For months on end now, it’s been a seemingly futile standoff between the Nigerian Federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over school resumption.

ASUU has been insistent on keeping the strike going unless their demands are met, but the government wants them to resume lectures so that academic sessions can begin, and students can get back to learning.

It’s almost common knowledge that the minimum wage is a write-off, considering global standards and exchange rates, but this case is surprising even for the Nigerian government – picture a professor earning less than ₦10,000 a month.

The President of ASUU, Professor Abiodun Ogunyemi, disclosed to Channels TV that the government is being increasingly difficult to negotiate with over the age-old issue of their social welfare and, of course, the disagreement between both bodies on signing with the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). According to the professor, they are not going to settle with any offer that largely inconveniences the academic union, and this payment system does just that.

To put things in context, the IPPIS is a payment system created in 2007 by the government to pay government employees after sorting out taxes. It also aims to save money by eliminating payment to ghost workers, and weeding out corrupt practices within the educational system.

The statement on the official site reads:

“The IPPIS Secretariat is a Department under the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation responsible for payment of salaries and wages directly to Government employee’s bank account with appropriate deductions and remittances of 3rd party payments such as; Federal Inland Revenue Service, State Boards of Internal Revenue, National Health Insurance Scheme, National Housing Fund, Pension Fund Administrator, Cooperative Societies, Trade Unions Dues, Association Dues and Bank Loans.“

However, academic staff that enrolled in the system have come out to express regret. According to some reports, the system is said to have underpaid staff. The IPPIS is also said to have cut down on lecturers salaries up to 80%, with some professors reportedly receiving just ₦8,000 as salaries.

This discrepancy has been one of the main issues keeping the lecturers from resuming.

Speaking on the IPPIS, Abiodun noted that the issue of the payment system dates back to 2013 when the IPPIS was first introduced to them. It was rejected by his predecessors on grounds that it seemed tailor-made for civil servants.

“So we said, well, let’s constitute a joint team to think of alternatives or to work out an alternative and we were prepared. So we submitted the names of our members, our representatives and we’re expecting them to get back to us since 2014. It was just 2019 the government came back to see where it is.” Mr. Biodun said.

He accused the government of selectively paying lectures who are yet to be enrolled into the IPPIS.

“There are three scenarios playing out on our campuses of the federal universities. We have those who have not been paid anymore salaries since February till date. We have then the second scenario in which lecturers have been paid up to June 2020, then the third category is where lecturers have not been paid since July.”

ASSU has refused to continue with this system and has insisted to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to replace it with a more transparent one, one that will pay academic staff their deserved salaries.

The proposed system suggested by Abiodun is the University Accountability and Transparency system UTAS, a homegrown payment platform created by the Union. And he has stated that this system will be every bit as transparent as they had promised the IPPIS would be.

The government has however asked the union to continue with the IPPIS with promise that the UTAS system will be implemented sometime in the future, but the union has refused, stating that the IPPIS undermines the autonomy of universities.

The government, in turn, has also written university managements to prepare to stop lecturers salaries from November if they do not call off their strike and enrol on IPPIS.