ISSUES IN TERTIARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Andrew A. Erakhrumen argues the need for government to fulfil its promises

Many people, particularly the stakeholders in the tertiary educational sector, were all agog over the recently well-publicised news that Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council has approved the exemption of federal tertiary educational institutions from the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS) “…with immediate effect”. Cursorily, this is a good move from this current central government if there is/are no hidden negative intention(s)! Certainly, it is not yet time for celebrations because of the long history of insincerity from several past governments concerning their promises to Nigerians. For some of us, we are, rightly, treading cautiously based on our episodic memory. While we commend this move, as it stands today, there is no “big deal” concerning the removal (exemption) of these institutions from IPPIS platform because there was no need for their forceful enrolment in the first instance. That action by the anti-intellectual former president Muhammadu Buhari and his confused and directionless co-travellers with anti-education mentality was a senseless voyage – to nowhere – in a rudderless ship powered by vain ego. While deceiving themselves and others with fake anti-corruption mantra, IPPIS succeeded in centralising “…series of fraud and other malfeasance on payrolls belonging to [federal] government…for the benefit of a few top civil servants, bureaucrats and politicians.” Yes, “corruption” is everywhere in Nigeria, now, with its greatest enablers being those in public offices!

Deep-thinking people including Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) gave reasons why government’s forceful enrolment of federal universities’ members of staff on IPPIS was inappropriate and illegal but the anti-intellectuals saw no reason with them. It was all about “we are in power and control” by those low quality public office holders and uncivil civil servants! For almost four years of this misadventure called IPPIS in tertiary educational institutions, there has not been ONE “ghost worker” discovered there while “corruption” festered in the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation through the IPPIS ‘window’. Of course, IPPIS was (is) meant to punish those ‘arrogant’ people calling themselves intellectuals, first and foremost, in Nigerian federal universities. According to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (1938–1997), it has been the case of “Sorrow, Tears and Blood” for those who know where the shoe pinches. It was, and still is, a catastrophic experience for those whose peanuts called “salaries” were ‘hanging’ somewhere for months through IPPIS! We know of people who suffered severe pain, life-threatening situations and death owing to unexpected dislocations, caused by unpaid ‘salaries’, which were not their fault! Nigerians have gone through a lot! They are still going through terrible conditions! As the years go by, it continuously appears as if all Nigerian governments are constantly set up to punish the people they were/are expected to superintend over! Why will people not “Japa”?

However, in order to not sound pessimistic (although, we still do not have a sound and convincing basis for optimism), it will be a commendable venture if the current central and other sub-national governments are trying to positively depart from the negative route established by their predecessors. History has it that no group of people, and their governments, have succeeded in moving forward, positively, with anti-intellectualism mindset and actions! Knowledge rules the world; thus, the politicians and ruling class should work with the intellectuals and intelligentsias for the benefit of the majority of the people. Currently, there is a dangerously growing wide gulf between the rulers and ruled. It will be beneficial if the ruling class get off its high horse and admit its wrongness in not engaging those producing knowledge, and their sound knowledge, in sourcing evolving solutions to societal challenges. Each society has its problems but the ruling class cannot claim to have the monopoly of knowledge for solving them! Observably, Nigerian governments are still suffering from hang-over from dictatorship inherited from military rule. The (warped) Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution that was not originally written by the people is also a challenge. Yet, it is disheartening to see those being referred to as “democrats”, before May, 1999, behaving worse than the military despots that many Nigerians fought to send back to the barracks!

To be sincere, there is currently no basis to discredit the arguments of critics who still hold the belief that there is no significant difference between the past and current central government. For instance, they ask: where is the student loan that was supposed to have been operational since September, 2023? Where are the palliatives to cushion the effects of the unprecedented astronomical increases in the price of premium motor spirit (also known as petrol) since 29^th May, 2023? Government calls it petroleum subsidy removal; the discerning knows it as petroleum price increase! Where is the demeaning N35,000 monthly palliative promised to federal government workers since September, 2023? Concerning the federal universities, where are the promotion arrears as far back as 2015/2016? Where are the unpaid salaries, for months, to many lecturers, in these universities as a result of the lacuna already identified on the IPPIS platform? Where are the earned academic allowances said to be in the 2023 budget that was signed into law? Where are the withheld eight months ‘salaries’ resulting from a strike action for which IPPIS was part of the reasons? Where are the ‘salaries’ from the ‘new salary scales’ for workers in tertiary educational institutions? The ‘new salary scales’, without collective bargaining, (with good intentions, we are told), were unilaterally adopted, by government, to be operational from January, 2023.

To some, it may (rightly or wrongly) appear too early to doubt these promises by the federal government; nonetheless, experience has been a good teacher to us. We have consistently learnt that talk is cheap especially from politicians! They will always say what they think people want to hear. Therefore, we have gone far beyond the level of being shocked by disappointment from any politician or government. Although, government’s untrustworthiness is condemnable but we are prepared for it! A government that took over power, from another, from the same political ‘party’, should not be in power for more than six months and still be promising what it has power to implement during the month it was sworn in! Or, did this federal government (and its “technical advisers” at the Bretton Woods Institutions) require six months to increase the price of petrol in what they call petroleum subsidy removal? It took only minutes (on the day this federal government was inaugurated) for the pronouncement to be made by the president! To clear doubts that this government is now departing from the old path of “promise and fail”, it should immediately defray all monetary arrears earlier-highlighted. Once this is done, the “doubting Thomas” amongst, and in, us will be easily convinced with clear facts on the table. Finally, we really hope to be proven wrong that the federal government is not trying to use this IPPIS matter as a carrot (decoy) to achieve its decades-long well-known desire to fully abandon public universities through poorer funding.

Erakhrumen teaches at the Department of Forest Resources and Wildlife Management, University of Benin, Benin City