The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has said the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), as a payment platform for university workers, is unsuitable for the Nigerian university system.
The former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), who categorically stated that he was not a fan of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), said the union had a point to fight for their pay.
Oloyede said this during a virtual lecture, titled: Synchronising Cacophony: Interrogating Some Issues of Concepts and Perception in the Nigerian Higher Education Topology, in honour of a former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Peter Okebukola, on his 71st birthday.
He said: “I am not a fan of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), but they have a point here. IPPIS is unsuitable for the university system.
“Let me cite an instance. When I was the VC at the University of Ilorin, I went to Australia on an official assignment and there I met a Nigerian with PhD in Botany, where we lacked the manpower.
“I spoke with the man and convinced him of the need to work with us, and he agreed. Immediately, I put a call to the Dean of the Faculty of Science and told him about the development. That was how we secured the services of the man. He is now a professor in one of the nation’s universities.”
In the lecture, Oloyede called for moderation in the setting up of universities by government agencies.
The JAMB registrar noted that there were existing institutions to cater for the training of other agencies.
He advised the government to instead focus on adequate funding of the existing universities across the country.