By Chinedu Ogu, Port Harcourt
These are indeed troubled times for the Rivers State owned Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE) as academic and administrative activities of the university were recently paralyzed by aggrieved indigenes of Rumuolumeni, its host community.
The demonstrators, comprising youths, women, elders and chiefs, who barricaded the university gate with chairs, benches and their cooking utensils, said their action was to express their discontent over claimed non-employment of their sons and daughters in the recently concluded recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in the university.
A community youth leader, Felix Chinda told Tentacle that they were shortchanged in the employment process and accused the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Okechukwu Onuchuku of allocating jobs to his associates and refused to convert community members who had served as casual staff members for 15 years and above.
He vowed that the youth would not relent in their fight against neglect and deprivation until their demands are met.
Another youth, Tony Ogbonna disclosed that of the 1,500 employees recently engaged at the institution, only nine hailed from the community, lamenting that there should be no justification for giving the community only nine slots out of 1,500 persons who were employed as permanent staff members in the university.
“We are not happy about that, so the community has gathered here today to say no to that arrangement. We don’t want it anymore, whatever belongs to us should be given to us willingly,” Ogbonna said.
Speaking further, Chinda explained that the protest was peaceful and was aimed at compelling the university authorities to act justly, saying, “Here you can see widows, women, youths, elders and chiefs. They are not here to fight and they are not here to cause trouble. Our being here is not because we want to stop the school from operating. We are here because we want the right thing to be done. We are here because we are demanding our rights.”
He, therefore, appealed to the Rivers State Government to intervene, pointing out that the land on which the university stood was not sold to the state, but was donated by the community to the institution, adding, “We are calling on the state government that they should intervene in this so that what is supposed to be given to the community be given to the community.”
Also speaking, an elderly woman said that she had worked at the university for nearly two decades without being made a permanent employee. She said, “I have worked as a casual staff member from 2006 till date. From N5,000 per month to N7,000, to N10,000 and now N15,000. I’m still there, no conversion to permanent staff, so we are not happy. I am old now in Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, but they don’t recognize us.”
Reacting to the allegations, Prof. Onuchuku clarified that he did not superintend over the recruitment and could not have allotted more employment slots to his associates. He explained that the exercise was fully supervised by the university governing council, insisting that the exercise followed due process.
Speaking on non-conversion of some indigenes of the community who had served over 15 years as casual staff, Onuchukwu, a professor of Economics, disclosed that most of those involved were above the 50 years age limit for first employment as stipulated in the state civil service rule, while some were converted as the capacity of the approved slots could carry.
Prof. Onuchuku maintained that contrary to the protesters’ claims, Rumuolumeni Community had a fair share in the recruitment, stating that of the 1,500 vacancies approved by the Rivers State Government, 1,100 positions were for academic, while 400 were for non-teaching categories.
The Acting Vice Chancellor maintained that if the slots were distributed according to local government areas in the state, each local government area would have had 47 slots for teaching and 17 for non-teaching positions.
He said this was the case since the exercise was carried out on merit and in compliance with employment law, pointing out that from the records of the employment exercise, Rumuolumeni Community alone, which is a ward in Obio/Akpor Council, got 15 slots in the academic categories and 30 in the non-teaching cadre, amounting 45 persons.
He further noted that the IAUE is a public educational institution, owned by the Rivers State Government and not a private individual and as such, there was the need to follow due process and obey all rules and regulations governing it.
Prof. Onuchuku maintained that a recruitment of such in an academic institution must be competitive in nature particularly for the teaching category and other senior specialized personnel such as medical doctors, accountants, laboratory scientist and engineers, among others.
Against this backdrop, while admitting that the concerns of host communities about employment opportunities are legitimate and valid, the Vice-Chancellor said it was important to clarify that the most challenging issue tertiary educational institutions face during recruitment exercise remains satisfying the expectations of their host communities. That is not peculiar to the IAUE.
Describing the insatiable demands from host communities as ‘incontestable,’ he said the development could push institutions to violate acceptable best practices, saying this act is more disturbing when considered from the standpoint that recruitment of teaching staff in universities around the globe is usually guided by merit, regardless of the applicants’ background or community of origin.
Prof. Onuchuku, therefore, concluded that as a responsive corporate institution, the management of IAUE will consider the picketing of the institution by indigenes of Rumuolumeni Community as one of the rights that occasionally manifest between an institution and its stakeholders and will not change the university’s commitment to the needs of its host communities.
He, however, added that the management will not lose sight of the peculiarities of a university as a citadel of learning in hiring its workforce.
Other sources suggest that the protest might have been instigated by some influential members of the community whose candidates were not selected because they did not score the required benchmark in the recruitment process.
Meanwhile, the university had its 43rd Post Graduates Convocation Ceremony, with 893 awarded Doctor of Philosophy Degrees including former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, who was among the 893 PhD Students. She bagged a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Psychology, Guidance and Counseling.
Speaking at the convocation ceremony, she highlighted the transformation power of education, stressing that age should never be a barrier to academic pursuit, adding, “I feel that no age is too late to achieve your academic dreams whether you are young or old. If I can do it, others can also do it.”
