ASUU Alleges Hijack Of Varsities’ Staff Employment By Governors, VCs

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has alleged that Vice Chancellors (VCs) of Nigerian Universities connived with state governors, traditional rulers and other politicians to hijack staff employment without due process in the varsities.

President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who stated this in Uyo during the Heroes’ Day Celebration of the University of Uyo (UNIUYO), Akwa Ibom State, lamented that most of the staff members employed through the back door have become scavengers in the system who go after money, forgetting what they were employed to do.

Osodeke stated that university employment was done through advertisement, adding that no university in the country has advertised for vacancies in the past six to ten years.

He noted that the staff strength of universities has tripled even without the advertisement of vacancies, accusing the vice-chancellors of employing unqualified persons.

“Before now, university employment was done through advertisements followed by rigorous interviews, but now how do people get here? Through temporary appointments.

“That’s the problem that we have today. I do not know of any university for the past six to ten years that has advertised, but the staff strength has tripled.

“VCs just sat down somewhere and packed people from traditional rulers, governors, and all other politicians into Nigerian universities as lecturers, most of them now scavengers in the system, going after money and all manners of things.

“Unfortunately, university employment has turned into a constituency project, and we have to struggle to reverse this misnomer and bring sanity to the system,” he said.

The ASUU president, however, vowed that the Union is set to fight the anomaly to restore sanity to the system.