The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has urged President Bola Tinubu’s government to consider merging the payment platforms developed by university unions.

SSANU president Mohammed Ibrahim made the call in a communique issued on Monday in Abuja at the end of the union’s 44th National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at Michael Okpara University, Abia.

The statement noted that the merger became necessary due to the recent fraud in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

University workers blamed inconsistencies and IPPIS’s failure to capture the university system’s peculiarities for their rejection. To address the peculiarities, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) developed the University Transparency Accountability System (UTAS) to pay salaries and allowances of university lecturers.

Also, the Joint Action Committee of SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) developed the Universities Peculiar Personnel Payroll System (U3PS) to address its issues.

“It is on record that the payment platform is fraught with the same corruption that the federal government claims it wants to fight with it. NEC in session is demanding that federal government should consider merging the payment platforms developed by ASUU (UTAS) and that of JAC of SSANU and NASU (U3PS) since it is on record that the platforms are capable of addressing the peculiarities of the University system,” he said.

He also said NEC renewed its call on the federal government to urgently pay the four-month withheld salaries owed its members in the interest of industrial harmony in the country’s tertiary education sector.

Mr Ibrahim stated, “Let it be known to the government that our members are yet to recover from the effect of the hardship caused by the withholding of their four months’ salaries and may not recover from it unless the government does something about it. NEC in session views government posture and position on the matter as unfair and unfortunate. We are well aware that salaries for those months were prepared.”

The statement added, “NEC, therefore, calls on the government to urgently pay the arrears of our members’ withheld salaries without further delay.” 

(NAN)