The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has stated that its members may contemplate initiating another industrial action due to the failure of the Nigerian government, led by President Bola Tinubu, to fulfill any of its pledges to them.
During an interview session, ASUU National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, disclosed this information, emphasizing that their salaries for the last month were disbursed through the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), contrary to the government’s assurance of discontinuing its usage.
Introduced in 2006, the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) is a governmental program designed to simplify payroll management across various government ministries, departments, and agencies.
It was later extended to universities and colleges but was vehemently rejected by the workers who embarked on a protracted strike in 2020, and 2021.
They complained of several irregularities associated with IPPIS.
This made the Nigerian government exclude tertiary institutions including universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education from the platform in December 2023.
Osodeke added that none of the union’s demands had been fulfilled.
In September 2023, the government declared a 35% salary increment for tertiary institution employees, effective from January 2023, with retrospective effect.
Furthermore, it committed to reimbursing four months’ worth of salaries from the seven and a half months withheld during the nationwide strike in 2022.
ASUU’s additional requests, such as the disbursement of Earned Academic Allowance and the lack of significant progress in renegotiating the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, have intermittently resulted in frequent strikes within government-owned universities.
He asserted that there had been no formal communication from the Federal Government (FG), indicating that everything was currently stagnant.
“Our member will decide, that is the reason we have been going on strike, even for salary review, yet, nothing has been done. Our February salary was paid with IPPIS, so nothing has been done or implemented. The government should do the needful and implement all the agreements they had with us,”
Osodeke further indicated that ASUU would imminently release a press statement detailing its decision.
