The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, University of Abuja chapter has disclosed that its members are currently on strike to protest over notable illegalities allegedly perpetrated by the outgoing Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Abdurasheed Na’Allah.
The University ASUU Chairman, Dr Sylvanus Ugo, in an interview on Pondium’s Current Affairs Flash program on ‘Politics Strategy and Good Governance’, said the administration of Prof Na’Allah was characterized by illegalities.
TREND recalls that the ASUU is currently on strike to challenge the outgoing Vice-chancellor’s “excesses, maladministration and executive rascality” in the areas of due process, hiring and firing and promotion of staff among others.
Highlighting the areas of illegalities by the University administration under Prof Na’Allah, the ASUU Chairman said, “We have several times drawn his attention to those areas that bother on law. University is governed by law and the essence of it is that it is meant for the smooth governance of the University. Any time these laws are contravene, it takes to offset the ecosystem of the institution. Let me mention but five areas where these illegalities are perpetrated:
“Illegal advertorial for the position of the VC. The University Miscellaneous Act 1993 (as amended) is very clear. It says where there is a vacancy, the governing council shall advertise. Now towards the end of the tenure of the current VC, he went ahead to advertise for the position of his successor. But it is the responsibility of the governing Council. Though the governing council was not in place, when we had a feeler that the University administration was going to advertise the vacant position of the VC, we sat and then drew the attention of the University administration that the law does not empower any other body to carry out such responsibility. But after sending the resolution, 5th March 2024, by 15th March, the University administration went ahead to place that advertorial for the position of a VC. But we said no, this is an illegality and it must not be.
“The issue of hiring and firing is a sole responsibility of Council. But since the present VC came onboard, he has recruited not less than 600 people without due process – both teaching and non-teaching staff. In fact, even as of this week, people are still picking appointment letters from the University. Meanwhile his tenure is expiring by Sunday, 30th June, 2024. But we said no, you can’t be employing when there is no Council. The process to employ in the university is clear. There must be an advertorial. People are to apply. You will process it from the department, faculty and then the central A&PC which is one of the sub-committees of Council and then the governing Council proper, of course, will direct or approved. But these procedures are not being followed.
“The same thing goes with the issue of promotion of staff. The process of promotion in the University system is clear. It’s the governing Council that announce and directs the promotion process in each promotion year, which must commence at the departmental and faculty level. But let me tell Nigerians, Council and its committees were not in place since June 2023 that the University of Abuja has been carrying out illegal promotion of its staff by the administration of Professor NaAllah.
“Recall that the Federal Government put on hold the activities of Council since June last year. The process of promotion cannot be concluded without Council. The outgoing Vice Chancellor of UniAbuja is aware of this yet he continued the perpetration of these illegalities.
“What the VC did was to promote only his people.
“The fourth issue is the Deanship election. Everybody that has been in the University system understands that the Dean of Faculties is by election. But I tell you, the current VC of UniAbuja doesn’t have elected Deans. Rather, he went ahead to appoint acting deans that have acted for more than two years. But the UniAbuja Act allows for acting only for a period of one month before election. The VC said he made them structures to work with but ASUU said it’s not supposed to be heard in the University.
“The fifth issue is that the UniAbuja governing Council, in 2017, gave approval to set up a micro finance bank. the then 8th Council wrote to the ASUU, UniAbuja and gave us a director position and allotted to us N4 million shares which we have fully paid for. Recently we had a letter from the VC that we should sign one shareholder agreement.. On going through the document/letter from the VC, we observed some anomalies and we then drew the attention of the management but contrary to that, the University administration wrote to us that we have forfeited our N4 million shares that we had fully paid for, simply because we made observations. The ASUU wrote to its national body and they sent a delegation to come and dialogue with the University administration but all efforts proved abortive as the VC is adamant. This is also part of the factors that led to the current strike action the ASUU has embarked on. Today is the 57th day of the ASUU strike in UniAbuja.”
Our correspondent also gathered that Prof Na’Allah, upon resumption as VC on 1st July 2019 laid-off over 120 staff employed by his predecessor and replaced them with his own people. It was also learnt that the VC has since suspended many staff he perceived as enemies and left them on the suspension beyond the period permitted by the law.
Dr Godwin Okaneme, one of the suspended staff for two years, spoke to our correspondent and also corroborated the claims of the ASUU Chairman.
He said, “Professor Na Allah’s first assignment in his first week in office was to lay-off over 120 staff spread across the six geopolitical zone of the country employed on temporary basis by his predecessor awaiting regularization by the governing Council.
“He immediately replaced the sacked staff he so much criticized their usefulness in the system with his own cronies for the exact positions and offices that his predecessor filled, based on the staff need of the University”.
“As at June 2024 that Professor Na Allah is exiting the University of Abuja with crisis, he had illegally employed over 500 staff into the university, majority without the requisite qualifications, no advertisement was placed for the vacancy for which he recruited those staff and no interview was conducted for the staff, most of the staff illegally employed were overplaced or underplaced while about 99% of these newly recruited are from a particular state and a particular geopolitical zone in the country as against the Federal Character Commission principles for geographical spread. All these infraction were committed in the absence of the university governing Council which reserved the sole right to employ staff into the university.
“To further perpetrate illegality upon the existing illegalities, the outgoing vice-chancellor, Professor Na’Allah some few weeks to his exit took law into his hand to constitute a kangaroo committee and conducted regularization interview for the illegal staff and gave them full time appointment in the absence of the governing Council. All these constitute a huge problem for the next Vice-Chancellor and the incoming governing Council
“The outgoing Vice-Chancellor has a penchant for intimidation and victimisation of staff of the University by using his agents to remove sensitive document(s) from perceived enemies’ file to give him room to eliminate such staff from the system. This is one of his weapons deployed to settle score with a Medical Doctor in the University Medical Centre who is one of the Internal Governing Council member of the University”.
“Hundreds of Students across the faculties have been expelled from the University during Na Allah’s tenure on ground of offences they were forced to accept or on charges they never committed or for speaking against the incessant hike in school fees. It is on record that the University of Abuja Administration under Professor Na Allah had incessantly hiked the Uniabuja school fees for 5 times thereby inflicting economic hardship on the students and their parents 5times since he became the Vice-Chancellor of Uniabuja 5 years ago. This excludes the outrageous “admission acceptance fee” of thirty thousand (N30000) naira he unilaterally charged for his personal aggrandisement.
“Promotion of qualified senior academic and non-teaching staff were being stagnated or outrightly denied by the University administration during the tenure of the outgoing Vice Chancellor. He selects his cronies from the list of those due for assessment to Associate Professors and Professors and even the qualified senior non-teaching staff and announced their promotion at will without Council on ground but swept the publications of those other qualified staff whom he perceived as enemies under the carpet or into the archive in his office store.
“He revoked and locked up the shops of Businessmen and women who had duely paid their annual rent for the year, throwing over 200 to 300 of them out of businesses in the face of the agony of this current economic realities in the nation. This is to say the least”
“The government of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu should, as a matter of urgency investigate the activities of the outgoing Vice-Chancellor before the only Federal University in the nation capital collapses totally.”