By Seyi Babalola
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, or ASUU, and the Nigerian Government may face another showdown over an acceptable wage payment platform, as well as the formation of new university governing bodies.
Last year, the Nigerian government stated that federally owned postsecondary institutions, such as universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, and monotechnics, would be excluded from using the Integrated Personnel Payment System (IPPIS) to pay their employees’ wages and allowances.
Professor Tahir Mamman, Minister of Education, revealed the news while addressing State House journalists following the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, stating that the new directive will take effect immediately.
Mamman then said that the FEC observed that vice-chancellors of universities did not need to abandon their work to visit Abuja to process the salaries of their personnel as currently obtained.
However, findings showed that five months after President Bola Tinubu’s administration made the declaration, it’s yet to implement the new policy.
This is even as the Federal Government is said to have commenced plans to pay the salaries of lecturers in tertiary institutions through the Government Integrated Financial Management System, GIFMIS.
It should be recalled that as an alternative to IPPIS, the union had suggested the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS, for their payment instead.
The development implies that the government has ditched the UTAS proposed by the lecturers.
