₦airaland Forum

AsiwajuNdigbo:
Are they aware LAWMA has already cleaned up the crime scene, and a lot of evidence swept away?

It makes this news comical at best.

Somewhere people are passing everyday. Why will the governor seek permission to visit a place? Besides their mandate doesn’t include jurisdiction over that location, and if it does it is impossible to enforce as there were incidents in many other locations besides Lekki toll which same panel is meant to investigate.

If only Power was on the concurrent list, states will be able to address these issues / put the right policies in place to attract investment to those areas without power. This FG agency won't need to exist...decentralisation is the way to go here.

Very good for the ecosystem. Drives confidence for more investors to come in.

It’s quite strange but I’ve always wondered why the police in the North hardly terrorizes people the way they do in the South. Best bet is they ask for weekend money...no taking you to the station or forcing you to go to an ATM. It’s virtually a different sane org. there.

ejibaba:
I was with the ASUU president raising this same question to him that we the younger academics feel the struggle should channel more to our welfare... Doctors don't strike because of infrastructure but only we in ASUU. At least VCs should do all that. He gave me a response that I would not want to share here.

However, you know Nigerian politics and high service. Nobody wants to be said to be against his Oga. VCs are also ASUU members so they know and support ASUU on this, but since they are political appointees they often stay off critical issues.

Finally, yes tax is pay as you earn but when agreements are reached on variations and it is documented it should be respected. Also, usually AG staff come from Abuja to capture people to the IPPIS before they are paid and in some cases it takes close to 1year as experienced in some government agencies most especially if the leaders are not willing to play balls through giving them slot for recruitment or paying for their expenses to and fro.

Since the introduction of IPPIS buying job is now rampant cos they are people who sell slots given to them and at outrageous rates.

Finally, it's a pleasure to share perspectives on issues like this.

Sad to see that IPPIS is already being sabotaged by human operators. Too many issues in this country.

It’s a pleasure as well.

ejibaba:
First, your responses does not show you are an outsider, however, I'm willing for the objective discuss though to further clarify certain issues you raised. I actually am...just a well-read one.

Second, you aviod the second issue I raised on tax variations? Or you think it's not enough to reject the system? For your information sir, the previous tax system often times takes cognisant of teaching environment. How can I be paying same tax with someone in urban setting or what motivation do I have to leave my established university in an urban to a school in rural setting considering all off checks are the same??

My response as well...not sure why the next paragraph is not in bold.

[b] I have no idea how taxation works in the govt. sector. But in private co's, everyone is under the PAYE (I will presume this law governs governments as well) tax. I had mentioned how individual university ASUUs had gotten agreements with state governments for a tax relief. My opinion is that the government disagrees that it is lawful to obtain a tax relief which is why they are placing everyone according to the default PAYE deductions (my assumption again). I know that in the private sector, taxes are the same whether you work in the bush or in an urban area. The only times you might see a different is working with an Oil & Gas firm or an OEM (i.e. Oracle, Microsoft), you often get taxed at higher rates compared to working with a one-man company. The difference can be as high as 35% tax at O&G firms and 20% at private firms. Then again, is there a legal framework for ASUU's previous agreements on tax reliefs? If the answer is no, then Govt has a point, if the answer is Yes, then ASUU is right. This is a case you guys can actually take to the courts I believe. [/b]


Third, why should it be ASUU duty to drag the gazette of an the agreement? Why is it an issue now? No idea. My point here was more around getting / giving the government an ultimatum / negotiating within its own established framework rather than what they are doing now with a president who doesn't listen. If the government says this is the way to go (i.e. get the salaries and wages commission to gazette the said allowances, give the government a 30-day ultimatum to get these wages gazetted and included in IPPIS.

Fourth, if IPPIS is truly for salaries, why are they dictating to universities, whether to have visiting lecturers, sabbaticals and contract staff? Why? I don't know your definition of autonomy but mine is...verify whether the person exists, confirm if the person deserves to be paid but it's takes away my autonomy when you dictate to me that I should not have visiting, contract staff since you don't know what value they are to my institution. if this is true then it's a valid argument you make. I'm just hearing this for the first time actually. I'm not sure on what legal grounds IPPIS can dictate recruitment needs provided the individual university is not exceeding their approved budget - especially for contract staff. I don't have enough info plus it seems there is a lot of politics around the issue of visiting lecturer and sabbaticals so I'll leave that out for now, however, universities shouldn't be restricted from hiring.

Fifth, recruitment in the university system most especially when accreditation is approaching is usually fast and this may suffer given the time phase it will take IPPIS to capture a person for payment. I believe you know as an insider how corrupt you people in IPPIS are, most especially when invited to come for capturing and the corrupt demands that follows. I can't refute any of this. 100% valid concerns...I believe these can be sorted out through negotiations. Why does IPPIS need to come and physically capture ppl? I work in the software industry and just as JAMB enables registration remotely, IPPIS can enable such arrangement as well....the most important thing is that BVN and Biometrics are captured and supporting documents are uploaded. Someone can verify and validate on the admin panel in Abuja or from wherever.

Sixth, I think it is also wrong for you to refer to payment of salaries and allowances to senior researchers as: payments for capital expenditure and operational expenses to vendors or third parties...that remains I think you misread my comments here. By Capex and Opex I meant things such as renovations, buying furniture, fueling campus shuttles and other any expenses the universities may want to embark on..these are currently done through the GIFMIS platform.


Seven, I want to ask again that you pls, state you view on this disadvantage of this system that I pointed out that you delibrately avoided: The payment platform doesn't allow for a convenient tax system that academics enjoy previously rather tax is on gross pay. I had actually mentioned the tax variance issue in my earlier post on this thread..so my omission is just that rather than being deliberate.

Thank you. I await your response.

Thanks for clarifying. Your points have provided further context into the issues. Believe it or not, I'm not an insider...I'm have never worked for the govt or any govt affiliated institution. Anyways..thanks once again for the civility in your response....a rarity on NL which is why i don't bother commenting here much.

One more question though, if you can shed some light. Since these issues are mostly administrative, why are the Vice Chancellors and Governing councils not involved in this fight with the FG. ASUU should rightly be pushing from a position of it affecting their take home pay...but I expect the association of VCs if there is one to be the ones pushing the issues around visiting lecturers, sabbatical, limits on recruitment etc. It appears they've taken a back sit.

21cents:
lie..

Partly true actually. https://newsdigest.ng/business/2019/12/04/nnpc-are-not-ippis/

Many MDAs that are revenue generating are not on IPPIS which is even fine. The thinking from the article linked is they do not draw from the FG account, rather they generate revenues, deduct their expenses (i.e. salaries and ops expenses) and remit the remainder to the FG account.

This is completely different from what ASUU is trying to imply. FG Universities are a cost center, so ASUU can't expect to be treated differently from other MDAs that are cost centers to the FG.

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.