ASUU Suspends Proposed Strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has suspended its proposed strike over Federal Government’s directive to enroll its members into the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that when President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2020 budget proposal before lawmakers on Oct. 8, 2019, he vowed that Federal Government Employees not captured on the IPPIS platform by 31st Oct. 2019 would no longer be receiving their salaries.
President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, in a phone interview, noted that the union had decided to maintain status quo, pending further meetings. ASUU had, at different fora, rejected the deadline, stating that universities operated differently from the civil service and should, therefore, not be seen as appendages of ministries, departments and agencies of government. He said: “What we have been saying is that the reaction of our members will depend on what happens in the government. Our members will meet at the appropriate time to take appropriate decision. “The Senate has intervened in the matter and we are engaging the Senate, the Senate has appealed to us for now. When they pay other workers, they pay them also.” According to him, the union is proposing another template which would factor in the peculiarities of the universities and promote their interest. “The point we are making is that we have visited the Senate President, told him that there is an alternative to IPPIS. The IPPIS, as we see it, will not promote the interest of the university. There is no university or country in the world where the payment of university workers is centralised with the government.” (NAN)