ASUU slams Gov. Elechi over Ebonyi State University name change

Ebonyi State chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, yesterday criticized the purported change of  name of the state-owned institution, Ebonyi State University, EBSU, to Ebonyi State International University, ESIU.

The union’s decision, which was the highpoint of an emergency meeting in Abakaliki, came at a time the state government also ordered the university to reduce the number of faculties from 11 to seven and departments from 70 to 35. The union’s chairman, Prof Emeka Nwakpu, said the government’s move would have dire consequences on both past and present students as well as academic and non-academic staff of the affected faculties and departments.



“Once an institution is privatized, the investors will have to find a way of recouping what they have spent.
“The implication is that it will fall back on the students and the staff who will be forced to start looking for job after spending about ten years or more in the university without pension or gratuity,” Prof. Nwakpu said. Describing the move illegal, Nwakpu said the state government was arrogating to itself the powers and functions of the Governing Council and Senate of the University as stated in relevant laws setting up the university. He called on government to immediately halt the steps it had so far taken to forestall looming crisis in the university. He said: “The congress condemns in strong terms, the flagrant violation of university autonomy by the state government in usurping the powers and functions of governing council and the senate of the university as enshrined in the subsisting university law by unilaterally deciding to rationalize the academic programmes of the university.

“The purported change of name from Ebonyi  State University(EBSU) to Ebonyi State International University(ESIU) and the ceding/concessioning of university to private investors is unacceptable and should be discontinued forthwith for the benefit of all; more so as the terms of the memorandum of  understanding(MOU) are shrouded in unnecessary secrecy.

“The congress demands that the MOU be made available to the university and all people of the Ebonyi state who are authentic owners of the university. Congress requests the Vice Chancellor of EBSU as a matter of urgency to convene an emergency senate meeting for deliberation on the above stated developments in the university. The above measures if complied with will help to avert the brewing crisis in the University.”

Source: Vanguard Newspaper