₦airaland Forum

The Nigerian government has reached an interim agreement with striking university lecturers to integrate the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

The IPPIS is the government’s accountability software that has been made compulsory for all public institutions, mainly for personnel payroll.

ASUU is opposed to the use of IPPIS for lecturers saying it does not consider some of the peculiar operations of universities. The lecturers’ union then developed its own UTAS which it wants the government to adopt for universities.

The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, announced the agreement after a four-hour meeting between both parties.

Mr Ngige said the two parties will reconvene on Monday after the ASUU delegation deliberates with its National Executive Council (NEC).
READ ALSO: ASUU tackles FUOYE VC, demands probe of promotion, recruitment

Also speaking, the National President of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi, said the National Executive Committee of the union will review the conditions for the integration of UTAS into IPPIS .

However, both parties did not reveal the conditions to the media.

ASUU on Monday asked its members in federal universities across the country to begin two weeks warning strike in response to the government’s decision to stop the February salaries of lecturers who have not registered on the IPPIS platform.

Thursday’s meeting is the first by both parties since the strike commenced.https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/381559-just-in-ASUU-strike-nigerian-govt-reaches-agreement-with-lecturers-on-ippis.html

ASUU is not a noise maker.

The government will do the needful


ASUU Strike: Nigerian govt reaches agreement with lecturers on IPPIS
March 12, 2020Azeezat Adedigba
ASUU Strike: Lecturers meet Nigerian govt delegation

The Nigerian government has reached an interim agreement with striking university lecturers to integrate the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

The IPPIS is the government’s accountability software that has been made compulsory for all public institutions, mainly for personnel payroll.

ASUU is opposed to the use of IPPIS for lecturers saying it does not consider some of the peculiar operations of universities. The lecturers’ union then developed its own UTAS which it wants the government to adopt for universities.

The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, announced the agreement after a four-hour meeting between both parties.

Mr Ngige said the two parties will reconvene on Monday after the ASUU delegation deliberates with its National Executive Council (NEC).
READ ALSO: ASUU tackles FUOYE VC, demands probe of promotion, recruitment

Also speaking, the National President of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi, said the National Executive Committee of the union will review the conditions for the integration of UTAS into IPPIS .

However, both parties did not reveal the conditions to the media.

ASUU on Monday asked its members in federal universities across the country to begin two weeks warning strike in response to the government’s decision to stop the February salaries of lecturers who have not registered on the IPPIS platform.

Thursday’s meeting is the first by both parties since the strike commenced.

More details later…

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/381559-just-in-ASUU-strike-nigerian-govt-reaches-agreement-with-lecturers-on-ippis.html

Please publish names and prosecute accordingly. stop ruling through misinformation and propaganda.

May God bless this lawmaker. The lawmakers should include an evidence of gainful employment with progress report for each year in the last 10 years.

rottennaija:
That's misplaced priority.

This is an unworkable solution.

Why not call for the assembly of the best scientist and biochemist in Nigeria, give them a good lap, feed them, provide 24 hrs electricity with the best electronic gadgets and laboratory equipments and have them work together towards having a solution to the virus?

Common, who advises these people self? They need better advisers.

Who made the jester the minister of S&T? He clearly does not know what scientific research entails. May we be delivered from him and his likes...

It's just an ordinary circular, paper tiger.

Orjitex15 your comment is off the point. If the president could invite ASUU for a better understanding, why can't you tone your response to show civility.


awele186
paying 1m mda with IPPIS is not the issue. You've really missed the point. There is a level of distrust between both parties. This was as a result of the inability of IPPIS to capture the full range of academic responsibilities and mobility as well as over centralisation of the payroll system.

Preserving the university autonomy act through the flexibility of the payroll to capture the uniqueness of the Nigeria University System is the main request of ASUU.

Those against IPPIS have not advanced sound arguments. Unlike them, ASUU members have consistently tutored the public on how a university functions. We have all been exposed to the fact that Universities all around the world are subjected to the same indices. As a result, It will be most unfortunate if the ranking of public universities in Nigeria goes down consistently as a consequence of policy issue like this.

The FG seems unperturbed with the claims of ASUU, claiming that corruption exist in the universities. Strangely, with all the resources at its disposal, the FG has refused to send it own crack Visitation Panel to unearth the corruption in the system.

Transparency International has unmasked the strange war "against" (more like for) corruption with the recent rating of Nigeria in the comity of Nations.

The AGF has requested to stop paying ASUU members not on IPPIS. ASUU reacted immediately with it own stand of "No Pay, No Work"

When are we really going to make good progress in the education sector?

The recent standoff between Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government (FG) on IPPIS is worthy of serious attention as it is at the verge of unsettling the nascent industrial peace being enjoyed in the country’s ivory towers. For one thing, FG says she wants to curb corruption and then opted to pay all salaries from one point. I am in full support of any measure that will curb corruption to the barest minimum as it affects everyone negatively.

But in the case of universities, the option to have one pay point appears to be a direct expression of distrust by FG on the Governing Council which they appoint majority of the members. This appears also to mean a loss of confidence in the Vice Chancellors, a position which every worthy scholar aims to attain. There is a sharp contradiction here. Vice-Chancellors were recently made electoral umpires in the recent elections but they have suddenly appeared to be corrupt to the extent that they can no longer be trusted with personnel costs. Over the years, ASUU has been onto one negotiation or the other with FG and in each case when an agreement is reached and signed, it rubs off well on the universities even when the implementation is not full. One of such is the establishment of TETFUND which has proven to be a key to funding of research, establishment of infrastructure and more in the universities and other tertiary institutions.

But come to think of it, Government has another watchdog that they are reluctant to unleash designed specifically for the Universities: The Visitation Panel. But it also appears that FG has no trust in anyone or group that they may appoint as visitation panels. So only IPPIS is correct and corruption-free! This IPPIS appears as one-stop solution or a magic wand that will solve all problems of corruption in Nigeria.

Now ASUU says their autonomy is violated, that the running of universities is unique. The big shots in Abuja does not appear to agree. Please let me clarify a few issues and ask questions, hoping to get some answers from whoever has one.

Universities are centers where knowledge is made and freely dispensed. In developed countries governments and corporate bodies rely solely on universities, (not contractors like IPPIS) to provide solutions to any problem that can be imagined including corruption. I stand to be corrected but I am not aware of any funding for research in this country aimed at curbing corruption in Nigeria. The best quality of knowledge is made when scholars interact with others in different universities to share ideas. That is the trick that makes most western universities stand out. It is sorely out of interactions between scholars in USA and students from China that made technology transfer to China very easy. Nigeria appears not to have any plan for herself along those lines. As a young PhD holder, I had the privilege to be invited to participate on fully-funded research in USA for a study on fault-tolerant operation of multi-phase dual-winding machines in shipboards and aerial vehicles. The colleagues up there felt that having done a thesis on such a subject, I will be in a position to contribute the new methods developed. Four other visits were to follow successively in other universities in Europe and Japan in the form of fellowships. The ideas gained from those interactions cannot be quantified. I will not bother you with my personal experiences but Nigerian universities can attract colleagues from other universities for teaching and collaborative research too. Now how does IPPIS plan to capture their payments on their platform?

I know the quantity of work that goes on as regards payment of salaries by the bursaries in different universities in ensuring that salary variations of staff (which changes every month) are verified and captured. Sometimes, bursary departments postpone some of such variations if they are many and schedule them for subsequent months. Now can anyone explain how a centralized system based in Abuja can collate and manage these variations for up to 40 universities?

The duties of academic staff in universities are for teaching and research. The non-academic staff perform very vital duties to support this. Apart from research, each academic staff is expected to give

lectures, quizzes and then examinations and then submit results in a timely manner. Now in an academic department in any Nigerian university, the hierarchy is Head of Department, Dean/Provost and then Vice-Chancellor. How does IPPIS hope to sanction a staff that fails to perform these minute duties in a timely fashion? After all, salaries will come from Abuja. Or do we expect a situation where a Vice-Chancellor will have to collate on monthly basis, the activities of each staff and report to IPPIS for their kind consideration and necessary action?

Visiting, adjunct and part-time appointments are made usually on yearly basis solely on need. For example as the VC of FUT Minna pointed out a few days ago during their Foundation day ceremonies, teaching of some courses offered by specialist departments that do not exist in universities have to be contracted out. Let me explain this further. Consider a situation in which a course on Engineering Law has to be taught to students of Faculty of Engineering and a PhD holder in law is needed to do this is and the university has no Faculty of Law. It is cheaper for the university to engage this PhD holder on adjunct or part-time basis, paying him/her a fraction of his salary instead of having to set up a Faculty of Law. The university cannot hire such a person full-time even if he/she is willing as there is no base department where he/she can build a career. Hundreds of this kind of situation exists in each university and changes every year. How does IPPIS hope to handle this?

Suppose a staff at the University of Lagos is underpaid. He will have to abandon all his duties, travel to Abuja on his own funds, risking his life, stay on a hotel, seek attention the following day at IPPIS office, and if he is successful, spends same day again in Abuja and then return the following day. Does IPPIS have schedule officers in the universities who will handle and attend to these kind of complaints? If yes, then let IPPIS come, set up offices in all the universities and replace bursary.

We all know that most new programs mounted in different universities have very low level manpower. Now how does such a department meet the NUC BMASS requirement in terms of staffing if they do not hire visiting/adjunct/part-time staff from other universities? Many of such programs especially their postgraduate programs will have to be closed once the accreditation team arrives.

We also have another case worth mentioning. The case of staff on study leave with pay. Such staff usually spend between six months and four years doing either bench work leading to their completion of their degrees in their base universities, postdoctoral fellowships or acquiring foreign degrees. At all times, a university has at least 100 academic staff on such leaves. How does IPPIS wish to capture and monitor their return or otherwise from their places of study to render the services for which they were sent out to train and then continue or discontinue their salaries?

I can go on and on. This central payment system will only create another crisis added to the already existing ones, disturb the universities calendar, send students home, create unease in families and as usual do no one any good.

Let no one ask me why Nigerian academics are not winning Nobel Laurates or making inventions in recent times. The last time I checked, Nobel Laurates are rewards designed in USA. What is Nigerian version of such a laurate? How does Nigeria encourage and reward excellence? Is there a little recognition for any outstanding research? Does FG believe that any solution can come from any University? The real question is: Why is it that Nigerians excel in academics outside Nigeria?

All we read is that hundreds of billions of Naira has been saved from IPPIS yet, I am not aware of anyone under trial or in detention for embezzling any part of this huge fund prior to IPPIS?

Why did most academics refuse to enroll? The enrolment was not designed to capture any peculiarity, yet the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) office kept saying that they will capture all

peculiarities. They did not say when or how they will do that. During the enrolment, no academic staff was asked to provide appointment letter(s) for headship, deanship, sabbatical or visiting/adjunct/part-time in another university. It was clear that there is no intention to capture any peculiarity. Then where is the trust? It is not easy to deceive academic staff, they have had a lot of unfulfilled promises, and so it is not easy for them to accept any promise.

The continued insistence by the office of AGF on this IPPIS implementation against the glaring inconsistencies above appears to support the recent report by Transparency International that Nigeria is really advanced in corruption. There is no further proof than that if the entire retinue of administrative and supervisory structures of universities cannot be trusted with mere personnel costs. I am personally ashamed of this situation.

FG paid heavily for IPPIS, ASUU developed UTAS at no cost to the FG and it is more inclusive if implemented. If the President really has advisers, this is the time for them to listen attentively to the voice of reason. Universities are unique and for them to perform optimally, they must be allowed their autonomy as that is the international best practice.


https://www.informationng.com/2020/01/why-ippis-cannot-work-in-universities-prof-emeka-obe.html

[quote author=AAA593 post=85646543]https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/happening-now-buhari-meets-ASUU-over-ippis.html



[/quote

https://thenationonlineng.net/ASUU-insists-on-no-to-payroll-enrollment/

Saynotocultism continue your good work through your strong anti-cultism campaign. As for me, I am less bothered about distractive and confused comments.

Your message is really loud and dissenting voices are expected. This sect cannot tell their truth but they'll try to distort, rationalise and twist yours. They've not being successful this far hence the frequent rudderless and vague comments.

They wish they were you.

livebyday:
Here's my.issue with Nigerians sometimes ... Not everything is black and white ...you do understand this right ?

Your skill set is indeed noted in disguising your intentions. Try coming out with your intentions. In fact you're reflecting all the things you accused the OP of which is not cool. Lay good precedence that is worthy of emulation, not just showing off your skills.

It's also apparent that you're an expert in ensuring that online posters are not anonymous, which is not the intention of this thread.

What we are saying is that this thread is to saynotocultism and not for those that are saying yes. If you have a contrary idea, create a thread for that and invite us to compare notes.

livebyday:
To all of you applauding this guy,watch him deeply ..

Lucifer will come.as a pastor .. this psycopath isn't.what he seems to be.. and me.being the one to call him out doesn't make me.the bad guy either..


I just stand for truth and this guy here is not it ..he is something vile , dark and wrong ..


I am so certain he is working with a cult group.i don't have proof and there's too much going on for me.to.dedicate time to this troll but I believe the truth will still surface

Indeed your intentions are obvious to the discerning eye.

Being a member of a secret society may be your thing and may be it worked well for you. But unfortunately, almost all past and present students can point to a gruesome incident involving the killing and maiming of fellow students, which we were helpless about.

Here is a focused write up on discouraging cultism with it gruesome details and may be with embellishments, but the message is being passed.

We've read comments of co-actors that ended with say no cultism and tales of regret!

If you're writing for the youth and they can't flow with your write up, then you've wasted your time. It is indeed interesting to note that the saynotocultism connected with both the old and young. This brought about your fierce defence cum criticism.

Thank God you mentioned Jesus Christ who suffered a lot of criticism and also paid it all with death on the cross. If this could happen to Jesus, who is saynotocultism not to suffer is fair share.

One thing you've not done is to profer better ways of re-orientation for the youths. Neither have you explained in details what you've done to save lives since you realized your error, just pulling down the efforts of others (PhD).

Could it be that it's this "us" versus "them" idea that you're selling. You've been about protecting a serious malaise that higher education shuns. Why should anyone be encouraged to join or protect an association that would keep you in fear for the rest of your life.

Then this should take us all to the application of lesson learnt. From the analysis of comments here, I can infer that cultism seeks to steal, kill and destroy. The OP has learnt his lessons the hard way through experience and it's applicable to all intending undergraduates.

I only hope you're not trying to Scheme mynd44, Seun and other moderators into closing or removing the thread as your previous comments suggest.

The energy you put into discrediting this thread can be used creatively through creating a better thread to tell your truth.

Saynotocultism may you find the peace you seek. Stay blessed

livebyday:
Infact I was nearly killed by same NBM, once for supposed mutiny like.he recounted and secondly when I decided to walk away.. I wasn't attending meetings , J, nothing , but I was still coming to school ..I wanted a different life and I knew there was no going to my kpowai and saying I am done .

I knew it wasn't Hollywood.. I knew the path I chose led to my death, but I didn't care. Bro I was tired , I emotionally, psychologically exhausted

I was done .. I heard rumors I was to be Daxd blah blah blah I just didn't care .

But never

My point is we need to change these young men and not glorify or endanger their lives

What have you done differently since you came to the realization that you wouldn't want our children (the future generation) to walk in the same path?

livebyday:
You have a good point

But I don't like his demeanor and threats about shooting anyone here ..that is a trait of hooligans

Giving you a gun and license to kill doesn't give you absolute control over others life ..this is the thinking of cult members and for someone who claims to have dropped it this is an irony


Cheers

When you responded with a barrage of criticism, it generated a lot of concerns and maybe second thoughts. However, your final analysis is still unclear! If you're here to discourage others from cultism considering its impact on the future generation, it was not well done!

You pointed accusing fingers to the OP all based on supposition, not fact. If you've really gone through this thread, you would have balanced your criticism. His life was indeed threatened and given his background he was able to maintain sanity on the thread which brought an end to distractive tendencies.

The only obvious thing here is that you're dropping names of those that would like to stay anonymous! to what intent? Curious.

The OP's awareness on saynotocultism should be encouraged and moderated wit the right intentions. Don't let your comments appear to threaten the OP to stop is awareness campaign regarding #SayNoToCultism with a reverse of what was done earlier.

We shouldn't expect an advanced level of perfection from the writer, he made his intent clear in the concluding part of the narrative.

Saynotocultism, the purpose of any societal re-orientation programme should be to save lives. You've indeed saved a lot of lives. I have shared your experience with a lot of you youths and the feedback is encouraging.

They should better not complain of recession or of Nigeria being broke in 2020.

TourismMan:
So a guy we used to watch football matches together got married around November last year and I was happy for him cos he was already 40 something. I'm so shocked to have learnt days ago that the marriage crashed in less than 3 months. In fact, the informant told me the marriage packed up precisely in the month of March this year for undisclosed reasons.

Ogbeni,
Marriage is not for "kids". If they are not family oriented, let them maintain status quo till an intervention comes from themselves, religious circles or extended family.

This is still an unconfirmed story, come with facts next time.

post=84543773:
Na criminals full dis ASUU sha.


A case of, we are not the only thieves, those ones are thieves also.

This is what you considered an
Take care!

You're simply myopic regarding this issue. The fact that you could call a whole gathering of intellectuals "criminals" reveals your stock.

You would have done better comparing what ASUU is fighting for with what is obtainable elsewhere. Reading up on the laws and acts governing Nigeria universities will widen your horizon on vital issues as this.

J111333 open an account, drive to Akoka and hand over the ATM to him

This point to the need to restore and monitor the environmental sanitation exercise in Lagos.

DeeMain:
https://www.nairaland.com/5252047/cultism-spiritual-consequences-delivera

Thanks

But you use 727billlion to run the National assembly, just about 500 lawmakers

DeeMain:
Start from the middle of page 5 where he starts mentioning the history and attributes of some of the cults.

Please share the link

She was indeed a rare gem, an excellent scholar, a role model and a combination of beauty and brain.

She rose above institutional politics to get to the peak of her career, she was made for more...

May God grant the family she left behind the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

Why don't you just tell us your proposed members of cabinet already...not appealing to our emotions

Omuneizzy6:
Nairalanders, You see that this particular sin is even different from fornication or bestiality oo, imagine sleeeping with lifeless object.. Anyone have an idea...what do u classify this type of sin into?

i-dol-try

At last! Still waiting for dbanj though

We have the monarchical mentality, hence, we find it difficult to relinquish power

You can do that, but, ensure your post is worth our time

Yampotatocarrot:
Lectures started already UI z still recommending admission n all..... Abeg, when z this year's form gonna b out bikonu... Edakun

Around may

megatran:
does anyone know how much the postgraduate school fees for uni illorin is for this year?

There is no flat rate. You can check your pg profile or drop the department and faculty, you may just be lucky.