CoronavirusEconomyEducationNigeriaAgain Atiku’s American University of Nigeria,AUN Sacks Over 100 Staff

Multiple sources say that the affected staff includes security, auxiliary, administration  and staff of other departments.

This is the second time an institution owned by Nigeria’s former vice president Atiku Abubakar is sacking staff within a week and this comes three days after Gotel Communications sack 54 staff on Workers’ Day.

The statement reads in parts “It would not be realistic for AUN to continue to anchor its administrative structure on over-bloated personnel whose role does not have a significant effect on the philosophy of a development university.

“In the emerging sustainable structure, competitive personnel are being retained, while others released honorably. All those affected are being paid all their contractual benefits at the point of clearance, to carry on with their lives.”

Please read the full text below:
AUN PRESS RELEASE:

RESTRUCTURING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
1. Certain structural elements have been initiated by the new Governing Council of American University of Nigeria (AUN), in response to NUC requirements, mandating the institution to align with an approved governance structure for all tertiary institutions operating in the country.

2. Until now, AUN has operated a student-staff ratio which balance had continued to affect the sustainability of the university.

3. This is clearly an uncommon and hardly workable tradition in all institutions and organizations around the world. Obviously it is unattainable.

4. Thus, consequent upon the university’s new Governing Council vote to restructure the institution in line with its agenda for sustainability, a process of workforce rationalization has been in the pipeline.

5. It is now time for the university to look back, look around and look ahead, to ensure that realistic and globally competitive administrative practices can be achieved in structure, strategy and focus.

6. It would not be realistic for AUN to continue to anchor its administrative structure on an over-bloated personnel whose role do not have significant effect on the philosophy of a development university.

7. In the emerging sustainable structure, competitive personnel are being retained, while others released honorably. All those affected are being paid all their contractual benefits at the point of clearance, to carry on with their lives.

8. As a typical American style institution, AUN deliberately trains its students to search for sustainable solutions to human development challenges.

9. Students are deliberately armed with lifelong skills and competencies to develop sustainable solutions to the myriad of challenges faced by society.

10. The challenge posed by the unsustainable redundancies in AUN’s operational structure for the university is one that needed to be addressed ever since.

Abu Bakar Abba Tahir
Vice President for University Relations
American University of Nigeria