The management of Bowen University, Osun state has explained why it sacked about 127 members of staff of the institution.
The Head of Information and Public Relations Unit of the university, Toba Adaramola, confirmed the sacking in a statement issued on Wednesday.
He said the management of the institution decided to ‘rightsize’ in order to move forward.
He explained that the management had before the outbreak of coronavirus, planned to reposition and shift from the old ways of running the University like a public institution, to a technology driven one for efficient service delivery.
“When the present administration of Professor Joshua Ogunwole came on board in August 2018, the University was already at an inflection point which calls for urgent actions from key stakeholders.
“The University Management at that time identified the need to embark on repositioning and rebranding which led to series of training and retraining along the line.
“At this point, it was discovered that the public institution model run by the University may not be sustainable – hence, the need to leverage on technology for more efficient service delivery.
“During the lockdown, the University was able to migrate from the traditional teaching method to online teaching and examination with ease,” he said.
However, Adaramola noted that affected staff will be paid their entitlements in accordance with the terms of their statutory engagement by the University.
“The decision to rightsize was taken after due consultation. Those affected cut across the teaching and non-teaching staff and will be taken care of in accordance with the terms of their statutory engagement by the University.
“The decision was taken in the best interest of the University and for sustainability,” the statement read.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report, no fewer than 42 per cent of employed Nigerians lost their means of livelihood to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the agency, 79 percent of Nigerians also reported that their households total income had decreased since mid-March while some households struggled to purchase staple foods.
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