The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused Vice Chancellors (VCs) of Nigerian Universities of conniving with state governors, traditional rulers and other politicians to hijack staff employment without due process in the varsities.
The President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, who spoke in Uyo, capital of Akwa Ibom State, during the Heroes’ Day Celebration of the University of Uyo (UNIUYO), lamented that most of the staff members employed through the back door have become scavengers in the system who go after money, forgetting what they were employed to do.
Osodeke said that university employment was supposed to be done through advertisement, but that no university in the country has advertised for vacancies in the past ten years.
According to him, the staff strength of universities has tripled even without the advertisement of vacancies, blaming vice-chancellors of employing unqualified persons.
“Before now, university employment was done through advertisements followed by rigorous interviews, but now how do people get here? Through temporary appointments.
“That’s the problem that we have today. I do not know of any university for the past six to ten years that has advertised, but the staff strength has tripled.
“VCs just sat down somewhere and packed people from traditional rulers, governors, and all other politicians into Nigerian universities as lecturers, most of them now scavengers in the system, going after money and all manners of things.
“Unfortunately, university employment has turned into a constituency project, and we have to struggle to reverse this misnomer and bring sanity to the system.”
The ASUU president vowed that the Union would fight the anomaly to restore sanity to the system.
