The newly elected vice president of SSANU, Mr Abdulsobur Salam, explained that the union initially thought the IPPIS would solve some problems in the university system, but it later found out that it added more problems.
He stated, “At the outset, we did not oppose the IPPIS because we have had issues of corruption in the university system which we thought the IPPIS would solve. Government made a request that we should key into the IPPIS and they demonstrated to us that the IPPIS had captured everything on salaries.
“But we have witnessed a lot of irregularities; salaries are not paid, the salary of a cleaner given to a registrar and outright non-payment of staff salaries when staff have been working for 10 months. It is against this background we are now having a second thought. The IPPIS has created a lot of problems than it has resolved.”
Efforts to speak to the National General Secretary, Mr Peter Adeyemi, NASU, proved abortive as he did not to pick calls to his mobile phone nor replied an SMS sent to him.
However, the Chairman of the University of Lagos’ NASU, Mr Kehinde Ajibade explained that the union found out a lot of irregularities in the IPPIS.
These, he said, included arbitrary deductions, high taxation, high pension rate and delay in payments.
Ajibade stated, “What the Federal Government promised us as university workers is contrary to what we are experiencing now. It’s like the Federal Government deceived us to join the IPPIS. Our salaries were being paid on a platform before we migrated to the IPPIS. Unfortunately, when we got to the IPPIS, we discovered it was a scam. It was full of inconsistencies and irregularities that we are still battling with now.
“That is the reason we are opposing the IPPIS . Some of these irregularities are high taxation, non-remittance of some of the deductions and cooperative issues. We have submitted our list for payment. It is either it is delayed or we have to send an emissary to their office before they release our money. All these make it difficult for us. We embarked on a two-week warning strike and the Federal Government invited our leaders. Our national bodies proposed another platform as ASUU did. The government accepted our new platform and said they would look into it. That’s where we are now.
