By Felix Khanoba
The management of University of Abuja (UniAbuja) has reacted to the reported strike called by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the institution, saying academic and administrative activities on campus would continue.
In a meeting with provost, deans, directors, and heads of academic departments, Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, described the strike as divisive and unnecessary, vowing that the management would never allow the University to be crippled again.
A statement signed by Acting Director, Information and University Relations, Dr. Habeeb Yakoob, on Friday, quoted Na’Allah as saying “As far as the management of the University is concerned, this institution is not on strike.
” Some people said they had declared a strike, but all of us, with the management, have decided that our normal activities in the University must go on. Our exam is going on, senate meeting will continue, everything we do as a university will continue, our calendar will not be disrupted by the grace of God, any longer.
“It is wrong to cripple the University over issues that are merely sentimental, and some of which we have dialogued over and resolved. We are prepared not to allow this disruption again.”
Na’Allah debunked all the reported allegations of the Union, which it claimed informed its declaration of indefinite strike.
“Take for instance, the advert for the position of the vice-chancellor, we are not the only University that has advertised,” he said.
“We had the support and approval of the government. The advert was done by the Minister of Education, all I did as vice-chancellor was to request, to ask for what is next and they decided this is what we must do. And if you look at the advertisement from the beginning, this fact is very clear. It is only that they had to send it to us for execution, that’s all.”
He also described the Union’s allegations of illegal recruitment, promotion, delay in the election of deanship, and microfinance bank establishment as unfounded, saying that the University had followed due process in all of these matters, and ensured that relevant institutions concerned with oversights were contacted.
While speaking specifically about the election of deans and establishment of microfinance bank, he noted that the elections time table had long been publicised, and four elections of deans had been conducted so far, while the University management had invested over N200 million in the proposed microfinance bank over the ASUU’s N4 million, before the union wrote directly to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop granting the license for its operation, instead of interacting with the board of the bank about whatever their requests were.
Nallah said, “The bank is purely a business outfit and a service to our local and indigenous community, including market men and women, farmers, small and middle scale business people.”
The vice-chancellor said his administration had been working hard to develop the University and would not fold its arms and allow a group of people to destabilise its calendar. “For over four years, our goal has been to lift this University much higher than it was, and this we have succeeded in doing by taking our academic and infrastructural developments to a world-class level, developing an integrated portal that ensured transparency and ease of accessing results, branding of the University, introduction of foreign languages, introduction of new faculties and several departments, among numerous achievements.”
