NDUSTRIKE:DICKSON TELLS UNIVERSITY TO FUND ITSELF

Mike Odiegwu of the Nation newspaper reports that Bayelsa State Governor, Henry Seriake Dickson, has asked the management of the state-owned Niger Delta University (NDU) to explore other revenue sources to fund itself.

A statement sent through the office of Dickson’s Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said the governor insisted that his administration would no longer sustain the existing funding system because of the present poor financial situation of the state.
The statement said Dickson spoke in Government House, Yenagoa, when he met with the Governing Council and principal officers of NDU.

The governor said a situation where the state government’s monthly subvention of about N480million was spent on recurrent expenditure was unsustainable.

He expressed concern over the bogus wage bill of the university and the need for its leadership to be prudent in the use of funds.
He said his administration religiously provided the school’s funding until January this year, to enable the institution gain some degree of financial autonomy.
On the ongoing industrial action embarked upon by the state chapter of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU),  Dickson appealed to the striking lecturers to call off their action and join hands with the government in proffering solutions to the issue of unpaid salaries caused by the sharp drop in state revenues.

He empathized with the staff and students of the institution over the development and re-affirmed his commitment to measures that would help in cutting down the wage bill of the university.

Dickson called on the university to work with the government for a more feasible funding arrangement that would cater for the salaries of all academic staff and appropriate number of non-teaching staff.
Describing the current non-academic staff strength of 2,502 as unacceptable, Dickson frowned at the practice, where the university asserted its autonomy only in the area of employment, but passed all salary obligations to the state government.

He said:  “At the inauguration of the NDU Governing Council four years ago, we laid out our vision of what our University should be.
“We realized that it was going to be unsustainable to have the situation we met, hereby the university with its very high recurrent wage bill will be drawing its salaries on a monthly basis from the government.

“A situation where the university will employ as they wish and then transfer the salaries to the state government can no longer be sustained.

“Our vision, moving forward, is for an NDU that is properly organized and run as a university that can stand the test of time irrespective of the economic vicissitudes that may afflict our state.

“We are interested in an NDU that will be a centre of excellence, as we all want it to be; an NDU that will stand the test of time irrespective of the government that is there or whether the government gets low or high allocation.  That is why we must all be united in looking inward and seeking alternative funding pattern for our great university”.
The statement also quoted the Chairman, Governing Council of NDU, Prof. Turner Isoun and Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Humphrey Ogoni, as acknowledging the financial contributions of the present administration to the effective running of the university in the last four years.

But he asked the governor to see the proposed new policy of financial autonomy in the management of the university as a medium-term initiative.

He said any attempt to enforce immediately would result in the escalation of tuition fees and other charges that could spell doom to many indigent students.