8 January 2020
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| Front view of the main entrance of the University of Calabar |
The Chair of the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities ASUU in the University of Calabar, Dr Edor J. Edor addressed members of the Union over the stance of ASUU in respect of the controversial FG IPPIS programme NEGROIDHAVEN can say authoritatively.
Edor made two addresses on 25th December 2019 titled ‘From the Staple of ASUU UNICAL: On 2019 Xmas Day’, and 1st January 2020 christened ‘And What Shall We Lose?’ where he was seen to be eulogising and encouraging his members to be steadfast in their resolve against FG’s payrolling decision.
In his first address, Edor who described the IPPIS as menacing and intimidating informed that the Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) has been evolved by ASUU as an alternative to the IPPIS. According him, the UTAS suits the peculiarities of the University.
His words reads in part, ‘Comrades and Compatriots… Indeed, the sail has been rough and tempestuous. We have been confronted with grotesque industrial aquatic monsters: Promotion criteria, Promotion arrears, Implementation of promotions, Salary arrears, Discrepancy in salaries, Arrears of EAA, and most recently and sensationally: IPPIS. We have never shied away from constructively confronting these industrial vagaries that steadily threaten the sustenance of industrial harmony in our workplace.
‘IPPIS emerged with a menacing and an intimidating posturing. Our members proved themselves heroes and heroines. We resisted the bravado, recklessness and calamitous impunity of the Office of the Account General of the Federation (OAGF). The daring attempt from the said office is one that found itself dead on arrival. We salute the unwavering courage of the majority of our members who resisted this sinister disaster, while we encourage the minority of our members who drifted for some reason(s) or (the) other(s) to realise that: united we bargain, divided we beg.
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| Edor Edor PhD. ASUU UCB chairperson |
‘As at today, the irrepressible President of our great Union has officially announced the development of a salary payment system that is congenial with the peculiarities of the University: the Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS). It is hoped that this will put pay to the grandstanding of the OAGF.
‘We commend the exceptional intelligence and security dexterity of ASUU UCB IPPIS Non-registration Committee. On behalf of our Branch, we say thank you.’
In his ‘And What Shall We Lose?’-themed statement, the ASUU chief who labelled Nigerian leaders as unrepentant capitalists added that logic has been inverted which has been accepted.
According to him, ‘There is a portentous intensification of social contradictions in Nigeria today. Our unrepentant capitalist leaders have inverted logic, the abnormal is now the acceptable. Karl Marx had said that the intensification of social contradictions is a pointer to the debacle of bourgeoisie megalomania. Chinua Achebe said, when the gods want to kill a dog, they first make it go mad.
‘Comrades, it is the beating of the drums of industrial solidarity that should be objectified by the Nigerian workers now. This opportunity must not slip. The final fall of oppression, the obliteration of servitude, the cremation of exploitation, and the liberation of the working class stare us right in the face. The capitalist exploiters will wish to break our ranks, they will blackmail us, they will engage media and political vuvuzelas, but their antics will be up against a Union whose resolve is as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar.
‘And in the event of a face-off, what shall we lose ? We lose nothing but our chains, and gain our freedom. Solidarity forever! Aluta continua! Victoria acerta!’
IPPIS is Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System that is designed to curb payroll fraud in Nigerian Universities. The Federal Government is planning to enrol employees in tertiary institutions on this platform to ensure no academic staff cheats the system when it comes to payment of salary. ASUU has seriously opposed this idea on the basis that the electronic payroll system violates university autonomy and does not capture the peculiarities of the profession.
