Gov. Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa on Tuesday said the State Government would soon reduce the workforce at the state-owned Niger Delta University (NDU) on Wilberforce Island.
The governor made the announcement in his address at the inauguration of an eight-member governing council for the university in Yenagoa.
The council has as its chairman, a former Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Turner Isoun.
Dickson said his vision was to make the university autonomous and self-sustaining as a citadel of learning.
The governor noted that the NDU had employed more workers than was required over the years.
He said that going by a report that would soon be made public, it was discovered that the NDU had a lot of staff who were not needed.
According to Dickson, “the reason is perhaps, the university employs but the same university does not pay salaries”.
He charged the new governing council to be prepared to do “soul-searching”, look inwards and weed workers in the institution that were not needed.
He said the bloated workforce had increased the state’s wage bill considerably, adding:“this development is unsustainable for the government.
“The new governing council must look into this issue.
“The university, apart from being autonomous in finances and administration, should be able to sustain itself with the support from the State Government.”
The governor said the new approach was to fund the institution from within, saying, “to me, this is a more sustainable way to get the best for the university.”
He said that the state was witnessing a major reform to reposition governance and that the university would not be left out.
The governor stressed that the vision of his administration was to make the NDU a truly “human resources production factory.”
Dickson expressed the resolve of the State Government to build a sustainable higher education system that would guarantee production of more human resources for development.
According to him, the visitation panel on the NDU earlier set up had done a thorough job by identifying problems facing the school.
He said the panel made recommendations to improve the institution to world-class standard.
Isoun said that it was necessary to build a knowledge-based economy, anchored on education from the foundation stage to the tertiary level.
He assured the government that the council members would work hard to make the university play active role in the development of the state