The Joint Action Committee of the Federal University, Otuoke, (FUO) Bayelsa State, has accused chairperson of the school’s Governing Council, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, of running the university like her private business.
Rising from their emergency meeting in Otuoke yesterday, the unions said it was unacceptable for Saraki to schedule a meeting of the council in Abuja on Monday instead of holding it in Otuoke, the university’s campus.
The JAC consists of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the National Association of Academic Technologists (SST) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU).
The university workers said the proposed Abuja meeting was illegal and violated the ultimatum served by the unions the university’s council should stop holding their meetings outside Otuoke.
They wondered why Saraki, who is also the institution’s Pro-Chancellor, planned to exclude internal members of the council in the proposed meeting against the law governing the university.
The unions maintained that any such council meeting purportedly on the exclusion of the internal members of council was illegal.
The unions said: “The Chairperson, Gbemisola Saraki, has excluded all internal council members who were duly elected by Senate and Congregation to represent the interest of these two statutory bodies.
‘’The University Councils are constituted purely on interests and representations in accordance with the law establishing them and the powers of Council and all other organs of the University are derived from this law.
‘’The Federal University Otuoke Act, 2015 makes specific provisions for the composition and tenure of members, meetings, duties and any other related issue (s).
‘’The third schedule article 1(2) made explicit provisions for the tenure of the members representing public interests, University Senate and the University Congregation.
‘’For the avoidance of doubt, the tenure of Internal Council members as provided in Federal University Otuoke Act, 2015 is four years. The members representing Senate and Congregation in Federal University, Otuoke, were elected effective August 1, 2015.’’
The workers said the university council should be held on the university’s campus and council meeting must be inclusive to represent the interest of the university community.