By Adesina Wahab and Johnbosco Agbakwuru

MIXED reactions have continued to trail the Federal Government removal of tertiary institutions from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, payment platform.

Recall that university-based unions had called on the government to remove university and of course tertiary institutions from the IPPIS platform as a result of the peculiarity of their duties.

While Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, had come up with its payment platform, University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, developed a preferred joint payment platform by name, University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System, U3PS.

Reacting to the removal of tertiary institutions from the IPPIS platform, the President of SSANU, Mohammed Ibrahim said that though the union called for the stoppage of paying her members through IPPIS, the government should be clear on the issue and name the new platform tertiary institutions would be paid with.

Speaking in his opening remarks at the 46th National Executive Council, NEC, meeting of the union at the Federal University of Technology, FUT Minna, Niger State, yesterday, Ibrahim urged the government to replace IPPIS with the U3PS, which he said had passed all the necessary integrity test.

He said: “We acknowledge the desire of this government and the approval to remove all tertiary institutions from the ‘almighty’ IPPIS. Yes, we faulted, yes we are not happy with IPPIS. Yes, we are happy that there is going to be a departure from the past, but I am not one of those that jump into conclusions.

“I am not a pessimist, I am an optimist, an unrepentant one but I am also very strategic in my thinking and I critique anything that comes before me. So, as I speak on behalf of this union, we thank the Federal Government for this quantum leap, but we also challenge the government to clearly tell us, we are leaving IPPIS, where are we going to? How will the transition be, who will be in charge.

“You are all aware that we challenged government as a union and we have preferred a solution that will replace IPPIS. We have gone through tests, we have gone through scrutiny. Government clearly accepted the U3PS as the best payment platform for the university system.

“So, at this juncture, what we require government to do is to ensure that IPPIS is replaced with U3PS and if for any reason there is need for marriage of convenience from any other solution that will better the lot of the system, we are amenable, we are positive and we are receptive.

“So, what we need at this point us that government should be open, transparent, and be clear with where we are going to and who will be in charge of lives in terms of payment of our salaries, emoluments and other benefits.”