By Gabriella Ogbu<\/p>\n
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the University of Abuja has expressed relief over the departure of Prof. Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, the former vice chancellor, citing a period of controversial decisions and lost opportunities that marked his tenure. The Union is optimistic about a fresh start under the new administration.<\/p>\n
During a recent congress in Abuja, Dr. Sylvanus Ugoh, the ASUU branch chairman, lamented the “onslaught of academic activities” over the past five years, attributing the decline in the university’s performance to Prof. Na’Allah’s leadership. “We are just celebrating the exit of the vice chancellor who destroyed this university in the last five years. It is a case of desecrating the chambers of the Ivory towers,” Ugoh stated. He noted that the University of Abuja had fallen from the ninth to the 27th position in national rankings during this period, describing it as a “total failure.”<\/p>\n
ASUU’s grievances are not solely directed at the former vice chancellor. Dr. Ugoh clarified that the ongoing strike, initiated on May 2, 2024, was driven by issues such as appointments and promotions of staff members without a governing council and other legal violations. “We didn\u2019t strike because of the vice chancellor. The strike was led by the five issues that were illegalities. So, as soon as these illegalities are corrected, we will suspend the strike,” he said.<\/p>\n
The union remains hopeful that Prof. Aisha Sani Maikudi, the acting vice chancellor, will address their concerns. “The person overseeing the office of the vice chancellor, Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi, has been part of the player. She knows all the issues, so the union is waiting for any day we are invited to interface with the university,” Ugoh noted. He emphasized that the contentious issues could be resolved quickly by a willing administration.<\/p>\n
Dr. Kassim Umaru, a former ASUU branch chairman, echoed these sentiments, criticizing the previous leadership’s practices and urging the federal government to intervene and restore the University of Abuja. “We pray that not even our adversaries will see what we have under Prof. Na’Allah. He is akin to a vice chancellor who is all-knowing, and despite our repeated visits, as well as those of national and zonal representatives, he ultimately turned down every request. However, we hope that Prof. Maikudi, the university’s administrator, will take the necessary steps to restore harmony to this area,” Umaru said.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Dr. Habib Yakoob, the University of Abuja’s spokesperson, highlighted the university community’s appreciation for Prof. Na’Allah’s contributions. “The community believed that they would miss a time when the university developed quickly in all spheres of life,” Yakoob said, pointing out that Prof. Maikudi, the acting vice chancellor, was an integral part of Na’Allah’s administration as the deputy vice chancellor academic. He expressed his hope that ASUU would support the new administration’s efforts to improve the institution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Gabriella Ogbu The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the University of Abuja has expressed relief over the departure of Prof. Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, the former vice chancellor, citing a period of controversial decisions and lost opportunities that marked his tenure. The Union is optimistic about a fresh start under the new administration. During […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37592,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37591\/revisions\/37592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}