Fear of retrenchment grips AAU staff

FEAR OF RETRENCHMENT GRIPS AAU STAFF AS VERIFICATION EXERCISE CONTINUES

  By: Oriaifoh Godwins 

 The staff of Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma, Edo state are currently apprehensive with respect to the ongoing staff verification exercise that is being conducted by the Special Intervention Team, appointed by Edo state governor to manage the affairs of the University. The exercise, which inter alia, is aimed at determining the staff strength of the University with the aim of fishing out ghost workers, if there are any, is currently making some of the staff of the university to feel jittery especially going by the fact that same exercise was conducted twice in the past. Speaking with a couple of staff of the University who all prefer to speak anonymously on the issue, they wonder why they are asked to produce their primary school certificate and Bank Verification Number, BVN, which according to them are irrelevant as they suspect the government may just be looking for flimsy excuses to retrench staff of the university. One of the respondents said; "...this university has been in existence as far back as when some people that find themselves in government today, are still in school, it is one of the oldest state Universities in Nigeria, we haven't had it these bad... I hope this exercise is not aimed at victimising targeted people, I hope it is being conducted in good fate?..." Mr. Oaihimire Edetalen, the Secretary to the Special Intervention Team, was not available to speak on the issue, but the University Registrar, Mr. Edward Aihevba, who praised Edo state Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki to 'high heaven', said; "...I feel happy because now, the governor is interested in what is happening in this University, the essence of the verification exercise, is to enable the governor to have an accurate statistics to work with... " Mr. Aihevba pointed out that Mr. Obaseki has promised to make Edo state University one o the best five Universities in the world and this verification exercise is the starting point. He however added that at the beginning of the verification exercise, some staff members didn't turn up as they expressed concerns on the relevance of the BVN and primary school certificate that were requested for, by the verification team, but the Special Intervention Team and the University management has waived the aforementioned requirements. As the verification exercise continues, Edo people and stakeholders wait to see whether the intention of the government on the exercise is genuine, as explained by the University Registrar, or has some clandestine motives as expressed by the staff of the University.