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The student body also commended the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) for its resilience and tenacity in the struggle that has
led to the eventual removal of universities, polytechnics, colleges of
education and other tertiary institutions from IPPIS.
Recall that the Federal Executive Council presided by
President Bola Tinubu had Wednesday approved the exemption of tertiary
institutions from IPPIS in response to strident demand by ASUU and other staff
unions of the institutions for them to be exempted from Federal Government
payment platform because of inherent peculiarities.
Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Maman, who conveyed
the decision of the FEC after its weekly meeting on Wednesday, said the
Vice-Chancellors and other heads of the affected institutions have gotten
relief to embark on recruitment exercise without recourse to the Head of
Service of the Federation.
The minister said the president had directed that the Vice
Chancellor be taken out of the platform that made recruitment difficult to
ensure efficient management of those education institutions.
Mamman said: “Simply, the president and the council are just
concerned about the efficiency of management of the universities and so it has
nothing to do with integrity or options of platforms.
“The president cannot understand why Vice Chancellors should
be leaving their duty post and run to Abuja to get staff enlisted on IPPIS when
they get recruited.
“The basic concern is that universities are governed by
laws. And those laws give them autonomy in certain respects and most respects
and the IPPIS has sort of eroded that autonomy granted universities in
accordance with their act.”
NANS President, Comrade Lucky Emonefe, in a statement he
personally signed and made available to newsmen on Thursday in Abuja, said the
laudable decision of the government was a big relief to tertiary institutions
in the country.
Emonefe said apart from ensuring efficient management of
tertiary institutions, the removal of universities from IPPIS platform he noted
had been characterized with enormous challenges, would go a long way in
addressing one of the root causes of incessant strike actions by ASUU and its
debilitating effects on students in Nigeria.
He noted that the genuine agitation by ASUU for the
government to exempt universities from IPPIS payment platform overtime had been
unnecessarily resisted by government officials in defiance to the Universities
autonomy and laws establishing the institutions.
“We commend the Federal Executive Council presided by
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for this landmark decision. Government is about
people and we have seen that FEC has demonstrated this by bowing to the demands
by staff unions in tertiary institutions for them to be excluded from
enrollment on IPPIS platform because of certain peculiarities in running of the
institutions.
“We also commend the staff unions, especially members ASUU
for their resilience and tenacity in the struggle to ensure better funding and
smooth running of tertiary institutions in Nigeria as it is done all over the
world.
“We urge the Federal and state governments to accede to
other demands of ASUU and other staff unions of tertiary institutions in order
to achieve the needed industrial harmony that will guarantee an uninterrupted
academic calendar in higher education in Nigeria.