Adamawa varsity’s woes persist even with ag VC

The protracted crisis rocking the Adamawa State University (ADSU), Mubi, may be far from over in spite of the appointment of the state’s Commissioner for Education, Professor Kaletapwa Farauta, as acting vice chancellor. His appointment was meant to bring stability to the institution following the dissolution of the governing council and the management.

Barely two weeks after Farauta resumed as the new chief executive of the university, three unions called for indefinite strike action over non implementation of agreements contained in a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed earlier with a visitation panel of which the acting vice chancellor was a member.

The decision was announced by James Fwa, Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), who spoke on behalf of the Joint Action Committee (JAC), which also comprised of the Non Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), at a press conference in Yola at the weekend.

The striking unions accused the state government of failure to implement agreements over earned allowances, pension scheme, staff promotion and confirmation, unremitted union fees, as well as proper funding of the university.

“The unions have written a reminder to the authorities concerned on the above matters but to no avail. Therefore, the resumption of this recent strike action is necessitated by the desire to save the university from imminent collapse. We call on stakeholders to understand and support the unions in the resumed strike,” he stated.

The branch Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Abubakar Song, said the union resumed from three months strike in April and had decided to give the new management some time to act on their demands before taking further action.