The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has rejected the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as its platform for payment of lecturers.
This was during the peace movement led by the House of Representatives to resolve the ongoing face-off between the striking lecturers and the Federal Government.
In the third of a series of meetings at the instance of the leadership of the House on Thursday to broker peace, no agreement was reached.
The meeting lasted about three hours as the atmosphere was filled with tension and emotion that led to raised voices and arguments that the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, tried to manage rising tempers.
The leader of the House, Alhassan Doguwa, insisted ASUU was being unreasonable as he said there were no grounds ASUU should reject the options offered by the Federal Government to address the issue.
Doguwa added that all stakeholders including the House were on one page, while ASUU was on the other.
Doguwa angrily said;
“We must have to make progress and progress must have to start from somewhere. We agree you may still have other issues to raise but as long as we are to be guided by the submission of the head of service and the AGF, who said he has the jurisdiction and mandate to come up and address most of the concerns you have, I want to believe the end should justify the means.
“As leaders of the House, I want to urge you to allow us to make progress and the only way to make progress is for you to compromise and let us start from somewhere.”
Recall that the Account General of the Federation, Sylvia Okolieaboh, had begged ASUU to accept the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS), adding that they were ready to accommodate the peculiarities of the union on the payment platform.
He had said;
“If there are peculiarities in the university salaries system, what we need to do is to sit down with ASUU and identify them and address them in IPPIS. We are willing to accept, if the answer is yes, then the whole of the issues will be resolved.”
