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Director General (DG) of the Bureau of Public Service Reform (BPSR), Dr Dasuki Arabi has said the ongoing strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is not a justifiable cause if it is about the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Dr Arabi made this known on Wednesday at a workshop on blockchain technology organized by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Arabi was speaking on the application of emerging technologies in public sector reforms when he revealed that at the time when the IPPIS was being developed, ASUU was invited to make inputs but the union refused to honour the invitation.
He stressed that the IPPIS is a robust tool that can be amended to accommodate different and various interest, adding that if the strike embarked upon by the universities lecturers is about the IPPIS, then the strike was not a justifiable cause.
“When we were developing IPPIS, we invited ASUU to make inputs, but they refused to honour our invitation. They did not even come to say we have an option as at that time. They just did not come. So, we had no option than to design IPPIS the way it is.
“But it [IPPIS] is such a robust tool that can be amended to accommodate different and various interest. That is it on the battle of strike. So, if it is IPPIS, on this side, I think it is not a justifiable cause,” Arabi said.
On the issue of funding for ASUU, the BPSR D-G advised that public-private partnership model should be adopted to fund education in the country, stressing that government alone cannot fund education.
“That was why I spoke about PPP. It is definitely very difficult for government, especially Nigeria to meet the demands of ASUU, not only ASUU, but to be able to fund education the way it should be funded.
“But, the more we adopt emerging technologies, open up the system, get more transparent, nations, development partners, investors will come and invest in our educational system and some of these problems would be addressed,” Arabi said.
Recall that ASUU embarked on the ongoing strike starting from February 14th 2022 to press home their demands. The striking lecturers are agitating for the implementation of the memorandum of action agreed between the government and ASUU, including improved funding and removal from IPPIS.
The union provided the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as it’s preferred tool for receiving payments and other earned allowances in the place of IPPIS.
However, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has said UTAS passed user acceptability test but failed integrity and credibility test, which form the bulwark against hacking.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the striking lecturers requested the FG to release N200 billion from the N4 trillion fuel subsidy to them and they will suspend the months old strike immediately.