Some professors paid N8,000 monthly – ASUU

 

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Thursday blamed the Federal Government for the prolonged strike in the nation’s varsities.

Speaking on Channels Television programme ‘Politics Today’, ASUU president, Prof. Abiodun Ogunyemi, said that they are waiting for the government to conduct an integrity test on the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), a homegrown payment platform created by ASUU in place of the government’s Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

Ogunyemi said due to the IPPIS structure, some university lecturers are losing up to 70 percent of their salaries while some professors received N8,000 as monthly salaries for several months.

“People are losing about 50 to 70 percent of their salaries. In fact, there were professors that were paid about N8,000 in some months in our campuses. So, we don’t expect something otherwise because that platform is not meant for the university system”.

“I believe our students and their parents will understand. If we have lecturers that have not been paid for eight, nine months, how can we have that person putting in their best into the system?  If people are going back to the universities and they will be paid half or less of their usual salaries, how can we cope with that?”

“And salary is not the only issue like I said, there were allowances that were discussed; there was the issue of the salary scale. If we have been on the same salary structure for 11 years, I think our members have the right to say ‘No, that cannot happen. Government has made it difficult for smooth negotiation”.