A University Don Professor Abdullahi Bala has appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU to restategise and look at issue of its lingering and protracted strike with Federal Government in a more practical manner that would help to resolve the problem once and for all.
The Immediate Past Vice Chancellor Federal University of Technology Minna Niger state who gave the advice while addressing Newsmen in Minna opined that embarking on strike by ASUU was not the only solution to it’s problem but must explore other viable options.
Professor Abdullahi Bala was of the opinion that declaring strike by ASUU for a long period of time was not going to help the matter and was gradually killing the system
He said the idea of Vice Chancellors getting permission from Head of Service Budget office and Federal Character Commission before recruitment was really a serious problem to Nigerian universities saying that in the last one year he had lost count of staff that had retired, resigned, died of left the university for greener pastures.
This he said had been creating vacuum in the nation universities which ordinarily Vice Chancellors should be able to get competent hands that would come in for replacement to keep the system moving without hinderence and called for concession from both sides to have peace and stability.
Professor Abdullahi Bala maintained that Vice Chancellors were not asking for additional hands that could bring about an increase in salaries but only replacing those that are already funded yet they cannot do that without getting approval for them to be captured in the IPPIS.
On his efforts to provide accommodation at the FUT Minna campus during his five years reign as Vice Chancellor he said they signed a Memorandum Of Understanding MOU with Urban Shelter Limited for the construction of five thousand five hundred bed spaces in two thousand and twenty which was hampered by problems of Covid 19 devaluation of naira inflation and protracted ASUU strike.
Professor Abdullahi Bala however added that after visiting the Chairman Urban Shelter Limited Malam Ibrahim Aliyu last week as Vice Chancellor the Chairman graciously donated the one thousand five hundred bed space that he has built at Federal University of Technology Minna and that he will hand them over to the university soon.
Cov Aliyu Lawal.