The Minister said this at the opening ceremony of a management retreat in Kano on Thursday March 5, saying that the objective of capturing lecturers on the IPPIS is to check corruption.

She said “Unfortunately most reforms that you undertake you come across resistance. We have had resistance from ASUU on the implementation of the IPPIS and I am happy to report that at least up to 55 percent of ASUU members are registered and the ones that have not are not getting their February salary. It is in eliminating ghost workers because you register on the IPPIS using biometrics and we are currently working with the office of the head of service to link up the IPPIS HR management module with the payroll itself. It will help us better maximise the efficiency of the system. I know that we have up to 70,000 ghost workers that have been identified in this process and we hope that we will come to a time when we will say that we have no ghost workers.”

The meeting would be held behind closed doors as a source told newsmen in Abuja that, “It has been confirmed that the ASUU leadership will meet the leadership of the National Assembly on Monday. The meeting will centre on the ongoing face-off between ASUU and the Federal Government over the IPPIS saga.”

The Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media and Publicity, Ola Awoniyi, on Sunday confirmed ASUU’s meeting with the National Assembly leadership. He said the meeting would hold at 11am in his principal’s conference room.

ASUU National President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, also confirmed the meeting, but declined to provide details of demands the union would table before the Senate President.

He said “The most important thing is that we are meeting tomorrow (Monday). We want to discuss the Nigerian education generally. All issues (including the IPPIS) will be touched. I think that is enough”.