Browsing: IPPIS

As the university system continues to deteriorate, ASUU, the nation’s conscience, the primary stakeholders’ union is struggling to reverse the trend that has led to persistent industrial action in the last decade. The union has consistently pushed for implementing the United Nations Fund of Population Activities (UNFPA), which specifies a 15% to 20% annual education budget for underdeveloped countries like Nigeria. However, the national budgetary spending on education has remained below 10%. It is imperative that the nation wakes up and addresses the issues raised by ASUU for a promising, glorious future.   

“The Tinubu administration announced the exit of tertiary institutions from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) since December 2023, but to our chagrin, universities are still being paid through the IPPIS platform.

I am resuming this piece with a quote from Hajia Naja’atu Mohammed who addressed the students of great ABU Zaria recently. She said, “The easiest way to destroy a nation is to withdraw education.” I must add withdrawing or denying university education to the citizenry is tantamount to catastrophic and systematic annihilation of society. Conversely, revitalization of the university education is methodological treatment of societal ailments, just like the emphasis of university education in the song of Aminu Alan waka “idan ta gyaru, al’uma ta gyaru”. Education is not only a fundamental human right but a moral obligation to the leaders – democratically elected or autocratically anointed; otherwise, the consequences of ignorance would consume both the leaders and the led.

The popular view among stakeholders that IPPIS is killing the Nigerian University System is fait accompli. IPPIS stands for Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). It is a payment platform of personnel emolument, which the Federal Government of Nigeria adopted over ten years ago to flush out ghost workers, enhance efficiency, and address the corrupt practices related to salary payments in the public sector. Have these three objectives been achieved – ghost workers removal from payrolls, efficiency enhancement, and blocking leakages? It has indeed achieved the opposite. The truth is those who were immensely corrupt are the same people at the center of IPPIS operation, a case of a thief hired to guard a property.