Agency Report/
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says it would embark on an indefinite nationwide strike if the federal government fails to pay the salaries of its members who did not enroll in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
Christian Opata, chairman of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) chapter, disclosed this on Wednesday, while briefing journalists.
He spoke shortly after UNN-ASUU congress convened to brief members on the outcome of the national executives council (NEC) meeting held recently in Minna, the Niger capital.
Opata said that the union was not bothered about federal government’s threat of “no work no pay”, adding that ASUU was used to government’s threats.
“If government makes good its threat that academic staff that did not enroll will not receive salary, ASUU has no option than to embark on an indefinite nationwide strike,” he said.
“ASUU has told government that if it wants its members to enroll in IPPIS, government should first amend the law creating public universities that granted them autonomy.
“ASUU is waiting on government’s final decision on IPPIS enrollment in public universities before the union will take its own final decision.”
Opata said that about 50 of the 153 ASUU members at the varsity that enrolled in the IPPIS have indicated interest to withdraw from the system, since they registered out of misinformation.
“In this congress, I briefed members on NEC’s last meeting in Minna, where ASUU leadership insisted that IPPIS is illegal and a complete violation of university autonomy and agreement between government and ASUU,” he said.
“During this congress, 50 lecturers, who have wrongly enrolled said they will withdraw their enrollment in IPPIS immediately.”
The chairman said the congress agreed to publish the names of all the 153 lecturers, who enrolled in IPPIS in UNN-ASUU notice board so that members will know them.
“ASUU-UNN will issue queries to these defaulting members as well as forward their names to national body for appropriate sanction,” he said.
“This is because ASUU national body said from the beginning that IPPIS enrollment is a complete violation of university autonomy and illegal.”
President Muhammadu Buhari had issued a directive over IPPIS to manage the payment of the salaries of all federal government workers while mandating that anyone not registered on the platform will not be paid.
ASUU had rejected the new system, accusing the federal government of designing it to suppress the masses in the guise of fighting corruption.
The union had previously threatened strike which was later suspended pending further meetings with the government.
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