The Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Is-haq Oloyede has disagreed with the Federal Government over the adoption of the controversial Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as a payment platform for university workers, saying the policy is totally unsuitable for the university system.
He also condemned the proliferation of universities, particularly the specialised ones in the country, saying the action is diversionary and counter-productive to an ideal university system.
He said it would be in order should all hands be on deck to put pressure on the government to drop particularly IPPIS in the universities for a more robust payment system that could be given any name.
He said it didn’t take this position to pacify the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which has been consistently at loggerhead with the federal government against the new payment platform but for his understanding that the system is unable to capture the peculiarities to run an effective university system.
Prof Oloyede made these positions as a guest speaker at a virtual lecture organised by a committee of friends of Prof Peter Okebukola, a former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) to mark his 71st birthday anniversary on Thursday night.
He spoke on “Synchronizing cacophony: Interrogating some issues of concepts and perception in Nigerian higher education topology.” and no fewer than 50 professors majority of whom are current and former vice-chancellors of universities in and outside Nigeria including Prof Ayo Banjo (UI), Prof Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello (LASU, Ojo), Prof Eyitope Ogunbodede (OAU, Ile-Ife), Prof Nimi Briggs (UNIPORT), Prof Elisabeta Olarinde (ABUAD), Prof Angela Mini (Federal University, Lokoja), Prof Olufemi Peters (NOUN), Prof Michael Faborode (OAU), Prof Yemisi Obilade (TASUED, Ijagun), Prof Ayo Bamgbose, Prof William Qurix, Prof Sola Akinrinade (LASU) and a host of others were in attendance,
Speaking further, Oloyede, who is a former vice-chancellor of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) said it was that the university could not operate a centralized payment system which the IPPIS tries to portend but the fact is that the way the payment platform is composed truly does not address the peculiarities of a university system apart from also violating the provisions and other extant statutes governing tertiary education in the country.
According to him, the enrolment of tertiary institutions, particularly universities into the IPPIS will not only be counterproductive and injurious to national development but also a policy summersault.
He noted that bringing payment of salaries and allowances of university workers under the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, for example, is uncalled for, particularly on the premise that such integration with its attendant bureaucratic bottleneck is completely strange to the traditional vision and mission of university system anywhere globally.
He also said for the vice-chancellors and other university officers must have to get to Abuja irrespective of distance before obtaining approvals for money that may not even be forthcoming would not only be too costly but also risky.
He said it would be better to leave such financial monitoring and supervisory roles with the National Universities Commission (NUC) as it was the practice before
He said the continuous use of IPPIS would certainly worsen the existing situation in the universities where replacing retired or deceased lecturers, for example, has become very difficult.
He said it would make the tertiary education runs the risk of more exposure and initiation into the corruption-laden public service with catastrophic effects on university administration.
He said the exclusion from IPPIS of the Judiciary and Legislature as well as certain agencies of government such as Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and other big public agencies have further strengthened the argument that the IPPIS actually lacks the aura of sanctity or indispensability it claims to portend.
Oloyede said funding of research activities, as another example, cannot be subjected to the strict civil service tradition where at the end of each budget year, unspent funds are mopped up into the treasury.
“The global best practice is such that university budgets are rolled over from one year to the other since the gestation period of different research works may span more than one year.
“So, the implementation of IPPIS in tertiary institutions would also have huge negative impacts on the research activities in tertiary schools.”
On the proliferation of universities, especially the specialised ones by the security-related agencies, Oloyede who also expressed displeasure over poor remuneration package for teachers in the country, said only three universities at most in that regard should be enough for the country, making reference to the long-existing Nigerian Defence Academy for the Military, Nigeria Police Academy for the Police and other Paramilitary Forces as well as the National Institute of Security Studies (for the intelligence communities) if needs be.
“But the avalanche of conventional and civilian-dominated “Military” universities such as the Nigerian Army University Biu, the Air Force Institute of Technology, Kaduna, and the Navy’s Admiralty University of Nigeria (ADUN) are diversionary from the core mandate of the Armed Forces particularly if the military insists on perpetual involvement in the management and control of such universities.
“Even it has been reported now that the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) are in the process of establishing their own universities in addition to the Nigerian Port Authority’s troubled Maritime University of Nigeria and another (proposed) Air Force University in Bauchi.
He said it was not that such universities would not offer knowledge but that the military should as soon as possible divest its interest from such institutions to avoid the temptation of distraction from its core duty which is the securitization of the corporate entity known as Nigeria.
“So, there are many issues in tertiary education in the country that need to be addressed for positive impact on the system and the country’s economy,” he said.
In their separate remarks, the participants including the 83-year-old Prof Ayo Banjo and the vice-chancellor of OAU, Ile-Ife, Prof Eyitope Ogunbodede, said they are in agreement with Prof Oloyede’s positions on the IPPIS and various other issues raised as a way to genuinely lift the university education in the country to a greater height.
They also extolled Prof Okebukola’s virtues, saying his contributions to education across levels and mankind is unquantifiable and well appreciated.
They described him as a great mentor and wished him more fruitful years ahead.
In his remark, Prof Okebukola, who is currently the chairman of the governing council of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) thanked the organisers and the scores of professors including the 90-year-old Prof Ayo Bamgbose and the octogenarian Ayo Banjo and other participants at the webinar, saying he is greatly overwhelmed by their showing of love.
He said he is so much allied with the recommendations of the JAMB registrar on all the issues raised even as he proposed to constitute a committee to harmonize and review those recommendations and present them as a communiqué to the policymakers for consideration.
He said the education sector particularly the tertiary level is not doing well and would therefore need to be totally overhauled for the development of the country. (Tribune)
