Emerging report indicates that the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities, SSANU, has asked the President Muhammadu Buhari Federal Government to ensure a fair sharing of the N40 billion earned allowances approved for University Unions last week.
It stated that the Federal Government should ensure that the money passes through Universities Councils, which it said has the template for the sharing formula.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, and Leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, had last week, agreed to increase the earned allowances for University Unions from N35 billion to N40 billion, during a meeting in Abuja, on Friday.
The government also agreed to exempt ASUU from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, pending the vetting of its proposed payment system, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS.
However, the President of SSANU, Mohammed Ibrahim, who addressed Journalists, said that his Union would resist the introduction of any other payment platform, “except the one being conceived by the Joint Action Committee, comprising of SSANU, and the Non-Academic Staff Union”.
Ibrahim also warned the government to be “wary of any group or Union that would present any payment platform, apart from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, which is the one recognised by the government, to curb corruption within the system”.
His words: “We are, however, not unaware of the prevailing industrial unrest in the University system, and if allowing them a share out of the N40 billion promised by the government to end the industrial action is the sacrifice we can make, we would be willing to do so.
“If, however, we discover any attempt to allocate the disbursement through the Ministry of Education, or any other government office, and not through the Councils as prescribed by law, we shall resist such attempt with all arsenals available.
“We are ready to take the government head-on, if an unjust disbursement of earned allowances is contemplated. I wish to tell people who think that way, that they may be in for a shocker.”
More news later…
