I am painfully aware that sometime in 2014, when a major University event was in the offing, the State or University authorities placated the affected staff with payment of LEAVE GRANT to most of them. Again, when the 2015 Matriculation was imminent, I heard that the authorities had invited the affected AKSU staff and promised them that within 2-3 weeks, the affected staff will be paid their outstanding salary arrears and other staff would be paid their entitlements.
This pacification (now a deceit) was perpetrated so as to ensure that a salutary atmosphere reigned supreme on the two campuses for Matriculation to take place peaceably. But no sooner had the Matriculation exercise been concluded than the staff were threatened that they will be dismissed if the press should ever hear that they are being owed salary arrears.
In essence, staff of AKSU who have not been paid for upwards of 22 MONTHS should be taciturn. They must keep sealed lips but they must report on duty punctually and regularly. They should agree to join their employers who owe them inhuman salary arrears (their oppressors) in a conspiracy of silence. Which to the affected AKSU Staff, this means SUFFERING AND SMILING !!! This is an evidence of impunity and executive lawlessness par excellence. To leave over 200 AKSU staff ( both academic and non-academic) who were recruited for the successful NUC accreditation of 12 programmes of the Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences in 2014 without salary for upwards of some 22 months.
This sordid act should prick the conscience of rational and God-fearing leaders!!! Those programmes won accreditation in flying, glittering colours and the result of the accreditation was announced with fanfare amidst acclaim at Le Meridien Hotel, Uyo to the glee of our then Uncommon Governor and of Akwa Ibom people. And the Accreditation itself was an Uncommon Achievement/Feat. Both the then Pro-Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of AKSU had assiduously defended AKSU's 2014 Budget before the House Committee on Finance & Appropriation who made generous appropriations for AKSU's 2014 Budget which also adequately captured all capital and personnel emolument.
But His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State and Visitor to the University at the time, Chief (Dr) Godswill Akpabio, CON never approved the release of even one kobo in respect of AKSU's 2014 Budget. So, AKSU operated throughout 2014 financial year on a shoe-string 2013 Budget level. Can any reasonable person imagine a young State University running throughout 2014 using 2013 Budget? Can you imagine a young State University being denied its budgetary provisions for ONE FULL FINANCIAL YEAR? If that is not impunity, arrogance and callousness, we shall run into definitional problem of what impunity is, what callousness is and what arrogance in governance is, and what insensitivity is!!!
This is the genesis or origin of the calamity that has befallen over 200 staff of AKSU. NON-APPROVAL FOR RELEASE OF AKSU's 2014 BUDGET. I am aware that the Hon Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr Aniekan Umanah, the official mouth-piece of the respective Akwa Ibom State Governments for more than 8 years now, will sooner than later reiterate the hollow and straw-like excuse he had given before on this subject, by saying that the recruitment received no approval. That is not true. And nothing could be farther from the truth as staff/students ratio is one of the requirements in any successful NUC Accreditation. Let the point also be made that as a young University, AKSU will continuously recruit both academic and non-academic staff in the next 10-15 years before it stabilizes, although, understandably, emphasis will continue to be placed on the recruitment of academic staff.
The then Governor made adequate input and even directed that staff from the Airport should be absorbed and Government dignitaries, including the Head of Service, Mrs Cecilia Udo-Essien, was involved in the screening, alongside the Vice-Chancellor and Registrar of the University. The truth about the non-payment of the staff is the blunt and inexplicable refusal by Governor Akpabio to approve the release of the 2014 Budget of AKSU. The proof of the pudding is in the eating: Let me anticipate Mr Aniekan Umanah by challenging the Hon Commissioner to publish Governor Godswill Akpabio's Approval of the AKSU's 2014 Budget. Let him publish that approval and the letter by either the Chief of Staff, Permanent Secretary (Governor's Office) or the SSG conveying that approval to AKSU. And let Governor Udom Emmanuel confirm from the University itself if the approval of AKSU's 2014 Budget was received and operationalized as was done by all the MDAs in the State in respect of the 2014 financial year before 31st December 2014.
Thank God, even though the then Pro-Chancellor is no longer there, the erstwhile Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peters, is still there as Professor-Emeritus in the Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences. The current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Eno Ibanga, was, happily the Vice-Chancellor (Academic) then, a vantage position from where he was able to see it all. The current Pro-Chancellor of the Governing Council, Obong (Engr) A. S. Udofia, a highly respected elder statesman, was my very hardworking Council Member with tremendous amount of industrial and management experience and one who served as Chairman for my Governing Council's numerous Committees on project monitoring, inspection and evaluation on the two campuses of the University. He is in a position to collaborate that AKSU's 2014 Budget was never approved and released.
The Bursar of the University can confirm that without blinking an eyelid and without conducting any check. Last and not the least, the present Deputy Governor, Mr Moses Ekpo, MFR (who doubled then as one of my Council Members as well as a Commissioner in the National Population Commission (NPC) as well as Monsignor Peter Inyang-Etoh, Man of God, a relation of the Governor and a very highly respected Member of my Governing Council are in highly enviable and strategic positions to confirm or contradict what I have said. THAT AKSU's INTRACTABLE PROBLEM OF SALARY ARREARS FOR OVER 200 STAFF EMANATES FROM NON-APPROVAL AND NON-RELEASE OF AKSU's 2014 BUDGET. Budget matter in an institution like AKSU is not a hidden issue.
Someone asked on facebook the other day: " Why is Professor Eminue also saying this? After all, he benefited from that Government as Pro-Chancellor & Chairman of AKSU's Governing Council of Akwa Ibom State University." My answer is that I never abandoned or sacrificed my conscience @ AKSU. I remain grateful to His Excellency, Governor Godswill Akpabio , CON who appointed me as the second occupant of a First Class parastatal occupied by Akwa Ibomites from Oro Nation to be Pro-Chancellor & Chairman of Governing Council of AKSU and I believe that I had acquitted myself creditably in that capacity for 4 years.
The other person from Oro Nation who occupied a First Class parastatal in the State was Arc Otu Ita Toyo ( "Total Chair"), who was Chairman of the State's Local Government Service Commission ( LGSC). By the way, let us say that AKSU benefitted more from me than I benefited from AKSU in that process. But with an Oron man as Pro-Chancellor, I am sure that the State's Chief Executive was NOT as pre-disposed to releasing funds to the young University as he could have been if the Pro-Chancellorship was held by an Annang personage.The superfluous funds lavished at comparable institutions headed by Annangs would serve to amply buttress the point I am making here.
The Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua, College of Education, Afaha Nsit, etc. I know that Divine Providence forced the then Governor's hand when he made the appointment. As far as Governor Akpabio was concerned, my appointment as Pro-Chancellor of AKSU's Governing Council was something of a decoy or a make-belief to give to Oro Nation the impression of their being recognized by the Akpabio administration. All along, I still hoped he might change and do the right thing, and not let the office of Pro-Chancellor be more of a propaganda stunt or something of a window-dressing. Or, is it not very surprising that throughout the 4 years my appointment as Pro-Chancellor, I sought audience on uncountable occasions but throughout all of 4 years, Governor Akpabio never granted the person he appointed Pro-Chancellor & Chairman of the Governing Council of AKSU even one appointment to meet and discuss affairs of the University on a one-on-one basis? The only occasion I met the Governor was at his own behest, following a statement I had made before the Education Committee of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly under the Chairmanship of the Rt. Hon. (Dr) Ekaete Ebong Okon. On that occasion, all my Council Members were there.
Perhaps, the other perchance opportunity of sitting down briefly with His Excellency, Governor Akpabio to discuss was after he had pronounced the sack of staff labour leaders at his Cabinet Chambers over the question of unionism and welfare issues and my Vice-Chancellor and I had to break through the barricades of security details, so to say, to plead with His Excellency to reverse his pronouncement on those staff, which he kindly and instantly did at our instance. A few staff labour leaders like Emmanuel Uduehe and Idongesit John were brought in at this stage, including State Labour leaders who assured His Excellency that unionism could be embarked upon without staff being irresponsible. The then SSG, Udom Gabriel Emmanuel was also present. So, for 4 years as Pro-Chancellor, Governor Akpabio never approved my numerous or numberless requests for audience to discuss affairs of the University with him, although that did not deter me from forwarding numerous letters to the Governor. Nor did Governor Akpabio ever sought to see me on his own during that period. Attempts to go through some of my Council Members who are very close to the Governor was hardly productive either.
I continue to stress that AKSU benefitted from my appointment that I benefitted from AKSU. TETFUND was there for grabs but it needed someone to bring it to AKSU. That's the greatest legacy AKSU Governing Council and Management under the Pro-Chancellorship of Professor Eminue and the Vice-Chancellorship of Professor Sunday W. Peters left in AKSU and TETFUND is a continuing thing. One only needs to see the structural transformation of the two campuses of the University to realize what legacy the outgone pioneering Governing Council and Management have left in place. I have decided to throw light on the murky business of non-payment of staff salaries for upwards of 22 months in AKSU because it has become a matter for the conscience.
Government ought to be humane, to put sunshine on the faces of its citizens, not to even talk of the biblical injunction that the labourer deserves his due. I also believe that Government ought to epitomize the highest ideals in society - the ideals of love, sympathy, fairness, truth, helpfulness, sincerity, honesty, etc. If Government were to revel in congenital lies, how can citizens ever be upright? For "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3).
Facebook post by Okon Eminue
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