Over 1700 impacted staff members are now in disarray as a result of Governor Siminialayi Fubara’s annulment of a recent recruitment that had been completed by his predecessor, Chief Nyesom Wike, at the state-owned Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Port Harcourt.
Fubara’s administration announced the termination in a statement by the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Prince Chinedu Mmom, claiming irregularities and disobedience to orders by management of the varsity.
“The Government of Rivers State has observed with dismay, the inconsistencies/irregularities and flagrant disobedience to the directions of just finished recruitment process at the IAUE, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt,” said the statement.
“Therefore, the management of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, therefore cancels the recent employment process.
“All appointment letters issued and received are hereby declared invalid, and all parties concerned are hereby instructed to return any such letters to the institution’s office of the registrar as well as any other employment-related items, such as ID cards, that they may still have in their possession.
“There shall be in due course, a proper and credible recruitment exercise.”
Participants respond
For us in the civil society sector, we are vindicated to the extent of the anomalies identified by the government, according to Enerfaa Georgewill, Chairman of Rivers Civil Society Organisations, or RIVSCO. We concur with those who think a review of the procedure is necessary.
“The current governor basically reiterated what we said during the election. The people of Rivers will never forget how quickly we raised the alarm about the then-pervasive nepotism, favouritism, and defective hiring practises.
Before the same thing occurred at the IAUE, it first occurred at Rivers State University (RSU), and the government turned a blind eye to the alarm raised. There is nothing to be happy about because the government is just now waking up.
“We oppose, however, the fiat-based, general cancellation of appointments. We think a committee made up of qualified individuals ought to be appointed to examine the procedure. Genuinely qualified individuals should have their employment confirmed, while those who fall short should be fired.
The cancellation of the recruitment at IAUE is confirmation of the fraud we have consistently warned the Rivers people about, according to Darlington Nwauju, spokesman for the All Progressives Congress in Rivers.
“Now, in one breath you claim to be consolidating and in another breath you choose to halt and disparage, indicating consolidation was trumpeted in order to dupe the Rivers people,” the speaker continued.
“One can only picture what becomes of people who acquired these jobs on merit without regard to political or ethnic reasons in a state where the unemployment rate is high up there.”
It’s a daring initiative, according to Zik Gbemre, coordinator of the Niger Delta Peace Coalition. Aside from the irresponsibility in arbitrarily invalidating the entire procedure to the prejudice of others who may have honestly earned their employment, why penalise the innocent and ignore the true offender?
“The real criminal here is the school administration, which the state government accused of irregularities and disobedience to orders. We didn’t discover that in the government statement, despite the fact that they ought to receive sanctions first.
Furthermore, Wike should be compelled to respond to inquiries. If there were irregularities, the prior governor was responsible for them because he approved the hiring despite concerns from stakeholders about the anomalies.
We hope Fubara will assess the hiring procedure fairly for people who may have earned their jobs. We’re talking about making people who had jobs for months suddenly unemployed.
With a new Vice Chancellor (VC), Okechukwu Onuchukwu, in charge of the IAUE, there is one problem: government decrees. After finishing his term in office, Prof. Ozo-Mekuri Ndimele, whose administration the recruiting took place, left his position.
Due to the development, the current VC has taken a lot of heat for reportedly initiating the employment’s nullification.
“He had immediately implemented the government’s last direction by firing the institution’s deputy registrar, Emmanuel Kalagbor, and deputy director of information and communications technology, Emmanuel Aburutou.”
But given that one of the main talking points in this affair has been that some of the violations identified by the government occurred under the current VC, this tendency has struck some people as ironic.
In a statement refuting some of these allegations, the IAUE stated, “It is not true staff appointed by the previous vice chancellor, Prof. Ozo-Mekuri Ndimele, were removed as soon as Prof. Onuchuku came on board.
“More than 85% of Prof. Ozo-Mekuri Ndimele’s staff members are still working for the university. Laws, rules, and regulations govern universities, just like they do for other institutions, organisations, and agencies, and IAUE is no exception.
When the government announced the cancellation of their appointment, the affected—who had been working without pay for the previous eight months—were just about to get the backlog of payments.
