Vice Chancellor Appeals to President Buhari to Lift Embargo on Employment

Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja

The Vice Chancellor of Federal University, Lokoja, Professor Olayemi Akinwunmi, has appealed to the visitor and the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, to lift the embargo on employment at citadel of learning across the country to enable them recruit more manpower.

Akinwunmi made this call while speaking at the Fifth convocation ceremony and awards of degrees at the permanent site of the university on Saturday.

He explained that the university is in dire need of manpower following the rapid growth of the institution in the recent past.
He said: “University is in dire need of manpower in academic and non-teaching. To meet up this manpower of the university, we look forward to securing approval to recruit into our new faculties and departments and meeting other special needs of existing programmes.

“We urge His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, to salvage our plight and lift the embargo on employment so university can aggressively recruit its manpower
needs.”

He noted that the academic staff of various departments is being considered for award of foreign study fellowship to pursue their Master and Ph.D programmes in their respective fields through TETFund intervention.

Some academic staff is also being considered for award of local study fellowships to pursue their Ph.D and Master Degrees through TETFund sponsorship.

Akinwunmi stated that the management is striving to increase and improve the existing facilities while laying emphasis on staff training and development so that the university would be able to cope with the increasing number of students.

“As a result of the recent embargo on conference sponsorship by TETFund, we have not been able to sponsor anyone to attend any conference since my assumption of duty in February, 2021.

“The university library is the hub of research in the university. The library was in a state of decadence with low book collections at the time I assumed office. The situation of the university library was so precarious that management declared a state of emergency. I am happy to announce that management has taken drastic measure to restore the utility value of the library. We have commenced the process of re-stocking collections and book titles in conjunction with the end users.

“We are determined to equip the library of the university with up to date resource materials to enable it perform its resource repository role in the community of scholars. The Library is equally open to those who are neither staff nor students, provided they would abide by our rules and regulations. The Bindery section of the library is being re-organised to cope with the reality of the moment using updated book mending and bindery services. It is the intention of the management to expand bindery services for revenue generation in the university.” he stressed.