Inside Story Of Mass Sacking At Atiku’s Varsity

The more than four hundred  senior and junior workers sacked in the American University of Nigeria, Yola,  owned by a former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, were mostly non-academic employees, some earning between N30,000 and N40,000, a source close to the university told THE WHISTLER.

It was learnt that the bulk of the sacked workers were from the Security Department hired during the peak of the Boko Haram insurgency from 2013 – 2016.
Although the authorities said the sacking was to reposition the university and to reduce cost, our correspondent gathered that most of the high earners, the expatriates who earn in dollars, were not affected by the exercise.

THE WHISTLER gathered that the workers gobbling up the revenue of the university are the expatriates, who though constitute  a small percentage of the workforce, are responsible for 65 percent of the overheads.

THE WHISTLER learnt that the Vice-Chancellor, a white American, earns $240,000 (N93million) annually excluding perquisites like travelling business class, two official jeeps, living in the president’s mansion, a driver, cook, gardener and food allowance of N350, 000 per month.

Also, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Dr. Mohammed Kah, a former VC of the University of Gambia and his wife, Dr. Jainaba, a lecturer in the Business School, collectively pocket about $340,000 (N132million) per annum. Mrs. Kah’s doctoral degree is in Urban & Regional Planning, a course not offered at AUN.
It was gathered that Atiku had stopped giving subventions to the university and had asked the management to ensure that the institution was self-funding, hence the mass sacking.

To forestall a violent demonstration by the enraged workers who got wind of the planned layoff, the management decided to sack them during the Coronavirus lockdown because the Yola University is currently shut down. Our source further gathered that the workers were further infuriated after their suggestion to be placed on half pay was rebuffed by the management because the dollar earning expats did  not want to reduce their salaries to accommodate Nigerians whom they deride as lazy and entitled.

Also, THE WHISTLER gathered that the retrenchment was tainted with ethnic and religious bias after a Fulani member of the Governing Council, Dr. Mohammed Wurochekke,  was given the responsibility to recommend workers to be retrenched, in part with the VC Professor Dawn Dekle.

In the Public Relations Department for example, out of 27 workers, only seven were retained and six of the seven are Fulani Muslims, while the only Christian left is a sound engineer. Two Southern Christian members of the Governing Council, THE WHISTLER reliably gathered, declined to be part of the rationalization exercise, insisting that all Atiku needed  to do was to slash the salaries of expats and the books would balance, a move resisted by the VC and DVC.

When asked for the university’s response to these issues, the Vice President for University  Relations , Abubakar Abba Tahir, referred  THE WHISTLER to a statement earlier issued by the university.

The statement  titled, Restructuring for Sustainability, reads, “ The Governing Council of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), is restructuring the institution in response to the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) requirements, mandating the university to align with an approved governance structure for all tertiary institutions operating in Nigeria. .

“Until now, AUN operated a student-staff ratio balance which was fit for purpose in its heyday but has since transformed with institutional growth into a burgeoning workforce .

“This is clearly an uncommon and hardly workable tradition in modern day institutions and organizations around the world. Obviously it is not at par with our vision for an enduring legacy .

“Thus, consequent upon the university’s new Governing Council vote to restructure the institution in line with its agenda for sustainability, a process of workforce rationalization has been in the pipeline.

“It is now time for the university to look back, look around and look ahead, to ensure that realistic and globally competitive administrative practices can be achieved in structure, strategy and focus.

“AUN is therefore restructuring and restrategizing for sustainable operations and practices, to further align with its dual mission of development and entrepreneurship.

“With this emerging sustainable structure, even though our staff are of competitive standards, only critical positions remain while the others are being released honorably with full contractual benefits

“As a typical American style institution, AUN deliberately trains its students to search for sustainable solutions to human development challenges.

“ Students are deliberately armed with lifelong skills and competencies to develop sustainable solutions to the myriad of challenges faced by society.

“The challenge posed by the unsustainable redundancies in AUN’s operational structure for the university is one that needed to be addressed ever since.”