Alex Otti, the governor of Abia State, has promised that his administration will investigate the problems facing Abia State University, or ABSU, in Uturu in order to find solutions and make the university the envy of other higher education facilities in the nation.
He gave a speech on Wednesday during a meeting with the executives of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, or ASUU, ABSU Chapter, which was presided over by Dr. Happiness Uduak, the zonal coordinator for the Calabar Zone.
Otti stated that the state government would do everything in its power to support the University, noting that much work needed to be done to rehabilitate the establishment.
He was taken aback by the union’s claims that its members in Abia were entitled to an 18-month salary differential and that the previous administration had failed to pay lecturers 11 months’ worth of salary arrears.
Governor Otti recommended union members to instead devise strategies for achieving the university’s financial independence, stating that universities, particularly those that are not newly established, ought to be managed independently of government support.
“We need to put on our thinking caps and take off our begging caps because the problem we have in Nigeria is this whole idea of begging,” he declared.
Even as a nation, we must consider being financially independent because we are constantly borrowing and pleading.
“If anything is going on at the university, even just from research, we should be able to generate enough resources to do a few things and help the university become independent.”
The chief executive of Abia further stated that he will meet with the management of the university to resolve various matters in order to fortify the institution’s corporate governance.
Otti committed to investigating the union’s plea for greater subvention and establishing a visiting panel at the university.
Earlier in her remarks, Dr. Uduak, the head of the ASUU delegation, expressed her admiration for Governor Otti’s many initiatives to improve Abia State and the university community since taking office. We request that the government form a panel to visit the school in order to investigate several irregularities, rehabilitate the horrible Okigwe-Uturu road that leads to the establishment, and resolve the 18-month discrepancies for the students.