Atiku’s university sacks 400 staff days after his media company sacked 51

The American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, Adamawa, has sacked about 400 of its staff.

The Vice President for University Relations, AUN, Prof. Abba Tahir, disclosed this in a statement in Yola Tuesday.

AUN is owned by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Abubakar was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2019 election.

This is coming days after news broke that about 51 staff of his media company, Gotel Communications were sacked.

Tahir said the majority of the affected staff were those that had no significant developmental effect on the university philosophy.

He said: “Certain structural elements have been initiated by the new Governing Council of American University of Nigeria (AUN), in response to NUC requirements, mandating the institution to align with an approved governance structure for all tertiary institutions in the country.

“Until now, AUN has operated a student-staff ratio which balance had continued to affect the sustainability of the university.

“This is clearly an uncommon and hardly workable tradition in all institutions and organisations around the world. Obviously it is unattainable.

“Thus, consequent upon the university’s new governing council vote to restructure the institution in line with its agenda for sustainability, a process of workforce rationalisation has been in the pipeline.

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“It is now time for the university to look back, look around and look ahead, to ensure that realistic and globally competitive administrative practices can be achieved in structure, strategy, and focus.

“It would not be realistic for AUN to continue to anchor its administrative structure on over-bloated personnel whose role do not have a significant effect on the philosophy of a development university.”

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