Distinguished economists, Prof. Obadiah Mailafia and Mr. Bismarck Rewane, have spoken on the benefits of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as they said it will lead to greater transparency and reduce the issue of ghost workers in universities and polytechnics.

 Recall that the Academic Staff Union of Universities had rejected the IPPIS and are currently on strike in protest against the policy. Also, recall that the Joint Action Committee of the Non-Academic Staff Union and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities had recently said its members would begin strike once the schools reopen.

The economists, while speaking with newsmen described the IPPIS as a system that promotes efficiency in the payment of workers’ salaries.

Mailafia has encouraged the Federal Government and the university lecturers to reach a consensus that will be favorable to everyone. He said:

“Both sides have a point; for the government, there is the need for a greater transparency in the salary system. There are workers who have died, left and someone comes up to collect their salaries in the university system. It is illegal and should be stopped.”

The economist also maintained that the lecturers were right about varsity autonomy adding that the autonomy had been abused. His words:

“You have lecturers lecturing in four or five different universities and collecting almost equal pay. There is no possibility that they’ll give enough attention to their place of primary assignment.

“These issues need to be looked into. Teaching in three, four, five universities is a big problem. We need to sit down and find a practical solution that works for everyone.

“As an economist, the cost of the strikes is horrendous, not only the loss of productivity, loss of years by students, who are not able to graduate when they should.”

Agreeing with Mailafia, Rewane said that the IPPIS platform would help to reduce the issue of ghost workers in varsities as explained:

“IPPIS helps to have one man, one salary. I don’t know why anybody is against IPPIS in the first place. It reduces ghost workers; it doesn’t reduce or increase any lecturer’s salary.

“As an economist, it is a more efficient way of paying workers. In Nigeria, we have a lot of ghost workers. It has nothing to do with those errors NASU complained about; it is the data they gave while being enrolled on the IPPIS platform.”