The Academic Staff Union of Universities’ leadership has threatened that the association will go on a nationwide strike, if the Federal Government fails to repeal its decision to withhold the January salaries of lecturers who have not enrolled in the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

In a letter dated Tuesday, January 21st, 2020 and signed by the Director of IPPIS, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Olufehinti Olusegun, directed the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning not to release funds for the payment of January salaries of academic staff of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education who have not enrolled in the IPPIS platform.

ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, who blamed the government for taking such drastic measures while still in discussion with the union, said if such decision is not retracted, university lecturers in the system would be left with no other option than to down tools. According to the university don, the union and the Federal government are still discussing the IPPIS policy, and withholding salaries when dialogue is still being held is not appropriate.

Prof. Ogunyemi told The New Telegraph in a chat:

We didn’t take part in that decision. What we were expecting them to do was to allow the ongoing discussion to run its full course. Now that we are reading about this in the media, it’s as if some elements in government are trying to sabotage the process. We came out of the meeting with Mr. President believing that they will give us room to explain how the UTAS will better address our peculiarities and autonomy than IPPIS. However, they have not allowed that to happen. We suspect it’s due to the activities of some individuals or groups that are trying to sabotage the process.

If they push us to the point of taking our final decision about it, we too will tell them ‘no pay, no work’ because we have a resolution that is on ground already. The resolution we took long time ago, which we reactivated at our meeting in Minna last month. So, whichever way they want to go, ASUU will rise to the challenge.

When asked if ASUU would issue an ultimatum to the Federal Government to repeal its decision, he said:

I have worked for one month somebody is saying you are not paying me for that month, do I need to give you ultimatum to tell you that I can no longer work until you pay me?

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.