Our Union received with utmost disgust the Press release signed by Mr. Henshaw Ogubike, Director Information, Press and Public Relations, Office of the Accountant General (OAGF), in other words, by the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF). The release is at best a bundle of falsehood, misinformation and disinformation designed to cover-up the unprofessional conduct, incompetence, ineptitude, inefficiency and poverty of ideas of the Accountant General of the Federation and his errand trumpeters in the IPPIS office. If the AGF and the IPPIS officials have any modicum of self-respect, they would have eaten the humble pie by publicly apologizing to Nigerians for their crass unprofessionalism, poor judgment, unedifying conduct and wastage of scarce public funds on the IPPIS misadventure.

The press release which is fraught with sound and fury of shameful emptiness and crass illogicality, has finally confirmed the fears of our Union about the unhidden intentions of IPPIS and its promoters in order to ensure the total emasculation of what is left of the Academy and indeed University education in Nigeria. The gratifying dimension is that no matter how hard they tried, their inglorious efforts have continued to meet with principled opposition resulting in unmitigated failure at every turn.

For the avoidance of doubt, ASUU’s principled objection and rejection of the IPPIS, has been unequivocal, categorical and remain unwavering even in spite of its forceful and illegal deployment in the payment of the much discredited February and March salaries of our members. To then include ASUU in the list of Unions who are complaining about the outcome of a process other Unions within the University freely and unwarily entered into, is to say the least, dishonest and uncharitable on the part of AGF, IPPIS officials especially Mr. Henshaw Ogubike and their paymasters.

It is important to educate the AGF and the IPPIS office that employees have rights that are guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution. Therefore, when they make legitimate complaints about strange and unusual deductions from their salaries and allowances that are in the first instance anything but a living wage, the least that is expected of a responsive and responsible civil servant is a humane, cultured and civil explanation with a view to ameliorating the situation and not a vicious, reckless and outright falsehood like is being peddled in the press release under reference. May we remind Mr. Ogubike that the language of a professional bureaucrat worthy of the name is not the same with that of a “motor park or political touts” as exhibited in the press release.

The lie fabricated by OAGF that “the request by the tertiary institution Unions to formalize tax evasion through IPPIS is not only untenable, but unpatriotic request to violate extant laws on tax”. Without any fear of contradiction, ASUU has never and would never make such illegal request. We challenge IPPIS to make public any document emanating from ASUU to IPPIS requesting for any concession in the deployment of the much discredited IPPIS. The correct position is that ASUU rejected IPPIS platform in its totality from inception, and we would continue to do so, because it is anathema to the progress and development of the Nigerian university system.

All said, ASUU is rather amused that the OAGF and his IPPIS accomplice who are criminally violating the University (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2003, which granted University Autonomy despite our loud and unceasing warning can suddenly wake up to sermonize on the need to selectively obey one Act of Parliament to the neglect of the other. What sort of institutional jesters? Or is it amnesia, or both? Whatever it is, this is most condemnable and unacceptable. It is not within the competence of the AGF and his co-travellers to determine which Act of Parliament they would obey in an obscene exhibition of bureaucratic rascality and criminality.

We are under a strong patriotic obligation to urge the AGF, who for obvious reasons could not be a registered member of the highly rated professional Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) to stop insulting the collective intelligence of Nigerians with the kind of remarks he authorizes. For example, how would “states (sic) governments of the federation made claims on the federal government to pay the differential arising from underpayment of tax by these institutions. The federal government has paid several billions on behalf of these institutions because of their underpayment of PAYE Tax”. We smell rat here. University Academics have always paid taxes through the PAYE system as negotiated with their respective state governments. Some Nigerian Universities have been at loggerheads with their respective state governments on the issue of Tax deductions. It is such engagements between the tax payers and tax authorities that determine the applicable tax regimes. Globally, tax rates are not cast in iron. Even businesses negotiate their taxes and get commensuratereductions. We therefore call for an Independent Panel of Inquiry to include representatives of the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, the National Assembly, etc. to investigate this obvious cover for fraud in the guise of paying tax shortfalls to state governments on behalf of university staffs.

On the National Housing Fund (NHF) deductions, the press release stated that it is 2.5% of basic salary! Is that what IPPIS deducted? At what point is “ASUU bringing claims that those laws should not be applicable to them and thereby should be exempted or be made optional for them.” This is outright falsehood which exists only within the figment of the imagination of AGF and his hirelings. For the records, it is important to state categorically that tax evasion was never part of the arguments canvassed by the AGF for the deployment of IPPIS. If anything, the argument has always been to fight corruption and eradicate ghost workers in the University payroll. Unfortunately, on that score the AGOF has nothing to tell Nigerians through his megaphone. This being so, IPPIS should come clean on its findings on these unfounded accusations against ASUU.

This unfortunate and ill-advised press release by the AGF has thankfully exposed the rudderless nature, lack of coordination, inefficiency, indolence, incompetence, dishonesty and insincerity amongst Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government. Or how else can we describe the activities of IPPIS and OAGF who is now shamelessly saddling employees “with the responsibility of approaching the Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (SIWC) to formalize” what the employees should be paid! Is this not incredible and tragic? No doubt, this is what a society gets when its destiny is left in the hands of bureaucratic juvenile who only through systemic manipulation and bootlicking are at the top of our civil service hierarchy. Also, that our beloved nation’s economy is in this lamentable, comatose and unpardonable state of underdevelopment can easily be explained from this national malady.

The criminality perpetrated by the AGF and the IPPIS office in accessing the BVN of our members contrary to the laws of the land is yet to be answered. Curiously, the OAGF is accusing lecturers who did not submit their BVN, that the BVN could not be validated? How ridiculous and shameless! Let us grant for the purpose of argument without necessarily conceding that the university Bursaries submitted the names of dead and retired personnel to IPPIS, is that not the very problem the IPPIS was flaunting to eliminate? Why then the outburst and lamentation over glaring professional incompetence and deceit. Let us unequivocally reiterate once again that IPPIS as we have maintained and as the Auditor General’s Report has now confirmed, is a cesspool of monumental institutional corruption and systemic fraud.

While Nigerians are not unaware of the several corruption allegations that have been levelled against the OAGF in general and the IPPIS specifically, of particular reference is the Audit Report of the Auditor General of the Federation that indicted the OAGF and IPPIS terribly. It has been a silence of the graveyard from the loquacious AGF and his megalomaniac supporters on this matter.

At the risk of wrongly assuming that the AGF and his co-travellers are not beyond redemption and are still capable of utilizing quality advice, rather than engaging in undignified arm-twisting, infantile Gestapo tactics, indefensibly laughable and reprehensible professional failure, the AGF and his errand boys should deploy the same zeal and enthusiasm in responding to those weighty allegations against his office rather than spewing falsehood and misinformation in order to cover up the malfeasance and daylight fraud which IPPIS represents.

This is because; luxuriating in ridiculous and unprincipled lies and institutional debasement over a glaringly failed project has a rather short shelf life with dire and tragic professional consequences. The minimum expected from the AGF and his errand boys is an unreserved apology to the Nigerian people for their professional ineptitude, wastage and deliberate misinformation of the public, pending the findings and recommendations of the Independent Panel of Inquiry demanded by our Union.

‘Dele Ashiru
Chairman, ASUU-UNILAG.

This ASUU issue tires me a lot

This country matter tire me

nura15:
This ASUU issue tires me a lot

it should not tire you o, because a nation can never rise above her educational level!

sinkhole:
it should not tire you o, because a nation can never rise above her educational level!

Hard fact.

ASUU and thier problem

tellsblinks:



edit post, add source, add small picture if any

lalasticlala dragnet mynd44 take to front page

lalasticlala dragnet mynd44 please take to front page

wow! I know this man. he looks very gentle. he is lion himself, he is war, he is indabosky pahose.

delectablegyal:
wow! I know this man. he looks very gentle. he is lion himself, he is war, he is indabosky pahose.

The real "liquid metal man"

This guy has bitten more than he can chew.

Hmmn