ASUU strike: Beyond IPPIS (2)

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No Nigerian head of state has ever extended even a small handshake to a first class graduate at a convocation ceremony on a university campus in Nigeria. Is it not a thing of honour and glory to make a first class degree in the university? Nigerian leaders develop the leg and not the brain. They fund campaign rallies and other jamborees not education.

Continued from Tuesday

Jeff Godwin Doki

Let’s move to the current but thorny issue: the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System. The first, and by far, the most worrisome aspect of the IPPIS is the fact that it is a blatant violation of the concept of university autonomy. University autonomy is a global practice associated with universities all over the world and it has four main dimensions namely: academic, organizational, financial and staff autonomy. The concept of financial University autonomy, for example, empowers Universities to decide freely on internal financial matters like managing its funds independently and setting its strategic aims and all the agreements signed between ASUU and the Federal Government since 1992 have given Nigerian universities the powers to operate in compliance with their enabling laws, statutes and regulations. By threatening to coerce ASUU to join the IPPIS, the Federal Government is not only violating the agreement it is also demonstrating that it has no sense of honour. This is as much as to say that the government has ignited the present crisis in the university system by resorting to a show of force to compel ASUU to join the IPPIS. This is a clear example of coercion and intimidation which is not only preposterous but also devoid of honour.

But the most irksome aspect of the IPPIS saga is the mischief and propaganda of the Federal Government and its representatives. The Nigeria media is awash with tales that ASUU rejects the IPPIS in an effort to derail the present fight against corruption. Well, it has been judiciously observed before that the rot in the university system in Nigeria is facilitated by the criminal role of Nigerian leaders both past and present. What is more worrisome for now is the fact that government officials have become megaphones of deceit who can promise to build a bridge even where there is no river. It is desperately important to stress that the ASUU-FGN agreement, apart from conferring immense powers on University Governing Councils, also contains a particular mechanism for checking the excesses or otherwise of the Governing Councils. According to this arrangement, the Visitor of the university is expected to visit every public university in Nigeria at least once in every five years in order to assess the manner in which Vice Chancellors and Governing Councils conduct and run the affairs of public universities. To put it differently, the visitation panels are a mechanism for checking corruption on Nigerian university campuses. But more than that, in order to show its total commitment to the ideals of transparency, honesty and accountability, ASUU has proposed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution in place of the IPPIS. This particular platform is presently being developed by ASUU and its researchers for the financial administration of the payroll and accounting process for all Federal Universities in Nigeria. It is expected that the UTAS platform will take care of all peculiarities associated with the remuneration of external examiners, facilitators, sabbatical staff, examination moderators and many other financial aspects that were neither envisaged nor captured in the IPPIS.

READ ALSO: Covid-19: ASUU want FG to Justify N1.1trn Emergency Fund

As things stand presently, it is important to correctly ascribe responsibility for the current crisis in the university system. ASUU is on strike because we have a leadership that has refused to live up to its primary responsibility of providing education for all its citizens. ASUU is on strike because we have a ruling class that is determined to destroy public universities. To this must be added the fact that the neglect of education in Nigeria has left the public university system paralysed. But most importantly, the present ASUU strike is beyond IPPIS. Perhaps, when the coronavirus pandemic subsides in the not-too-distant future our children will still remain at home with their parents because the Nigerian leadership has no sense of honour.

Concluded

Doki is a writer and Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Jos

Source: Punch Newspaper