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From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
The outgoing Vice Chancellor of the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Prof Ganiu Olatunji Olatunde, has advised the federal government to incorporate some of the components of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS), to put an end to the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Olatunde, who was a former chairman of ASUU at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) and Zonal Chairman of the Union, maintained that the lingering crisis between the FG and ASUU can be amicably resolved if the payment platform of the government could incorporate critical components of the UTAS.
The VC noted that the integration of UTAS into the IPPS must be worked out to accommodate the peculiarities of the university system, particularly lecturers’ salaries and their allowances.
Prof Olatunde, who gave this position during an ‘Exit Media Chat’ in his office to mark the end of his five-year tenure as the Vice Chancellor of the OOU, Ago Iwoye, expressed his worries over the incessant strike actions embarked on by lecturers and non-academic staff unions, which according to him, had almost crippled the university education.
He called for an alternative mechanism for resolving industrial disputes between lecturers and FG, declaring that strike is a setback for the educational system in the country.
“Strike is a setback for us in this country, we are praying and hoping that we will have a way of resolving our issues without going on strike.”
“Must we have IPPIS? Why can’t we look at those things in UTAS and put them in the IPPIS such that it can give a faultless platform?
“Those things that are peculiar to UTAS input them in IPPIS to improve it and that is the thing we are now coming back to.
“If the government had ceded IPPIS, the non-academic unions will say the FG must accept their own too, others will want to bring their own too, so the FG will never agree. The federal government will never agree because it will drag them in the mud because they will say our own is superior.
“But, rather than change or allow your own (IPPIS) to come in, let us make those things in our own (UTAS) and put them in the IPPIS, so that another group will not stand up and say accept our own too and that is where we are heading to now.
“The ASUU has agreed that the components of those best things in UTAS should be incorporated in the IPPIS, and for me, that is the best way to go,” the VC stated.
Speaking on his tenure as the VC, Olatunde disclosed that his administration enhanced the security architecture of the university, improved the environment and infrastructures to make it attractive and conducive for learning and secured over 90 per cent full accreditation for the university courses.
He added that under his watch, OOU rose from 38th position on the Webo Metric ranking to 17th, while the number of students seeking admission rose from 3,000 to 20,000.
The VC, who commended the principal officers and management team for their support, said the university witnessed no crisis in the last five years, disclosing that the ICT intervention carried out made OOU the first university in Nigeria to use artificial intelligence to conduct post-UTME tests for prospective students.
While calling for the support of the university management for his successor, Professor Agboola Ayodeji Johnson, Olatunde disclosed that 33 projects embarked upon by his administration were completed, while six were at the completion stage.
