Hues and cries as Yar’adua University cuts 150 jobs

Anxiety has gripped the employees of the Umaru Musa Yar’adua University (UMYU), School of Pre-degree and Remedial Studies (SPRS) Katsina over the management’s planned reorganization.
A sudden reorganization was said to have led to the loss of no fewer than 150 jobs made up of 39 tutors, four administrative officials and consultants, 21 auxiliary staff in addition to 79 resource persons who have been working at the school’s nine outreach study centers spread across the state.
SPRS was established in December 2011 to give learning opportunities to students with deficiency at O’ Level subjects before they get university admissions. Three programs namely remedial, pre-degree and Interim Joint Matriculation Board (IJMB) Examination were run by the school.
Teachers were recruited in January 2012 following the approval of the university’s management as resource persons on part time basis. However, by 2013, the resource persons were converted to tutors Grade 1 and II and placed under the condition of service of the university teaching staff in accordance with Articles 2 of its statues.
With the introduction of IJMB, an affiliate of Ahmadu Bello University, the tutors were made permanent and pensionable, being a condition for running IJMB Examinations at any university.
According to the spokesman of the 150 disengaged employees, Umar Suleiman, trouble started when the new Vice Chancellor Professor Idris Funtua, due to unknown reasons terminated the appointments of the tutors and cancelled the new intakes in December 2015.
Suleiman described the VC’s decision as hasty, inhuman and unlawful.
“Despite the authenticity and official letter of appointment duly signed by the university’s registrar, the new VC sacked us without considering the statute that established the school,” he added.
He said the tutors were told to present proof of disengagement from their previous jobs by the university before they were offered jobs in 2012, yet they were sacked without due diligence.
He listed the demands of the tutors to include posting to departments in the university since the SPRS no longer runs pre-degree programs or be posted to other higher institutions belonging to the state.
Another disengaged employee, Abubakar Bugaje, said life has been unbearable for the former staff since the closure of the school, adding that “we have children and dependants. We have acquired masters degrees and PhDs but we were asked to show proof of disengagement from former places of work which we did, and yet they went ahead and sacked us.”
Over 1,500 students of the defunct SPRS were yet to know their fate as three sets of graduating students from 2013-2016 couldn’t be given their exam results or offered admission into the university despite completing their respective programmes and paying over N35,000 each as tuition fees.
A letter of complaints signed by Bello Mai-Unguwa on behalf of the students, pleaded with the management to reconsider its stand and reopen the SPRS. They also asked the university to offer them admission.
He said the students were encouraged to join the school due to its consistent admission procedure and that the one-year program had remedied their academic deficiencies. He said the future of the students was at stake with the closure of the school.
Reacting to the issue, the Acting Director of the School, Musa Abdullahi, denied receiving a disengagement letter from any of the tutors, saying “we reliably gathered that some of them left their former employers to take up these temporary appointments, leaving their permanent and pensionable jobs.”
He said the university management had the power to terminate the appointments of the tutors and supporting staff which was contained in their temporary appointment letters.
“It was stated clearly that your service can be terminated at any time,” he said.
However, the VC, Professor Funtua, said the school was not closed but being reorganized to run science based courses, adding that the tutors are not staff of the university but that of the school who lost their jobs because of the ongoing reorganization.
“There should be a distinction between the two places because as the Vice Chancellor I have no power to dismiss any staff, so in the first instance this allegation shouldn’t be there at all as it is not the responsibility of the VC to employ or sack. It is the work of the council,” he added
According to him, there was no scheme of service for them as they were all on temporary appointments.
“The school was meant to prepare students based on our needs and at the moment we cannot admit all the art students that applied, and we don’t have enough candidates for our science-based courses,” he said.
On why they asked the disengaged staff to withdraw from their former employers as conditions for employment, Funtua said, “I don’t have anything to say on this because I’m not aware of anything like that. Any job you are offered must have a scheme of service; for someone to give you a temporary job and ask you to leave your former job is a personal decision.
“Even if this was done to them it was wrong but they should have themselves to blame because with all seriousness they ought to have evaluated all the conditions to ascertain pros and cons before jumping at it,” he added.