In a couple of weeks ago, there have been outcries comingfrom the public since a directive was issued to university staff to enroll into
Integrated Payroll and PersonnelInformation System (IPPIS) and the apparent resistance by Academic Staff Unionof Universities, ASUU. The public is alleging that academic staff of Nigerianuniversities typically holds multiple appointments, at the expense of theunemployed. This allegation exposes the ignorance of majority of the public onthe structure, needs and workings of the academic institutions. On the otherhand, the ASUU’s resistance is rationally seen by many well-meaning Nigeriansas unjustifiable. Hence the need to educate the public on the peculiarity ofacademic institutions and call on ASUU to sheathe its sword.The public must accept the fact that every sector has itsown peculiarities. In the health sector for instance, hospitals are allowed tohire expertise in a particular field of medicine to work on temporaryappointment as locum, visiting consultant, sabbatical etc. This is because notall the hospitals would have specialists in all the areas of medicine, in factvirtually none. Therefore these few expertise shuttles between hospitals tocater for the needs of special case patients. Similar to health, tertiaryeducation, especially university system has its own peculiarities. Teachingstaff recruitment is typically done based on the need of an academicdepartment/faculty. Apart from permanent staff who are drawn from various fieldof specialisation of the department and the spread of rank in accordance withNigeria University Commission’s benchmark, there are other types of ‘temporary’academic appointments a department may require due to its peculiar needs.
These temporary appointments may include, but not limited tosabbatical, visiting, part time, adjunct, external examiner, external moderatoretc. All of these appointments are part of condition of service as well asstructure of almost every university in the world. It is not peculiar to ASUUalone. For example, sabbatical is a one year leave given to Senior Lecturer andabove every sixth year. During the year, the academic staff will take up anappointment with another university or industry, with a view to gain newexperience and widen the impact of the staff. Similarly, a department may be inneed of an expert in the field of, say, Logistics Management of a particularhigher rank, which all of the available ones might have been engaged elsewhereor the university may not afford to recruit on permanent basis. Such expertiseare recruited on visiting Lecturer basis.
External examiner or moderator are another examples ofpeculiarities of university system, where experts are temporarily engaged toreview students’ projects/thesis and examination question papers and markingschemes with a view to establish some external validity of the students’ finalyear projects, postgraduate thesis and assessment respectively. All of theseare part and parcel of the university system and well endorsed by the very regulatoryagency appointed by government to supervise the university system (NUC).Therefore the public must appreciate these facts and stop the exaggeration;otherwise it may be termed as envy!
The government too must unconditionally capture all thepeculiarities of tertiary institutions, otherwise the standards will fall andquality of graduates will be at the lowest ebb.
On the other hand, I am yet to be convinced on the reasonwhy universities should not be enrolled into IPPIS. I also could not come to termwith a scenario where employee is dictating to employer how he should be paid.As long as the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) keepits promise of capturing all the peculiarities of university system and as longas the universities remain centres of excellence that are known and stood forintegrity, professionalism and accountability, the universities, particularlyASUU should support the President’s initiative aimed at fighting corruption inpublic service and the university system in particular.
Dr. Faruq M. Abubakar writes from Emir’s Drive, Bauchi
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect WikkiTimes’ editorial stance.
