Professors Receive as Low as N8,000 as Monthly Salary on IPPIS

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said some professors on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) introduced by the Federal Government earned as low as N8,000 as monthly salary.

Prof. Abiodun Ogunyemi, the president of the union, disclosed this on Thursday while explaining why ASUU is yet to call off its ongoing strike.

Ogunyemi, who said the federal government had made the negotiation almost impossible, explained that some university lecturers on the IPPIS were losing as much as 70 percent of their salaries while there were records of some professors receiving as low as N8,000 as their monthly salaries.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, the union President said they are waiting for the government to conduct an integrity test on the Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) created by ASUU to address challenges of IPPIS. An unlikely proposition given the government recent comments and position.

ASUU accused the Federal Government of failing to fulfill its agreements with the union since 2013, including frustrating the union plan to introduce an alternative payment system for university lecturers.

Ogunyemi said: “People are losing about 50 to 70 percent of their salaries. In fact, there were professors that were paid about N8,000 in some months on our cam­puses.

“So, we don’t expect something otherwise be­cause that platform is not meant for the university system.

“I believe our students and their parents will un­derstand. If we have lectur­ers that have not been paid for eight, nine months, how can we have that person putting in their best into the system?

“If people are going back to the universities and they will be paid half or less of their usual salaries, how can we cope with that?

“And salary is not the only issue, like I said, there were allowances that were discussed; there was the is­sue of salary scale.

“If we have been on the same salary structure for 11 years, I think our members have the right to say, No, that cannot happen. Government has made it difficult for smooth negotiation.”

ASUU has been on strike for eight months now, with Nigerian tertiary students not doing anything even before the COVID-19 started. However, with just two months left in arguable the most challenging year in human history, it is uncertain if the students will resume this year or the first quarter of 2021.

This is largely due to the fact that the Federal Government does not see UTAS created locally by the university union as an effective alternative to IPPIS it claimed has helped curb leakages and reduce ghost staff in the system.