The Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Port Harcourt has been enmeshed in crisis over the re-appointment of Prof. Barineme Fakae as the Vice Chancellor of the institution.
Pointblanknews.com gathered that following the development, members of the local branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), embarked on an indefinite strike to force the Visitor to the university, Gov. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to allow due process to be followed in appointing the Vice Chancellor.
Sources said the RSUST Chapter of ASUU has been divided over the desirability of the strike action. Most of the lecturers and Heads of Department have distanced themselves from the strike and continued with teaching, insisting that their colleagues have no reason to embark on the action.
However, the situation has attracted the attention of the national body of ASUU. Its President, Dr. Nasir Isa at a recent media briefing, called on its members in other universities across the federation to boycott classes today, Thursday, 30th August, and join the strike in solidarity with their RSUST colleagues.
Isa urged Amaechi to allow due process in the appointment of a Vice Chancellor for the institution and refrain from using his office to handpick Fakae, stressing that such is the duty of the university governing council.
A lecturer in the institution who did not want his name in print said the first tenure of the embattled Vice Chancellor did not follow due process, but when RSUST Chapter of ASUU protested the process that produced him, Amaechi pleaded with the union to forget the matter as it won’t be repeated. Amaechi has repeated the mistake. H e can’t get away with this one. Due process must be followed; Fakae must go .Why are our leaders always afraid of following due process? he said.
Pointblanknews.com learnt that since Fakae mounted the saddle in 2008, ASUU has not allowed him a day’s rest over members allowance and sundry issues. It has been strike which has continued to disrupt academic activities.
ASUU maintains that Amaechi must follow laid down rules in appointing a Vice Chancellor and accused him of conspiring with the chairman of the university governing council, Justice Karibi- Whyte to re- appoint Fakae.
A cross section of students who spoke to Pointblanknews.com insists the strike action is unnecessary. They accuse their lecturers of fighting Fakae because he outlawed some fraudulent practices like sorting and harassment of students through the introduction of Information Communication Technology (ICT) where students write examinations and receive their results online. This eliminated the old system where lecturers awarded marks to those who bribed them and failed those who couldn’t pay the bribe, they alleged.
A resident of Nkpolu, the host community of the institution, Mr. Timothy Adiele observed that Fakae has turned around the state of infrastructure in the school and wondered why ASUU would be protesting his re-appointment. RSUST is now one of the best state universities in Nigeria today. Fakae has introduced a lot of innovations; activities in the university are now ICT driven. ASUU should complement his efforts rather than seek to distract him, he posited.
Others have called on the Speaker Otelemba Dan Amachree led Rivers State House of Assembly to wade into the problem to avert an imminent shut down of the institution.
Speaking on the debate generated by Fakae’s re-appointment, the Chief Press Secretary to Amaechi, Mr. David Iyofor described the Vice Chancellor as a round peg in a round hole, stressing that the governor considered his sterling performance when he served as the Rector of the Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori and appointed him the Vice Chancellor of RSUST.
The re-appointment is way of encouraging him, he said.
For now, as the argument on the propriety of Fakae’s re-appointment rage, close watchers of events in the state says that, as usual, Amaechi would not bow to the demands of the striking university lecturers.