…National leadership of ASUU declares award as illegal
…FUTO says award followed due process
…stop destroying your own, SSANU tells politicians
Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) very recently has been in the eye of the storm over the professorial award given to the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami’s professorship as illegal. The union announced this at a press conference that followed its National Executive Council meeting on Monday, February 14, 2022.
According to ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, Pantami should not be treated as a professor because his promotion to the status was illegal. Osodeke said, “You cannot be a minister and a lecturer in a university. It is an encouragement of illegality.
“Pantami has to quit as a minister and be tried for doing double jobs within the same federal system. He is not qualified. Pantami should not be treated as a professor.”
Pantami was elevated by the council of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) to a professorship position at the council’s 186th meeting in November 2021.
It would be recalled that the council was criticised for promoting Pantami, who was not an academic staff member of the university.
However, ASUU has vowed to sanction the Vice-Chancellor of the university and all its members that were involved in Pantami’s promotion.
The Alumni Association of Federal University of Technology Owerri FUTO which rose very early to express concern in what was considered to be a questionable professorship award to Minister Isa Pantami has finally advised Management of the University to step down the award. The association said it considers the award inexplicable and questionable. It also dissociated itself from an unknown group called FUTO Alumni Elders which has been struggling to whitewash the fraud.
FUTO management filed a suit on the matter but that has not stopped further conversation on the issue.
The national leadership of ASUU has advised FUTO management to reverse the award on the ground that it is inappropriate.
The FUTO management has, however, insisted that the award followed due process”.
In his comments, the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) branch of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has called on politicians to stop playing destructive politics with the issues affecting the institution.
Chairman of FUTO SSANU, Comrade Nwokeji Uchenna (KSJI) made the call weekend when fielding questions from newsmen in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
Nwokeji, who doubles as the chairman of the university’s Joint Action Committee (JAC), noted with regret that most of the issues bringing FUTO to spotlight such as the Pantami professorship and the host communities grabbing of FUTO land were being sponsored by politicians for selfish political gains.
He disclosed that since the current Vice Chancellor, Prof. Nnenna Oti came on board, staff welfare has become one of the top priorities despite the prevailing economic realities in the country.
Nwokeji said, “We feel that the VC is being distracted on all fronts ranging from the host communities grabbing of FUTO land and this Pantami issue. We have seen people bringing coffins to the university gate in protests. These things are rather derailing the purpose of the university.
“Pantami’s professorship should not be used to destroy FUTO. The issue has been deeply tainted with politics. This is university that has a Governing Council that is vested with the power to handle such issues.
“You are not a professor in FUTO; you are not a member of the FUTO governing council; you are not a stakeholder of any sort in FUTO, but you are writing every day against FUTO. Rather than allow the council to do its job, persons who have little or nothing do with FUTO are being used to cause confusion.
“If all these attacks are coming from FUTO, I think it can be properly addressed by the management. But a situation where the concerns are only coming from outside in what can be regarded as meddlesome interloper, we see it as politically motivated.
“We want to call on politicians who have their personal political issues to settle to leave FUTO out of it. This is the only federal university of technology in the entire South-east and South-south.
“We want to implore Southeast and Imo State politicians in particular, to help protect FUTO from the ongoing destructive politics because this is the only such institution we have around here. Our people should support FUTO management to achieve its purpose which is to turn out world class scientists and technologists.
“We feel that the land grabbing issue and all these distractions are being sponsored by politicians in Imo State particularly those of them from Owerri zone which is why we are calling on them to cease fire. They are destroying what we have in Imo State. They should leave the FUTO land alone to allow the university expand and commence its teaching hospital site”.
The SSANU chairman however expressed happiness that Prof. Oti had remained undaunted in her efforts to repositioning FUTO despite the distractions and attempt to derail the university.
“Our only consolation however is that the VC is a focused and committed administrator whose eyes are always on the ball. “We call on the state and the federal governments to look into these issues so as to let the university focus on its core mandate of building our youths to be more responsible members of the society”, Nwokeji said.
