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Bauchi varsity denies resignation of 30 PhD holders over poor welfare

The management of Sa’adu Zungur University in Bauchi state has denied the exit of 30 PhD holders from the university.

This was contained in a press release issued on Sunday by the university’s Public Relations Officer, Auwal Hassan and said the claim was misleading, inaccurate and unfounded saying that SAZU did not receive any resignation letter from PhD staff citing poor salary.

Auwal said, “The university has not received any resignation letter from the purported 30 PhD holders or any significant number of academic staff.

“Our record shows that only six PhD, have exited or are away from the
university in the past 1 year and 10 months of the tenure of this
administration, citing various personal reasons not related to salary concerns.”

He disclosed statistics of a number of
academic staff who are away on sabbatical leave, leave of absence, or secondment, and those who, for one disciplinary reason, are dismissed from the University.

The PRO also cited that there are staff that resigned for personal reasons, not related to poor pay and revealed that the university records some absence of staff, including dismissal of “six persons, based on abscondment or disciplinary grounds, two sabbatical leave, two secondments, one leave of absence.”

He noted that SAZU has a total number of 397 academic staff with “18 Professors, 9 Readers, 57 Senior Lecturers, 113 Lecturer I, 47 Lecturer II, 76 Assistant Lecturers, 77 Graduate Assistants, 3.”

He added, “The university, through the support of the Bauchi state governor Bala Mohammed, has consistently prioritised the welfare and development of its staff, including academic staff, and has implemented various initiatives to enhance their working conditions.

“This involves timely salary payment
and other financial benefits.”

Hassan insisted that under the leadership of the current administration, since December 2022, the university has timely promoted numerous academic staff with full payment of promotion arrears where applicable.