The National President of Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions(NASU), Comrade (Dr.) Makolo Hassan, has called on government at all levels to revitalize the educational system by taking another look at the abysmal level of funding of education in Nigeria.

He made this statement at the Annual National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at the Conference Hall, HQ NAF Officer & Suites, Abuja, FCT, today, 3rd November, 2020.

In his opening remark, the President of the Association said it is important to call the attention of the government to the decay in the infrastructure in various educational institutions, as well as the problem of low pay and lack of adequate incentive that can raise morale and enhance the productivity of workers in various institutions.

“The crisis of lack of motivation and appropriate incentives has no doubt resulted in quality manpower looking outside the shores of our country for better salaries and conditions of service. This itself is implying negatively on the quality of the products of our institutions.”

He noted that there must be a conscious effort by government to improve the level of funding of the educational institutions, arguing that this will help the staff gain lost glory as well as help Nigeria’s Institution to be ranked among the best not only in Africa but in the globe.

It would be recalled that NASU and some other unions in tertiary institutions, migrated to the IPPIS platform in February 2020, after series of meetings between the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, the National Universities Commission (NUC), the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), and the unions.

He, however, maintained that government has failed to live up to its promise of a hitch-free migration, saying “IPPIS has demonstrated high level incompetence and inefficiency.”

Speaking on the experiences so far, Dr. Makolo said migration to the platform has been a painful one and all efforts to get government and the office of the Accountant General to redress the noticeable shortcomings have not yielded positive results.

According to him, the challenges include: Non-Payment of salaries to some staff, underpayments of salaries, non-payment of promotion arrears, high taxation, among others.

Speaking with CEOAFRICA, NASU president said the earlier 14 days strike and the signing of Memorandum of Understanding with the Government to deal with the unpaid allowances of its members have failed to yield positive results.

“In the face of these challenges and the lukewarm attitude of the Federal Government and the IPPIS office towards refreshing these shortcomings, NASU may has no choice than to embark, as soon as possible, on a full blown strike in the universities, Inter-Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, except something is done very urgently to positively remedy the situation,” he said.