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Tag: Otuoke varsity

  • Otuoke varsity demotes seven professors

    The Federal University, Otuoke (FUO), Ogbia, Bayelsa State, has demoted seven professors and sacked six non-teaching workers.

    The institution said the employees were punished for lacking requisite scholarship and absconding from school.

    Some of the lecturers said their sanctions were motivated by sectional and tribal sentiments.

    But the Registrar, Mr. Iruo Yousuo, said the action was part of the cleansing to sanitise the university.

    According to him, the Governing Council took decision on appointments and discipline at its 10th meeting.

    He said: “Consequently, the Governing Council of the Federal University, Otuoke, has re-classified some academic appointments by downgrading teaching staff appointments to lower ranks for lack of requisite scholarship.

    “Those affected are Dr. Steve Nwabuzor (Professor to Lecturer 1); Dr. Leonard K Shilgba (Professor to Senior Lecturer) and Dr. Timothy Falade Obalade (Associate Professor to Senior Lecturer).

    “Others are Dr. Felina Nwadike (Associate Professor to Senior Lecturer); Dr. Sepribo Lawson-Jack (Associate Professor to Lecturer 1); Dr. Marcellina Offoha (Associate Professor to Lecturer 1) and Dr. Evans Eze (Associate Professor to Lecturer 2).

    “The council equally converted the appointments of Dr. Felina Nwadike, Dr. Timothy Falade Obalade and Dr. Sepribo Lawson-Jack to contract appointments as their tenure appointments were at variance with applicable rules.

    “The council also approved the termination of appointments of six non-teaching staff for absconding from duty. They are: Mr. Obele Gabriel, Miss Modozie Rejoice Chinenye, Mr. Akpan Ufot, Mr. Bomor Tarela, Mr. Anthony Arhogor and Miss Bassey Affiong Agbor.”

    Yousuo added that the council okayed the appointment of two principal officers – Prof. Felicia Etim (Librarian) and CSP Rosalyn Biobaragha (rtd) as chief security officer.

  • Undergraduate dies in Otuoke varsity after drug-induced sex

    Female 100-level student of the Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, has died following a drug-induced sex.

    The student was said to have engaged in sex romp with her lover after both took sex-enhancing drugs suspected to be tramadol and other hard substances.

    She reportedly passed out and was rushed to an undisclosed hospital where she died later.

  • Undergraduate dies after drug-induced sex

    A female 100-level student of the Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa State, has breathed her last following a drug-induced sex.

    The student was said to have engaged in sex romp with her lover, a male undergraduate, after both took sex-enhancing drugs suspected to be Tramadol and other hard substances.

    She reportedly passed out and was rushed to an undisclosed hospital where shed died later.

     

     

    Details soon …..

  • Saraki running Otuoke varsity like private business, ASUU, others allege

    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.

  • ‎Protest rocks Otuoke federal varsity 

    ‎Protest rocks Otuoke federal varsity 

    Angry protesters have disrupted academic activities at the Federal University located in Otuoke, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s hometown in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

    Hundreds of protesters were said to have caused a stir on Wednesday when they blocked the road and barricaded the entrance to the university over alleged  marginalisation of indigenes in employment into key positions in the institution.

    The aggrieved persons caused traffic gridlock during the demonstration, which reportedly started at about 7:30am.

    It was gathered that the action, which was led by the institution’s chapter of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, lasted for about three hours.

    The protester were armed with placards of different inscriptions such as, “Bayelsans cannot be marginalised in our own lands”, “we want fair representation, Bayelsans are qualified”, “FUO na our oil well, Gbam!”, “it is our time, Bayelsans say”.

    They clapped, danced and demanded an attention from the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Accra Jaja.

    The protesters said they were bothered about the recent appointment of the institution’s Chief Legal Adviser, saying it failed the due process test.

    They insisted that the action of the university was a deliberate attempt to marginalise the indigenes and further under develop the people of the region.

    Jaja, who addressed the protesters in the company of senior employees of the institution and security operatives appealed to the protesters to calm down.

    The Chairman of SSANU, Mr. Kalizibe Joseph, said the recent appointment of a new legal adviser was not in tandem with the laid down procedure for recruitment.

    He asked the management to withdraw the appointment, follow due process, by first of all advertising the vacancy on a national daily to allow interested individuals to compete for the position.

    He said: “SSANU is a watchdog. The vice-chancellor had earlier said there is a shortfall in the institution allocation, which has made the institution unable to pay full salaries to workers.

    “We also agreed that anything employment should be put on hold pending when the institution’s finances will improve. But we were surprised on this new appointment.

    “Besides before the institution must employ, they are to first of all advertise, to give fair opportunity to all interested applicants who will also be subjected to interviews. But these processes were not followed. We are therefore calling for the immediate termination of this appointment, as it does not represent equity and fairness.

    “I am also using this medium to call on the Chairman of Council, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, to stop holding council meetings in her parlour in Abuja, but rather do the right thing by holding meetings in the institution”.

    Also speaking, the National Legal Adviser, IYC, Mr. Tare Porri, said IYC would continue to demand control of all resources located in Ijaw territory, saying Ijaws would never play a second fiddle in the country.

    “This action was a deliberate attempt by the Chairman of the council, Sen. Gbemisola Saraki to send Ijaw people parking from the university by singlehandedly imposing her brother against due process as the institution chief legal adviser.

    “All the principal positions in the school are occupied by foreigners except the office of the VC and a dean, who are Ijaw people but not indigenes. There are more than one million qualified Ijaw people that can hold that legal adviser position and a person from the north is not better off”, he said.

    He reminded the VC that the 2015 Presidential elections were lost simply because former President Jonathan was an Ijaw man, adding that there was no federal institution in the country that had Ijaw people in critical positions.

    Jaja promised to revisit the decision taken and pleaded with all the protesters to give him a week to properly address the issue.

     

  • IYC seeks funding for Otuoke varsity

    The National President, Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, Mr. Udengs Eradiri, has said the Federal University, Otuoke (FUO) in Bayelsa State, needs special intervention from the Federal Government to serve the purpose of its establishment.

    Eradiri, who spoke yesterday when he visited the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Seth Jaja, said the intervention would help the institution put in place infrastructure to facilitate its development.

    He said the university should be prioritised because of its strategic location in the heart of the Niger Delta, to solve the region’s challenges.

    Congratulating the vice chancellor on his appointment, Eradiri expressed confidence in the new administration and assured him of IYC’s support.

    He, however, urged the VC to address perceived inequality in appointments and admissions.

    According to him, the essence of establishing the institution was to serve as a springboard to help the Ijaw compete with their contemporaries.

    Jaja said his administration was anchored on equity and fair play.

    He assured the youth of his determination to develop the institution.

    The VC said he would address the challenges facing the institution before he assumed duty.

    Hailing the IYC for the visit, Jaja said FUO would partner stakeholders for its development.

    He thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for the confidence reposed in him, which he described as encouraging.

  • Strides, challenges of Otuoke varsity VC

    One major concern of Prof. Mobolaji Aluko, the Vice-Chancellor, of the Federal University in Otuoke, the community of former President Goodluck Jonathan in Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, is the status of the university’s programmes.

    Aluko is the pioneer vice-chancellor of the institution, which started operation in 2011. The American-trained professor took over the leadership of the newly-established ivory tower on February 16, 2011.

    In fact, he took over the university when there was nothing on ground. But his minder’s touch, experience and exposure have built the institution to an enviable height especially when juxtaposed with other universities established the same time.

    Students’ population has increased; staff statistics is excellent; academic infrastructure has improved and there has been a friendly relationship between the university and its host community despite some challenges. With the standard of learning and character established by Aluko, the university will in no distant time become one of the top ranking ivory towers in the country.

    But Aluko is still worried. He is disturbed by the status of programmes offered in the university. Because the institution is new, all its courses as at last year were yet to be accredited. An accreditation panel visited the university late last year.

    Aluko said the school went through accreditation for 12 of its programmes. “And my hope, my aim and ambition is either to have full accreditation or to have  at least 80 to 90%of our programmes accredited preferably 100%.

    “But sometimes when you don’t have full accreditation it’s equally an opportunity to improve on  those things they have not given you to gain accreditation for,” he said.

    In social sciences, the university runs six programmes such as Accounting and Finance; English and Communication Studies, Economics and Development Studies, Political Science, History, Sociology and Anthropology. Aluko has also developed six programmes in sciences such as Chemistry, Micro-biology, Computer Science, Physics Mathematics and Statistics.

    All of the courses are undergoing accreditation at the same time. The professor said: “This is really like a university accreditation. In some other universities, sometimes it will be certain programmes, but in a new university like this, where none of them have been accredited, it is serious.”

    Indeed, it is a big challenge for Aluko because this is the first time the programmes are undergoing accreditation.

    Undoubtedly, Aluko worked very hard to achieve the standard of student ratio, staff mix,  facilities, classrooms and laboratories, library, safety and security and campus cleanliness, among other requirements needed for accreditation.

    On the relationship between the university and its host community, Aluko described it as testing. He acknowledged that the community made tremendous sacrifice including raising money to erect eight start-up buildings.

    He, however, said the community has unlimited expectations from the university, which he said sometimes were beyond  the institution.

    “We are a federal university and not a community university, not Bayelsa university, not a Niger Delta university. We are a federal university and also part of international community.”

    On the issues of finance, Aluko said: “Finance has been the major challenge here. We were lucky that we had N1.5billion  take-off fund that other universities did not have and that was what we used to provide facelift in this place.

    “But overhead has been a challenge because we have never gotten more than N6million  which is inadequate. We don’t have electricity here since August 2014.

    “So we generally run on generator. We have 13 diesel generators for a total of 1.95 megawatts and 8 transformers for a total of 2.55megawatts. We spend N2million monthly on generator.”

  • Strides, challenges of Otuoke varsity VC

    One major concern of Prof. Mobolaji Aluko, the Vice-Chancellor, of the Federal University located in Otuoke, the community of former President Goodluck Jonathan, in Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, is the status of the university’s programmes.

    Aluko is the pioneer vice-chancellor of the institution which started operation in 2011. The American-trained professor took over the leadership of the newly-established ivory tower on February 16, 2011.

    In fact, he took over the university when there was nothing on ground. But his minder’s touch, experience and exposure have built the institution to an enviable height especially when juxtaposed with other universities established the same time.

    Students’ population has increased; staff statistics is excellent; academic infrastructure has improved and there has been a friendly relationship between the university and its host community despite some challenges. With the standard of learning and character established by Aluko, the university will in no distant time become one of the top ranking ivory towers in the country.

    But Aluko is still worried. He is disturbed by the status of programmes offered in the university. Because the institution is new, all its courses as at last year were yet to be accredited. An accreditation panel visited the university late last year.

    Aluko said the school went through accreditation for 12 of its programmes. “And my hope, my aim and ambition is either to have full accreditation or to have  at least 80 to 90%of our programs accredited preferably 100%.

    “But sometimes when you don’t have full accreditation is equally an opportunity to improve on  those things they have not given you to gain accreditation for”, he said.

    In social sciences, the university runs six programmes such as Accounting and Finance; English and Communication Studies, Economics and Development Studies, Political Science, History, Sociology and Anthropology. Aluko has also developed six programmes in sciences such as Chemistry, Micro-biology, Computer Science, Physics Mathematics and Statistics.

    All of the courses are undergoing accreditation at the same time. The professor said: “This is really like a university accreditation. In some other universities, sometimes it will be certain programmes, but in a new university like this, where none of them have been accredited, it is serious.”

    Indeed, it is a big challenge for Aluko because this is the first time the programmes are undergoing accreditation.

    Undoubtedly, Aluko worked very hard to achieve the standard of student ratio, staff mix,  facilities, classrooms and laboratories, library, safety and security and campus cleanliness, among other requirements needed for accreditation.

    On the relationship between the university and its host community, Aluko described it as testing. He acknowledged that the community made tremendous sacrifice including raising money to erect eight start-up buildings.

    He, however, said the community has unlimited expectations from the university, which he said sometimes were beyond  the institution.

    “We are a federal university and not a community university, not Bayelsa university, not a Niger Delta university. We are a federal university and also part of international community.”

    On the issues of finance, Aluko said: “Finance has been the major challenge here. We were lucky that we had N1.5billion  take-off fund that other universities did not have and that was what we used to provide facelift in this place.

    “But overhead has been a challenge because we have never gotten more than N6million  which is inadequate. We don’t have electricity here since August 2014.

    “So we generally run on generator. We have 13 diesel generators for a total of 1.95 megawatts and 8 transformers for a total of 2.55megawatts. We spend N2million monthly on generator.”

  • Presidency, VC disagree on ‘salary discrepancy’ at Otuoke Varsity

    •Commissioin demands refunds from VC, Registrar
    •VC explains salary difference

    The Presidency has uncovered an alleged salary discrepancy at the Federal University at Otuoke, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s hometown, in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

    A document obtained from the university showed that the alleged misappropriation was uncovered by the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) during a salary inspection routine.

    The commission indicted Vice Chancellor Prof. Mobolaji Aluko and Registrar David Fouwari, for allegedly collecting money in excess of their salaries.

    Aluko was said to have collected a monthly N1,970,476 emolument whereas he should not have earned more than N922,810 per month.

    Fouwari was reportedly paid N1,130,692 instead of his monthly salary of N502,580.

    Also, NSIWC accused the university of disaggregating its workers’ salaries against the Federal Government’s policy of pay consolidation.

    In a May 12 letter to  Aluko, the commission queried him for flouting extant government pay policies.

    The letter, which was signed on behalf of the commission’s chairman by the Director of Compensation, Chike N. Ogbechie, directed the university to stop the “unethical” practices and comply with the rules and rates.

    NSIWC also directed the vice chancellor and the registrar to refund the cumulative overpayment to it within four weeks.

    Although the letter did not disclose the amount to be refunded by the two top officials, it was learnt that their refunds amount to about N50 million.

    Based on the directive of the commission, the ultimatum given to the duo to refund the money expired on June 12.

    But Aluko explained that the difference in his salary constituted unconsolidated allowances paid to him in consideration of his Diaspora status.

    The vice chancellor said the three vice chancellors hired by the Federal Government from the Diaspora to head some new universities were given special allowances to cover some of their running costs abroad, including their pension and health insurance policies.

    He said: “The difference is not a salary difference. We are on sabbatical. My family is still abroad and we have health insurance policies. I still have many years in my university abroad…

    “If l were to pay all these from my local Nigerian salary, I will have just about N100,000 left per month.”

    Aluko said there was no disaggregation of salaries in the institution, adding that not all the allowances were consolidated.

    On the registrar’s salary difference, he said it was a responsibility allowance approved for all registrars by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    He said: “The Registrar has a responsibility allowance from ASUU. There is N62,000 per month and it is part of the ASUU agreement. There is another one. There were certain things that were consolidated and others not consolidated. They can’t consolidate Diaspora allowance because not everybody is Diaspora. It is a sacred issue.

    “Part of the reasons these issues are coming up is that when we started, we didn’t have a council. Many of the things they said they didn’t approve for us, the council of other schools had approved them and more for their people all this time.”

    But the commission’s letter to the vice chancellor said: “You may wish to recall that in October 2013, a team of officers of this commission visited your institution and carried out an inspection of remuneration practices, vis-a-vis the extant government pay policy, as part of the commission’s mandate stipulated in the enabling law.

    “The findings of the inspection in respect of your institution were as follows:

    “The vice chancellor was being paid total emoluments of N1,970,476.76 monthly, whereas he should not earn more than N922,810.23, if he were paid furniture allowance en bloc earlier or N1,043,176.79; if he were being paid furniture allowance monthly. Much of the difference was attributed to certain allowances, which were not approved by the government.”

  • Otuoke varsity prepares for 2016 NUGA games

    Otuoke varsity prepares for 2016 NUGA games

    The Federal University, Otuoke is thinking beyond its recent matriculation of 383 students. Its eyes are set on the Nigerian Universities Game Association (NUGA), 2016.

    Despite its teething problems, the ambitious university was recently awarded the South-South zonal hosting rights for the universities’ competitive games in 2016 and it accepted the honour.

    So, the university located in President Goodluck Jonathan’s hometown in Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, is thinking of how to build recreational facilities to successfully host the event.

    The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Mobolaji Aluko, said the development has not ruffled the feathers of the institution. Aluko who spoke to Niger Delta Reports shortly after conducting the matriculation said the university would begin by building recreational facilities.

    But the frank Aluko said the university would not engage in all the sports as it lacked resources to build all sporting facilities.”Any other facility that we are not able to do, we will work with the University of Port Harcourt and even the Niger Delta University”, Prof. Aluko said.

    Beyond the games, the matriculation was a successful event. Fresh students beamed with smiles as they posed for pictures. Most of them were happy that they got an opportunity to study in a university founded in a small community of President Jonathan.

    Part of the benefits would be perhaps having the privilege to sight Mr. President each time he visits home and maybe their could be an opportunity to shake hands with the number one citizen of the country.

    Besides, they may be given some presidential treatments on some scholarly issues. With such ideas running into their brains, they danced around and shouted with ecstasy.

    For the university, it was the third matriculation since it took off academic activities. With the newly admitted 167 female and 216 male students, the population of the institution has increased to 1040.

    The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences which has two departments and six programmes has already welcomed additional 202 students while the Faculty of Science and Engineering with three departments and six programmes received 181 fresh students.

    The students have opportunities to study 12 programmes comprising English and Communication studies, History and International Relations, Accounting and Finance, Economics and Development, Sociology and Anthropology, Political Science and Strategic Studies, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Chemistry, Mathematics with Statistics, Computer Science and Informatics and Physics with Electronics/Power.

    But Aluko insisted that the students must justify their admissions in character, civility and academic excellence. While asking them t enjoy the fun offered by the university, he insisted they must do so responsibly.

    He was specific. He asked them to avoid cultism, violence and other vices.

    He said: “What we have truly begun to create here at Otuoke is a citadel of learning, teaching, research and community service for the generation, dissemination, preservation and application of knowledge (in consonance with our mission), so that in the shortest possible time, we can gain and maintain a reputation as a world-class university that challenges all its students to achieve the highest levels of intellectual and personal growth, to promote sustainable development, as well as contribute purposeful and ethical service to the nation and mankind”.

    Prof. Aluko disclosed that two new faculties (Engineering and Technology as well as Business and Management Sciences) will be added to the suite.

    He said a Graduate School to offer postgraduate degrees will commence by September.

    “Our research focus of oil and gas studies, energy and environment, marine and wetland studies, human dynamics and conflict resolution, and entrepreneurship will guide our applied research and collaborative efforts as a tertiary academic geared towards the socioeconomic development of the Niger Delta and Nigeria”, he said.

    The Vice Chancellor further noted that the total bandwidth in the university would be increased to 10 Mbps. He hoped the development would help the institution join the NGREN (Nigerian Research Network) once it is open to new universities.

    He disclosed that “that there is wireless access in most parts of the campus with fiber-optics, satellite and radio links within and across the campus.

    He also hinted that the university has established a 52-seater Language Laboratory and an Entrepreneurial and Skills Development Unit (ESDU) to act as catalyst for future Faculty of Business and Management Sciences.

    He said the university will play host to an Achebe “Arrow of God” Colloquium on March 29. He, however, said that not all the departments have been accredited.

    But he maintained that the aim of the institution was to ensure that the “programs are accredited before those admitted will graduate”.