By; SANI ALIYU, Zaria
The National Assembly has restated its commitment to removing tertiary institutions from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as part of its efforts to enhance lecturers welfare and reduce brain drain.
Dr. Abbas Tajudeen, Speaker House of Representatives made this known in Zaria during the 3rd International conference of the Gender Policy Unit, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria.
Tajudeen, represented by Dr. Abubakar Fulata, House Committee Chairman on Education, said the House would pursue the interest of academia and one of those issues on contention was the issue of IPPIS.
According to him, IPPIS is a single minded computer programme that is anti-intellectual, anti-education and completely ignorant of the issues involved.
“It is our determination to ensure that universities, polytechnics and colleges of education are removed from IPPIS.
“It is also our determination to make sure that education receives a substantial portion in the national budget at least to meet up with the United Nations requirement of 26 per cent of the National budget,’’ he said.
“The Speaker said you cannot be a politician, soldier, or anything without education and unfortunately the system has downgraded education to a level where a teacher’s survival was put at risk”.
He noted that without meeting the requirement of teachers there can never be a good society as such the house would also insist on improving the remunerations of the lecturers.
He said the National Assembly had an engagement with the vice-chancellors across the country and they were made to understand that a professor’s take-home after deduction was less than N450, 000.
The lawmaker described such salary (N450,000) for the university professors as embarrassing to the education sector.
The Speaker was also a recipient of the Award of Excellence in the fight against poverty, gender inequality and Insecurity at the conference.
He said fighting against poverty, gender inequality and Insecurity was not merely a moral imperative but a fundamental necessity for the progress and prosperity of the nation.
Earlier, Prof. Kabiru Bala, Vice-Chancellor, ABU, said the conference was another step towards realizing the ABU’s aspiration of becoming a world-class academic and research institution that would produce high quality human capital with gender sensitivity.
Bala, represented Prof. Ahmed Doko, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Administration said the conference provides an opportunity for the professionals in the academia, security, and other stakeholders to engage in critical discourse on implications of insecurity to the SDG goals.
Th e three-day conference on `Gender and Security in Africa: the Implications for Sustainable Development Goals’ as its theme.
The conference was jointly hosted by the Gender Policy Unit of the ABU and Center for Gender Studies of Bayero University, Kano.
