AAU cautions on IPPIS, tasks FG on insecurity

The Ambrose Alli University (AAU) Ekpoma chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday expressed dismay over Federal Government’s alleged attempt to coerce members of the union in federal tertiary institutions to enrol in the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

A statement by the chairperson and secretary, Dr. Monday Lewis Igbafen and Dr. Anthony Aigbogun Aizebioje Coker, titled, “Government and its antics over IPPIS, 2019 MoA and renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement: A call on government to repent of its sins”, the chapter regretted the controversy, accusations, and counter-accusations trailing the IPPIS enrolment.

Igbafen said ASUU AAU condemned “government’s insistence on the matter,” alleging: “The whole idea of IPPIS was nothing but an attack on the union to distract it from core critical issues of concluding the renegotiation of 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement and the conclusive implementation of the subsequent Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs), including that of the 2019 Memorandum of Agreement (MoA).”

The union urged government to have a rethink on the project, pointing out the potential dangers the policy pose to the university system.

Igbafen therefore implored the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to excuse the academia from the initiative to protect its sanctity.

He advised government to back down on its threat to withhold salaries of ‘non-compliant’ members, warning that such action would be met with stiff resistance.

The union consequently called on the government to “demonstrate the sincerity of purpose by fully implementing the 2019 Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) and conclude the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement without further delay.”

The Edo varsity’s Congress of ASUU also restated its resolve to mobilise members for all directives of the national leadership of the union, especially on “government’s failure in respect of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement, 2019 MoA and IPPIS conundrum.”

Igbafen equally decried the pervasive insecurity in the country, particularly killings, robberies and kidnappings on the nation’s highways.

He spoke against the backdrop of the recent killing of Professor Jerome Boluwaji Elutayo Elusiyan of the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Obafemi Awolowo University, (OAU) Ife, at the Iruekpen end of the Benin-Auchi expressway.

The don consequently enjoined government at all levels to address the menace headlong with a view to ending the “unnecessary waste of lives of Nigerians.”

The chapter thus condoled with the family of late professor, the OAU branch of the union as well as the entire university community.