The National Universities Commission (NUC) has sent a bill to the National Assembly to strengthen its power to withdraw the operating licenses of state universities and others which cannot be adequately funded in line with the rules setting them up.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, who announced this at the sideline of a meeting with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Abuja yesterday night (August 2), said: “a bill has been sent to the National Assembly by the NUC to strengthen its arms in terms of delisting universities where funding and other parameters are inadequate. This effort was commended as all the parties agreed that mushrooming and proliferation of state universities, some of which mock the ideals of an ivory tower, should stop.
On the issues discussed at the meeting, the minister said that the inconsistencies in the IPPIS payment were part of it, adding: “there was good interaction and documents were exchanged between IPPIS and ASUU.
“ASUU is to go back to its members so that we can have a proper update on the extent of the inconsistencies in payment. We expressed our displeasure that these things are happening – amputation of salaries, not-too-clear, foggy things happening over peoples monthly emoluments. So we have asked IPPIS and ASUU to work together over this.”
The minister said that the meeting evaluated seven key issues, with both parties expressing satisfaction with the implementation stages of what he termed “work in progress. ”
He said that some of the items in the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) were nearly done hundred percent within the timeline.
Dr. Nigige also said the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) was directed to expedite action on the integrity test on the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) which if successful, would eliminate the challenges posed by the peculiarities of the university system to the current payment platform.
The minister said that government had paid the sum of N30 billion as the University Revitalization Fund as contained in the MOA since January 2021.
The money, according to him, “is however, still lodged with the Central Bank of Nigeria, pending the conclusion of the audit report of the Implementation Committee on the use of previous funds disbursement to universities by the Ministry of Education and the National University Commission.”
“The report has been turned in , deliberated upon and both the Education Ministry and the NUC have promised to write to the Accountant General of the Federation next week for the release of the money to the NEEDS Special Account for onward disbursement to universities shortly.”
The minister said that the monies would be paid to successful universities based on the evaluation report of the committee, while those with shortcomings would be made to make up before accessing the fund.
He said that apart from the N40 billion earned allowance which the federal government had already paid, the Budget Office of the Federation showed evidence that N22 billion Earned Allowances for year 2021 was already captured in the 2021 supplementary budget of the federation, and would soon be accessed.
Dr. Ngige said that evidence was presented that promotion arrears had been paid to some universities while the Budget Office of the Federation and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation were asked to liaise with ASUU to sort out the rest.
The minister said that the standing committee on the matter had been expended to include National Income Salaries and Wages Commission .
“A situation where a university professor is paid N107, 000 out of mistake or over deduction is unacceptable.”
In his remarks, ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke expressed satisfaction with the outcome and promised that ASUU would reach out to members.
