ejibaba:


First, the IPPIS platform doesn't capture the allowances of the non-academic staff. Like for the technologists, hazard allowance, and earned allowance for others.

The accountant general said the agreed payment of this allowances with the unions was not documented with salary and wages commission and they will not pay until that is done. Well, the union showed agreement signed, AG refused. So this is a tactical approach to reduce their salary and reneged on the agreement of 2009. If FG says the content of the agreement should have been gazetted or documented with the salary and wages commission, why is ASUU not going through that process? They could even give the FG a deadline to ensure these payments are recognized and thus added to IPPIS, rather than throwing away the baby with the bath water.

Next, academics rejected the platform on the following reasons:
1. It is against the university autonomy act, which places the issue of renumeration on the university council not a central body because it was formerly with NUC. This is international standard. Also, they said no more visiting lecturers or sabbaticals, and external supervisors allowance. That institutions should use their IGR to make those payments invariably they are pushing for raise in school fees & sundry expenses. For example, imagine being asked to pay 200k to invite external supervisor to come evaluate undergraduate project, 500k for masters and 1m for PhD because they must do that before one graduates. Universities have always made use of GIFMIS for payments. They prepare the payroll and send to GIFMIS which deducts their accounts and credits whoever they put in. The major difference now is that IPPIS being a platform majorly for salaries will "validate" the content of whatever payroll you send to it. It will validate the authencity of the employee, the allowances to the paid etc. If university governing councils were already making use of an FG platform (GIFMIS) for payments before IPPIS, it rules out the point that it takes their autonomy away. Each university will still compute their payroll under IPPIS...i.e. to accommodate resignations etc. The only difference is that if your Payroll does not align with what's on IPPIS the payment will not go through.

2. The payment platform doesn't allow for a convenient tax system that academics enjoy previously rather tax is on gross pay.

3. The payment system makes it difficult for the university to handle payment for timely research activities, as it will be required for them to prepare memos that will have to first go to accountant general office for approvals before payment can be made. So exchange programs suffers timely response from the university. FG has different platforms and we are confusing / mixing issues. The platform being used before now is an FG platform called GIFMIS. The introduction of IPPIS doesn't mean GIFMIS will no longer be used. However, it will be restricted to payments for capital expenditure and operational expenses to vendors or third parties...that remains.

4. The payment system is faulted with several shortcomings such as underpayment, overpayment,over deductions etc. These can be fixed by getting the said allowances approved by the salaries and wages commission. I'm not sure who is meant to kick off these conversations with the said commission, but why is ASUU not exploring the route of pressuring the FG into following this due process it has laid out?

5. The payment system support corruption as names are being added in Abuja to universities payroll without any documentation in the university. This is doubtful as each MDA still prepares their payroll on a MoM and submits to IPPIS. IPPIS only makes payment as communicated by the MDA...however, even if this is true, an audit will reveal...ASUU can/should press for this audit as part of checks and balances.

There's more but I will stop here!!! However, there are more to this issues also beyond just the payment system.

I believe you are someone close to ASUU or involved in that system. If you're obliged to discuss objectively, I'd like see your response to the above points which is from my perspective as an outsider looking in.

MT:


This a simple case. Document all the changes you want to effect in IPPIS, send it to the company in charge of the software design. Get a feedback from the company how long it will take to implement the changes. If the software was well architected (i.e not tightly coupled using technical term), making changes will be easy. FG will rightly not accept any payment platforms from any of the union. It's unrealistic

Exactly. As simple as this sounds, it’s being politicized by the Unions. Them dragging it out this vehemently makes it appear there is a vested interest in not making IPPIS work.

SpecialAdviser:
Is it the amount to be paid will reduce??

What exactly is the quarrel with the platform??

Somebody educate me.

Based on my readings, yes it will reduce in a nutshell but mostly because ASUU has gotten its way and negotiated certain favorable terms IPPIS is no longer recognizing. In some instances, obtaining these terms makes no sense in the first instance, in other cases they are legitimate issues that I believe can be fixed on the platform as other agencies have been using it long before now.

1. A number of universities have bargained PAYE tax reliefs with their state governments. IPPIS deducts according to the accepted standard by law.

2. Some allowances being received by them are not captured by IPPIS.

3. IPPIS makes certain deductions like NHF, meaning take home pay is lower across board.

4. They won’t acknowledge this but some of them work multiple jobs with multiple salaries. IPPIS prevents this using BVN.

You’re caught up now.

Sagefromtheeast:


No matter how sound you are, you appear very stupid whenever or wherever you openly defend this government.

Truly said. They haven’t done a good job in so many areas that the few areas where they have appear like a drop in the ocean.

Anyways. My comments on this forum are only to offer context to steer healthy debate and not to be seen as supporting anybody.

andyanders:
I understand ur submission as stated above. In a situation of the covid pandemic where lots of funds were donated to the FG, just tell me where and what they did with those funds.

A minister was given an a/c of billions of funds her ministry spent on feeding Nigerian school children during the lockdown. How did she get that done when no schl was opened. No single child student I knew that they feed during the lockdown.

Now, why shouldn't I blame the gorvernment?

Hmmm. Valid points you’ve raised.

andyanders:
This too bad. A friend of mine with FAAN has not been paid and his wife hospitalized. How can this government be so wicked?

Sorry to hear about this. But let’s not blame the government if its not necessary. FAAN is a self run parastatal - cost and revenues is solely on them and they don’t draw from the budget. Best government can do is to provide them some palliatives or intervention to meet the revenue shortfall to meet up to its obligations.

Very poor journalism. I would expect more substance backing the claims at the very least so the story makes more sense.

The minister doesn’t have the power to hold anybodies salary at any of the listed agencies. The article is written to make the reader believe otherwise.

FAAN is fully self funded and doesn’t draw salaries from the FG budget. They are expected to pay salaries from revenues they generate - they charge airlines 1k per ticket sold or so amongst other tariffs. I presume due to the lockdowns they are now struggling to pay salaries.

Moorish:
I prefer Osinbajo

Tinubu is not the president we need

He is the one holding back lagos state

I agree. We need an eloquent and intellectual President for once.

Well said OP.

I do think you have written out the economic concept of purchasing power parity in laymans English. In some ways you are right but not entirely so.

Cost of living in Nigeria is generally lower than the developed countries in areas where we are productive (Nigeria is still generally import dependent so our productivity is still quite low). This covers food, housing and healthcare. I will give a few examples:

1. Housing: For example, A decent 3bdroom apartment costs about NGN300k - NGN2m annually depending what part of the country you’re in, in the USA you will need to spend anywhere from $800 - $2000 monthly or $9600 (NGN4.32m) and $12,000 (NGN10,8m) annually. Huge gap.

2. Healthcare: Another example is with healthcare. Here you can conveniently spend about NGN100k ($222) on maternity costs without insurance, whilst in the states you will pay nothing less than $5k for the same service without insurance. This is just normal maternity services without adding complications of delivery through CS.

In these instances your analysis is on point. The reason for this gap is due to the superior service (I.e. doctors earn more, better equipment that needs to be paid for etc.). you’ll typically be getting which is why in those countries, the average salary / pay is also higher to compensate.

But there are several areas where your analysis doesn’t hold true.

1. Imported goods: for example, cars. They cost a lot more here. In the US I can buy a 2014 ML Benz with $15k - $20k but here it costs about NGN15m ($33k) for the same car.

Since we are mostly import dependent most things we consume fall under this bracket. Clothing, Electronics, Furniture pound for pound more expensive due to import costs.

Lastly, because average pay in Nigeria is lower, we tend to have smaller disposable incomes. A larger proportion of our income goes to essentials like Food and Housing. Abroad they have a higher disposable income. For full clarity, this is both due to higher minimum wage levels as well as their credit culture (most things are paid for with a credit card so you can spend more than you earn effectively).

I have attached two images to further the discussion and maybe help with understanding these concepts. They are both on consumption expenditure where you find that in Nigeria, we spend more of our money on food (because we earn low) while in the states they spend more on housing and services (cause they earn higher and average wages are higher).

agabusta:
Someone please share a copy or link to the bill pls.

https://placng.org/i/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Senate-Report-on-Nigerian-Police-Act-Repeal-and-Re-enactment-Bill-2020.pdf

Senate committee report on the bill.

flyingpig:
this is just long talk. Summary is buhari commissioned incomplete airport to ndigbo for use cause I read very well where hadi sirika the minister said yesterday that flights can land. I just smell abandoned project jare

There is a lot of mistrust with this government so your perspective is completely understandable.

flyingpig:
so why commissioning for use, what hasn't been completed

No idea. Though It’s not wrong to commission projects in piece meal, but they could have been clearer in their communication that this is only one of several projects at the airport complex. The runway is the most important one as without it airplanes can’t land, I guess that’s why they went ahead. We should also acknowledge that in Nigeria projects are seldom ever used before they are commissioned.

There are three different projects happening at Enugu Airport that I know of:

1. The runway is being reconstructed - this is what is being commissioned
2. The old / existing airport terminal Is being renovated - this is work in progress
3. A new terminal building is being built from scratch by CCECC - this is work in progress

Our journalists need to do better with communicating / explaining these things. It is three different projects being handled by different contracts with different completion dates.

Fun fact: In most Hollywood movies, they actually use the roar of a tiger in place of a lion cause they sound more scary. A tigers growl will send shivers down ones spine.

OP,

Turn on 2FA in your WhatsApp account as well. It will set a PIN only you knows which will make it harder to clone your WhatsApp. You can also set a passcode on your SIM card if you know how to do that.

Its strange to see that after Nigerians consistently abuse Buhari for only having a WAEC certificate, now turnaround to criticize a move that grants their wishes. This should be good news.

Do you have something with Dolby atmos?

SmartPolician:
Nigeria's Journalists don't want to learn

No background information whatsoever. The media is the university of the people. They ought to tell us more about the house building method through an independent research.

It seems these guys don't read New York Times, Bloomberg and Financial Times to learn from these world's leading names

Our Journalists Indeed have a lot of work to do.

emerazz:
Just like most of them forming "I too knw" above me dia, I knw that printing money like dat wld lead to inflation and devaluation of the currency but gaskiya I don't know how, or the mechanism behind it..

Pls let should take his/her time to explain this thing to us.. We dat dun knw ain't illiterates, its jst not our field..

Let me try to...though it’s a lot more complex theoretically than what I’m about to say.

Think of every country as a market in economic terms, a market is usually made up of two sides (buyers and sellers), buyers represent demand while sellers represent supply. Inflation is largely driven by the relationship between aggregate demand and supply in the economy. If demand overly exceeds supply then you have inflationary tendencies, if supply exceeds demand you have deflation, which is less common but a bigger problem than inflation.

Printing money isn’t directly the issue as if a Government prints money and hides it somewhere in a vault without spending it then it will have no ripple effect. The challenge starts when the government starts to spend printed money, as doing this will increase the total money supply in the economy, and without an attendant increase in productivity (ability for the economy to generate supply), prices will go up.

For example, you use printed money to pay salaries say to increase salaries from 30k minimum wage to 50k. That additional money in people’s pockets is going to be spent on goods. The biggest part of the inflation index here in Nigeria is the Consumer Price Index (which basically tracks the prices of a select number of staple foods that ppl normally buy like rice, beans etc.) In Nigeria, about 60% - 70% of income is spent on food and consumables according to the NBS (I don’t recall the specific figure but it’s higher than 50%).

The suppliers of these goods will see an increase in demand and because they have the same number of goods for sale, they will increase prices to respond to the increased demand in the market. This increase in prices at an aggregate level is what is termed as inflation.

Hope this helps?

Blackmiserable:


But Lagos is not the only state in this country. We have 35 more states, bro.

Unfortunately your options become very limited once you move out of Lagos. Some broadband players have network outside Lagos but very skeletal. I’ve had the same struggles.

Fiberone - NGN10,800 / mth
Wifi.com.ng - NGN12-13k / mth
Swift Network - NGN20-24k / mth

All are fully unlimited with speeds above 2MPBs.

frog12:
budgit may be making a mistake with their assumptions. i dont see how the open treasury helps if we can know the persons behind the transactions

You’re right. Open Treasury is a step in the right direction. As it allows for these sort of probes from Budgit. Alas, the goal of any government should be to shorten the length between when a corrupt act takes place and when it is spotted. This potentially helps to do that with CSOs and other watch bodies like Budgit monitoring government expenditure.

What is critical to do next is to increase the number of transactions covered and then put in place a mechanism to effectively investigate allegations such as these in a timely manner. Perhaps put a lien on these accounts till the investigations are concluded.

There is probably nothing legally wrong with government paying an individuals account directly depending on what the payments are for - which the narration on those transactions were not clear about. So it could be corruption being caught early on in the game or could be an accountant in an MDA performing a legitimate transaction but too lazy to fill in the right Narration details.

This is a good step in the right direction.

I believe it is quite condescending on Africa for the USA to insist on an external / third-party investigation into these issues. I believe Nigeria needs to play a strong role working with other nations across the continent to stand against this Neo-colonialism with a long-term view of buying out the USA and other foreign interests in the AFDB.

There is already a conflict of interest here as the more AFDB grows it begins to usurp the roles the IMF and the World Bank play in lending to African countries - Under normal circumstances Nigeria and other countries should be borrowing from the AFDB and not the IMF or World Bank. The West will not let this happen quite easily as it reduces their influence greatly on the continent. Whilst the allegations are unproven and the so-called whistle blowers have also refused to share additional facts / evidence against Adesina with the Ethics committee.

What tells us that this independent investigator cannot be bought over by western interests to deliver a verdict that wont be in Adesina’s favor? Abeg, lets all rally around this man and move on. The west should go and sit down.

Surprised how a journalist interviews random civilians who then make a pronouncement on an area they aren’t experts in.

Whilst the bridge may be old or weak as alluded, It is completely normal for a Bridge to vibrate when you stand on them...you will feel this slightly.

Yenefer:
Nigerians are always criticizing NPF, but I always have a good and respectful encounter with them. Or are they more brutal in the south unlike here in the North. Anyways Nigerian police force are very unprofessional especially about bribes.

To think about it...I think the police in the North for some reason, they behave better than those in the south. From Abuja to Kano, Jigawa, Yobe, Katsina etc. my experience with the NPF in the north has been very cordial to say the least.

The policemen in the south are a different ball game.

Sammy07:
It will be quite difficult.

Only a governor can do that.

And One of the governors did that but they didn't allowed him to get re elected as governor and he was killed

Can you share the name of this governor? I guess this happened during the military era.

godofuck231:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2780169/Boko-Haram-releases-video-showing-beheading-Nigerian-Air-Force-pilot-terror-leader-declares-Even-kill-not-stop-imposing-Islamic-rule.html



the
Alpha jet sent a signal that it had been hit and the two pilots’
families met air force officers in the days that followed and were
told it had crashed.
The jet came down in the heart of rebel-held territory, making
search and rescue impossible, he added.
In the video, Shekau is seen on the back of a pick-up truck firing
a powerful anti-aircraft gun and boasting about other aircraft
Boko Haram has shot down.
Group identifies pilot, tells his story
Meanwhile, a group identified as the Nigerian Army Support
Group, yesterday, declared the death of the air force pilot who it
named as Wing Commander Chimda Hedima.
In a post on Facebook, the support group described the pilot as “a
true Nigerian hero”, noting, “It is with deep regret that we
announce the death of a true Nigerian hero, Wing Commander
Chimda Hedima (1975-2014)”.
Continuing, the group said, “This is his story. Read it, share it.
This man was a hero, of the highest order.
“On 11/09/14, a company of NA soldiers attempted to overrun a
BH position in Borno. Due to the low altitude, the plane suffered
significant damage from the terrorists’ gunfire. Wing Commander
Hedima and his partner realised that they were going to crash.
“They, instead of hurriedly parachuting to safety within Nigerian
controlled territory, chose to embark on a mission to destroy as
many terrorists and their weapons as possible”.
“They parachuted out at the last minute but not before ensuring
their plane slammed into a column of terrorists; 63 Boko Haram
members were killed as a result of their bravery

Thank you.

godofuck231:
please guide your statements , these aircraft are outdated and obsolete, the alfa jet which was more up to date was shot down bby bokoharam fighters, what do you think will happen to aircrafts used by farmers in fumigation of crops from the air, they are called crop dusters, your dead guy bubu spent the money for f16 jets for crop dusters and you are here saying I should use my faculty? you need a brain then

Do you have a source for Boko haram dropping an alpha jet with an AA gun? If yes pls share. I’m aware they’ve dropped a few heli’s but not an alpha jet.

Nigerians can whine sha. Stroll to where.

OP, sorry about your experience.

If you’d like to take this up you may report your case here: https://www.dsvrtlagos.org/

They have two hotlines you can call.

OP, what makes you think you’re right? Funny how the average Nigerian believes his line of thought is the most correct.

Check the calculations...the figures for each would never go down as discharges are still left in the total. The reason For this is that NCDC’s report is based on total (active + dead + recovered) cases so the numbers for each state would remain the same if the state as not gotten any new cases.

House, is it possible to fill out a new DS-160 form and maintain an already existing interview appointment. A friend of mine would like to change the US contact details he inputted in the existing DS-160 form.

What are the pros and cons of doing this?