting the best training out of it.

Regulatory bodies such as the Nigeria University Commission (NUC), Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), National Examination Council (NECO) and West African Examination Council (WAEC) should be more proactive and responsive in their close monitoring to ensure that Nigerian universities both public and private comply with international best practices with quality standard in term of examination supervision, enrolment, and accreditation of courses.  Well qualified staff; administrators and lecturers should be employed to meet the needs of their students.

This article by Yushau A. Shuaib has been published in October 2011 in Economic Confidential, People Daily, Nigerian Tribune, Daily Trust, Leadership, Blueprint, Champion, Vanguard, National Mirror and New Nigerian Newspapers

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