IPPIS pullout: COEASU commends FG, calls for action against saboteurs
By Uji A.Iliyasu
Abuja
The leadership of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has applauded the decision of the federal government to exempt tertiary institutions from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
In a release signed by COEASU president, Dr. Smart Olugbeko, the body said the government’s decision is one of
the best taken so far by the president since he assumed office, adding that by the history of the union’s long-drawn struggle against the pay platform, they are sure that certain persons in critical ministries whose parochial interests have been wounded by the president’s action will try to sabotage lecturers by putting up measures to ensure that higher institutions have problem accessing their funds, leading to shortfalls and inability to pay salaries promptly in order to seek selfish vindication for IPPIS.
He, therefore, called on FG to give IPPIS a deadline to clear all its liabilities to institutions, “as it will be detrimental to industrial tranquillity if these liabilities are transferred to the Governing Councils.”
Olegbeko urged President Tinubu and Minister of Education to be wary and take appropriate steps further by ensuring that tertiary institutions have unhindered and timely access to their pay wallets and the wallets should be well funded to take care of the needs of the institutions in the areas of monthly salaries, Peculiar Earned Academic Allowance (PEAA), sabbatical leave and recruitment of new staff to fill existing vacancies.
“Our Union is giving the assurance to Mr President and the Honourable Minister that we shall continue to play our role as a watchdog and will not allow the golden opportunity to be abused by the Provosts or Governing Councils,” he said.
The union leader further commended President Tinubu for his listening ears.
“We commend President Tinubu for hearkening to the voice of reason and taking the decisive action. This action has further shown that Mr President is not just a listening leader with great passion for fairness and smooth-running of the Nigerian education sector, he is also in charge of his administration.
“We equally commend the Honourable Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, who brought the attention of President Tinubu to the obnoxious IPPIS and its damaging effects to the education sector.
“By this development, the College of Education (COE) system in particular and the tertiary education sector in general, have been delivered from the backward bureaucratic bottlenecks, encumbrances and corrupt practices associated with the centralized pay system.
“Our exemption from IPPIS has restored normal procedure for staff recruitment as it will stop donation of staff by some opaque stakeholders. Now, the Governing Councils and Provosts will be able to perform their constitutional roles as the managers of their respective institutions; they will be able to effectively exercise their statutory control over staff recruitment, promotion, discipline and payroll administration.
“It has also ended the frustrations imposed by intractable errors of IPPIS against individual staff, such as short-payment, regular pay omission, withholding and/or delay in remittance of third party deductions, to mention just a few, he said.
The union leader further said COEASU had consistently put up a strong opposition against IPPIS as a fraudulent and ineffective platform, adding that it was sad that such a platform with its obvious lapses was allowed to wreak havoc on the education system for such a long time.
“It will take a long time before our institutions can be completely healed of the injuries caused by IPPIS. As at today, more than seventy lecturers who embarked on sabbatical leave between 2020 and 2022 were not paid salaries throughout the duration of the sabbatical leave while some were paid for few months. Also, many lecturers are still being owed salaries and IPPIS could not explain the reasons for the omission. All efforts to make IPPIS effect payment to those lecturers yielded no result.”