There are strong indications that the Federal Government of Nigeria might have migrated members of the Academic Staff of Union of Nigeria University (ASUU) into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), as it was gathered that the lecturers were paid part of their salaries through the platform.
The payment of the salaries was greeted with mixed reactions as some lecturers hold that they were only paid palliatives not salaries because what was paid were less than their actual salaries.
The lecturers vowed not to return back to work until their salaries are fully paid and all demands are met.
“We were not paid any salaries. What we were paid was not up to our salaries. We were paid less than our salaries. I think the government feels that something must be paid at this Ramadan period”, a lecturer said.
As at the time of filing this report, ASUU Executive is yet to officially make a statement regarding the development.
It would be recalled that for the past three months, the Federal Government had withheld the lecturers’ salaries over their refusal to register under the IPPIS platform as the union argued that the implementation of the IPPIS was against the FG-ASUU 2009 agreement.
About two weeks ago, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered that the withheld salaries of the lecturers be paid unconditionally but the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris demanded that the vice chancellors should collect the lecturers’ Bank Verification Number (BVN) and send to his office. He added that the salaries can only be paid with BVN.
But ASUU disagreed with the AGF saying that it was illegal for the FG to have demanded for their BVN before paying their salaries stressing that their BVN would not be released to the government.
