Sack of 440 staff: Our story, by MOUAU

Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, MOUAU, has lambasted the media over inaccurate reportage since the lapse of the temporary appointment of some of his staff.

Addressing newsmen in his conference room on Monday, the university lamented that without fact-checking, the traditional media outlets as well as social media platforms have given credence to this wildly inaccurate information, commonly ascribed to “unconfirmed sources,” by publishing them.

The Head, Public Relations/Protocol Unit and Spokesperson of the university, Adanma Odefa, in conjunction with the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof. Joy Nwabueze, disclosed that the total number of people the suspension affected was 440, not 500 as some media have reported, stating reasons for the sack to include that “everybody employed in a Federal University is hired on temporary basis and has to undergo what’s called regularisation within a year (before becoming full time), failure of which leads to the elapsing of the contract”.

According to Odefa, the VC’s predecessor, Prof. Hilary Edeoga, had “between November 2015 and February 2016, hired over 400 people even though there was already a Vice-Chancellor designate for the university and also knowing full well there was no fund to pay them. Prof. Edeoga didn’t care because these workers were never going to be his problem.

“If the university had a need for that number of staff (constituting over 12% of the entire staff strength), it should have advertised and there should have been Council’s approval. What the university ended up with, as a result, was a bloated staff. For example, the ICT Lab, which can be manned by four people, ended up with a staff of over 25. So, the university became saddled with a lot of unqualified and redundant staff.

“Rumours have it that most of these people paid huge sums of money and ‘(other criteria)’ for jobs. It is not in our nature to endorse or peddle rumours. We are only interested in facts. These facts must be glaring and verifiable. So, we choose to ignore these rumours.

“Worse still, the university is also burdened by several threatened lawsuits as a result of multiple awards of the same contracts to different contractors who are still being owed by the previous administration. We have our hands full putting out fires. And this particular fire was single-handedly started and created by the previous vice-chancellor,” she stated.

Odefa said the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Otunta has done nothing but “negotiate and advocate, bending over backwards to avoid the unfortunate outcome we have today”, and at his discretion to honor the terms of the temporary appointments that had lapsed “but, on a humanitarian basis, he decided to bear the burden pending when Council comes and takes a decision”.

The Head, Public Relations/Protocol Unit & Spokesperson said the VC’s decision cost the rest of the university staff 25 per cent of their salary for the past few months, pointing out that “ordinarily, the 400 plus people had no entitlement to salaries from the university from the date their one year temporary appointment contracts lapsed. And the university had no commitment to offer them a chance of renewal.

It should have been a termination but not a suspension”, but that after the university Council had instructed him to terminate them, went pleading with the Council to temper justice with mercy and created an opportunity for the qualified ones who had worked hard and well to come back, as well as also delayed implementing the Council’s decision until the end of June so that the 440 people would get their June salary.

Explaining further, the university spokesperson said that in the hierarchy of the university administration, the Council supervises the Management, including the Vice-Chancellor, while the Management is duty bound to implement Council’s decision, stating that there is no possibility of the Vice-Chancellor or anybody else to disregard Council decision, especially in a delicate matter like that.

Odefa described as rumour that Prof. Otunta brought in and hired about 100 people in the university, saying, it “is totally unfounded and aimed at whipping up negative emotions against the vice chancellor”. She stated that in his one year and a quarter that he has been vice chancellor, Prof. Otunta has only hired 7 persons to fill in arising vacancies, brought in 3 persons who are in the university on secondment, meaning that they are not even staff of the University and would return back to their original place of employment once they complete their assignments.

According to the Head, Public Relations/Protocol Unit & Spokesperson, Adanma Odefa, “Be assured that there is no conniving between Vice-Chancellor, Francis Otunta and Council Chairman, Rt. Hon. Muhammadu Lawal Zayyana, to sack people or make people suffer on the basis of states of origin, sex or whatever basis.

Therefore, the story that Vice-Chancellor Otunta and Council Chairman Zayyana are working in tandem to displace the University’s Abia and Igbo staff with Hausas is a fabrication purely aimed at maligning these accomplished gentlemen”.

Fielding questions from newsmen, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof. Joy Nwabueze, disclosed that the composition of the total number of people affected were as follows: academic staff, 100, Senior Professional administrative and Technical staff, 263 and junior staff, 77.

Meanwhile, the Youth President Ohaneze Ndigbo, Abia State, Comrade Okey Paul Nwankwo, has condemned the alleged sack of over 400 academic and non – academic staff as employed by the erstwhile Vice Chancellor, Prof. Hilary Edeoga.

In a statement he made available to newsmen in Umuahia, Comrade Nwankwo described the action of the University management as “inhuman considering that most of the affected workers were not given fair hearing”.

“We are shocked by the sudden news of the recent sack of indigenous and non-indigenous staff of Michael Okpara University, Umudike who are predominantly of Igbo extraction for no fault of their own. It calls for attention and we are rejecting the decision of the governing council in its entirety,” he said.

Nwankwo, who is also the chairman Ohaneze Ndigbo Youth, South East, regretted that the sacked workers would add to the growing number of unemployed members of the society and called on the relevant authorities to stand up against the action.

He therefore expressed his desire that the vice chancellor of MOUAU, Prof. Francis Otunta, would immediately reverse the order, while stating that Ohaneze Ndigbo Abia State will resist any attempt to victimise indigenes of the state.