University lecturers have threatened a strike action over the Federal Government’s plan to withhold the January salary of some of their colleagues who failed to enroll on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
The lecturers under aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) issued the threat in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
The ASUU National President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, said a circular by the Federal Government calling for the enrollment was uncalled for, as the union is still engaging the government on the issue.
Ogunyemi’s reaction was against the backdrop of a directive from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), asking the Finance Minister not to release funds meant for January salaries of lecturers yet to enroll on IPPIS.
“ASUU has a resolution, that, should government go ahead to stop the salaries of our workers on the account of the IPPIS, we shall invoke our own resolution of “No Pay, No Work’’. So, that is where we stand.
“We believed that we are engaging them and we believe they will give us the opportunity to demonstrate the aspect of our proposed alternative to IPPIS which we think will address the peculiarities.
“But if that circular is true and they want to go ahead and stop the salaries of our workers, we shall react and respond appropriately.
The ASUU president also said that he felt that the meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari three weeks ago, was to find solution to the matter.
“We thought our meeting with Mr President as we understood is that we should meet and see where there are common grounds and see how we can integrate the two platforms,” he said.
The union had proposed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to address the peculiar cases of lecturers in the payment of salaries and other emoluments.
A letter from the OAGF dated Jan. 23 requested the Minister of Finance and National Planning to stop the release of funds for the payment of January salary of affected academic staff. (NAN)
