The Management of the University of Abuja (UniAbuja) says academic and administrative activities on campus will go on despite a reported strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The Vice-Chancellor (VC) of UniAbuja, Prof. Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, said this at a meeting with the Provost, Deans, Directors and Heads of academic departments.

A statement from the meeting, signed by Dr Habib Yakoob, the Acting Director, Information and University Relations, was made available to newsmen on Friday in Abuja.

The vice chancellor described the strike as divisive and unnecessary, vowing that the management would never allow the university to be crippled again.

“As far as the management of the university is concerned, this institution is not on strike.

“Some people said they have declared a strike but all of us with the management have decided that our normal activities in the university must go on.

“Our exam is going on, the senate meeting will continue, everything we do as a university will continue, and our calendar will not be disrupted any longer by the grace of God.

“It is wrong to cripple the university over issues that are merely sentimental and some of which we have dialogued over and resolved, we are prepared not to allow this disruption again,” he said.

He debunked all the reported allegations of the union which they claimed informed its declaration of indefinite strike.

“Take for instance, the advert for the position of the vice-chancellor, we are not the only university that has advertised, we had the support and approval of the government.

“The advert was done by the Minister of Education, all I did as vice-chancellor was to request, to ask for what is next and they decided this is what we must do.

“And if you look at the advertisement from the beginning, this fact is very clear. It is only that they had to send it to us for execution that is all,” he explained.

He also described the union’s allegations of illegal recruitment, promotion, delay in the election of deanship, and microfinance bank establishment as unfounded, adding that the university had followed due process in handling all these matters.

He said the university ensured that relevant institutions concerned with oversights were contacted.

On the issue of the election of deans and establishment of microfinance banks, he disclosed that the elections timetable had long been publicised.

He explained that the elections of four deans had been conducted so far.

Na’Allah also said that the university management had invested over N200 million in the proposed Microfinance Bank over the ASUU’s N4 million.

He said the investment had been made before the union wrote directly to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop granting the license for our operation.

The vice-chancellor said his administration had been working hard to develop the university and would not fold its arms and allow a group of people to destabilise its calendar.

“For over four years, our goal has been to lift this university much higher than it was, and this we have succeeded in doing by taking our academic and infrastructural developments to a world-class level.”

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results are not yet available on its website.

On Monday, the exam body announced the release of the results for this year’s examinations.

But in a statement on Wednesday, Fabian Benjamin, the JAMB spokesperson, revealed that the process of checking this year’s results is different from what is obtainable in 2023.

Benjamin said at the moment, the UTME results cannot be found on the JAMB website, adding that candidates can only access their results via the USSD format.

He said it was necessary to put out the information while advising candidates to be wary of those parading printed result slips.

“The board, once again, wishes to state clearly that the only way to check the 2024 UTME result is to send UTMERESULT to 55019 or 66019, using the same phone used by the candidate in registering for the UTME. Ensure that the SIM is not on any bundle,” the statement reads.

“This is different from what obtained last year, hence, the results, at the moment, are not and cannot be found on the board’s website.

“Candidates are urged to follow the method specified above to obtain their results. They need not visit any cybercafe or patronise any third-party entity to check their result.

“The public is also advised to be wary of any candidate parading printed result slip as currently, the result is not on any paper format as being circulated on social media by some individuals.

“A reasonable number of candidates have checked their results as seen on our monitoring dashboard but for the few still struggling, please follow the right channel.”

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has asked the management of the University of Abuja to halt recruitment and promotions until the federal government reconstitutes governing councils.

In 2023, the National Universities Commission (NUC) dissolved the governing councils of federal universities following a presidential directive.

At the end of their congress on Thursday, members of the academic union at UniAbuja declared an indefinite strike over a lingering disagreement with the management of the university.

The dispute, TheCable reported, borders on four major issues, including ASUU’s interest in a multi-stakeholder microfinance bank, promotion procedures in the absence of a governing council, ongoing election for faculty deanship, and alleged illegal appointments.

Sylvanus Ugoh, chairman of UniAbuja ASUU, said in a communique issued after the congress that the trustees and principal officers in the union’s national leadership have permitted the branch to proceed on an indefinite strike until the demands are addressed.

Ugoh said recruitment without due process should be stopped until the governing council is reconstituted.

He said the union is demanding that illegal employment already conducted be reviewed in line with the laws of the university and NUC’s guidelines on good governance and financial management.

He added that “illegal promotion exercises” should be suspended and the process of the 2022/2023 exercise be reviewed by the governing council when it is reconstituted.

Ugoh said the union demands that an advertorial for the vacancy of the seat of vice-chancellor should be withdrawn.

He said elections for deanship of various faculties and provost of college of health sciences must be conducted within one day.

Ugoh said the union seeks the inclusion of its representative on the board of the UniAbuja Micro Finance Bank.

“All the members of ASUU University of Abuja therefore withdraw their services to the University until the issues in contention are resolved,” the communique reads.

“There shall be no lectures in any form, no statutory meetings, no supervision of projects, no departmental or Faculty Board meetings, and no submission of results.”