The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Benin Zone, has faulted Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, on the administration of state-owned Ambrose Alli University (AAU) Ekpoma without Governing Council, describing the government’s idea as alien to university administration globally.

Addressing newsmen in Benin City, the coordinator, Prof. Fred Esumeh, leading other states’ chairpersons in the zone, appealed to the state government to jettison the bizarre system introduced in AAU by constituting a governing council for the institution and abrogating the Special Intervention Team (SIT) law.

Esumeh, while calling on stakeholders to prevail on the state government to do the needful in the institution and restore the institution to its past glory, said the present university administration might kill the school through academic fraud in the name of forced resumption of academic activities and the illegal conduct of examinations.

“The Benin Zone of ASUU is disturbed by these developments and is in contact with its national leadership to call the attention of the National Universities Commission (NUC) in particular, and other authorities to the academic fraud going on in AAU, Ekpoma,” he said.

Raising concerns over the crisis in the institution, he noted that it was largely due to poor funding and mismanagement of the resources, especially the inability to pay staff emoluments regularly.

He called for the restoration of a governing council for the university to pave way for the immediate appointment of substantive principal officers, describing the current management model used in the institution as bizzare and far from the administrative style of university management and administration in the country.

“The university is being run on an ad hoc basis. The amendment of the university’s law has imposed on it an organogram that is defiant of regulatory requirements. The university does not have a governing council as required by NUC. The SIT that is supposedly playing the role of a governing council is not knowledgeable about university administration.

“The aberrant administrative structure has all principal officers (Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellors, Registrar, Bursar and Librarian) of the university in acting capacity.

Associated with the strange administrative style is the assault on the university’s autonomy by the Edo State government,” he said.

ASUU called on the state government to urgently return AAU to the ideal administrative model of a university by constituting a governing council for it and abrogating the intervention law.

Asserting that the resolution of the problems and the wellbeing of AAU is a collective responsibility, Esumeh tasked all stakeholders to raise their voices against the crisis in the university to make it a better institution for learning and development. (The Guardian)

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