In celebrating his first year in office, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Jos, Prof. Sebastian Seddi Maimako, held a press conference to address the public on his achievements as the VC for the past year at the Senate Chambers, Bauchi Ring Road Campus.
The Vice Chancellors stated that his first year in office is the “story of challenges and successes” with the challenges being personal and institutional.
“Among the personal challenges is the attack on my residence by unknown armed men on the 27th of July, 2016 which was barely one month after he resumed duty as the Vice Chancellor. The attack led to the instant death of one university security personnel on duty, Mr. Owes Jibrin and the policeman on duty, who was also fatally wounded during the attack. Shortly after, on the 5th of August, 2016 my nephew, Mr. Rientoe Maimako died in a fatal motor accident”.
He also enumerated the numerous deaths of his family members, friends and colleagues within the first year in office which has “been very emotional and traumatic”.
“While I was still in a mourning mood, the main library complex of the University situated at the Naraguta Campus was gutted by fire on the 8th of October, 2016. This happened at the peak of the first-semester examination for the 2015/2016 academic session, which destroyed the learning resources of two faculties and six departments that had a cohabited with the library. This incident created huge deficits in learning resources and infrastructure in the University”.
Despite the difficulties that confronted him, during his early days in office, he did not derail in his vision towards providing quality leadership to the university. The slogan from the beginning of his administration was “performance, prosperity, and happiness” and as such, he has resolved that his spirit will not be dampened. A deliberate policy has been made that human resources development would be the banner of his administration.
He further enumerated the success achieved during his one year in office to include:
STAFF DEVELOPMENT AND WELFARE
According to Prof. Maimako, Human Resource Development is the key priority in his administration emphasizing on his slogan, “performance, prosperity and happiness and this focus will not be distracted”.
In order to achieve this, new policies were introduced such as the policy on promotion for staff members that are on approved full-time study leave. ‘Staffs that are on such study leave will no longer loose promotion due to the fact that they were not on ground’. He further asserted that once they have met the criteria, they will be promoted.
Also, back log salary arrears of Assistant Lecturers and Graduate Assistants have been offset within the period under review.
In the same vein, Hazard Allowance to NAAT members as well as the Arrears of Responsibility Allowance for 2016 has been paid to entitled staff. ‘It was paid to those whose names were properly documented’ he said.
The Vice Chancellor and his team have been able to redeploy staff of the Centre for Continuing Education, Remedial Sciences and the University Staff School who were initially dismembered by the government to relevant Units and Department of the university and the university has taken full responsibilities of their salaries.
A new Scheme of Service though his administration has secured the approval of the Governing Council concerning staff who ended their career at level 13 (for Academic Technologist) and level 14 (Deputy Registrars or Deputy Bursars) and through the new scheme, they can advance to level 15 to a rank of Senior Bursars and Senior Registrars. In addition, staff that had no cadre and are therefore stagnated, since assumption of office, they now have new cadre created solely for them.
In line with the policy, part-time training leave for staff has been re-introduced to make it more convenient for learning and working as well the implementation of Research Leave for qualified academic staff.
ACADEMIC CALENDAR/ADMISSION/ STUDENT WELFARE
In this administration, with the support of students, there had been a seamless academic calendar in the 2015/2016 academic session. Infrastructures have been provided to complement the already existing ones and to improve learning in a conducive environment for students.
Concerning admission of students, students who did not possess the correct subject combinations for the courses for which they were admitted now have the privilege to change their courses to suit the department they are registerable. This has benefited a lot of students.
In the same vein, the IJMB program has commenced and in like manner, processing transcripts for our old students who need them have improved tremendously.
The challenges of accreditation have further been reduced as most programs that were denied accreditation are being revisited. Funds have been released to upgrade faculties for the NUC accreditation. In the light of this, full accreditation for postgraduate programs was conducted and secured in the Faculties of Management and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Within the period under review, students’ hostels have been renovated and the issue of light and water supply has been addressed. In the light of this, the VC urged students to respect the utilities of the University as much money is used to keep the facilities functioning. According to him, there should be a campaign for a new spirit of utility management. He also urged and counseled students to remain law abiding as they organize elections into various positions of the Students’ Union. In respect to students welfare, shuttle buses are now functional to convey the students from hostels to academic areas. This has reduced the risk of commercial vehicles and the high cost of transportation for them.
SPORTS
According to the VC, deliberate steps have been taken to improve the sporting facilities in the University to encourage participation in sports. This has improved the chances of the sports team of the University who won medals in almost all the games they participated.
INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENTS
In his speech, a lot has been achieved in infrastructural development and much more are currently under construction. They include the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Arts (Block ‘B’), the Senate Building, provision of facilities to new faculties, proposed visiting scholars’ lodge, the extension of the University Health Centre building, construction of new student hostels at the Naraguta campus, renovation of Dalash Suites which was bought by the university, the rehabilitation of the Demonstration Secondary School and the Alumni Hall among others.
ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNANCE
According to the Vice Chancellor, anyone holding any position must be conscious of the fact that the people’s trust is priority using an effective internal mechanism to safe guard human and material resources. This can be seen in the addressing of revenue leakages in the University.
The Price Control Unit has been effective in carrying out its duty as the university has been saved from inflated cost of goods and services.
LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT
The Vice Chancellor stated that despite the shock of the inferno of the main library complex, his management team was proactive to launch a program “Beauty from Ashes” to solicit for support to rehabilitate and restock the burnt library complex.
A lot of responses have been coming as 70 individuals and institutions of goodwill from Nigeria and abroad have responded to the call. Books, journals computers, and cash have been received as well. The Federal Government through the TETFund has awarded the university with a letter for the renovation of the burnt library to the amount of N720million.
Furthermore, the Medical Library from the Township Campus has been relocated to the Lamingo Campus which took place within the period under review. This took place in February 2017. Also, the library staff are also under training to be abreast with global trends in managing a modern library.
SECURITY
In terms of security, the Management has been proactive with their engagement with our internal security personnel and the external security operatives to ensure a safe and conducive learning and working environment for both students and staff. The University security personnel have embarked on training to be up to the tasks.
Also regarding fire out breaks, adequate measures has also put in place as the Federal Fire Service deployed eight staff to the University. Series of fire drills for the security personnel in the University has been organized.
The Vice Chancellor, while speaking informed the press that the Federal Government can no longer meet the financial needs of the Federal Universities and therefore, they have to look for alternative source(s) of funds for their various programmes of the University.
The Alumni of the University have been of great assistance to the University, hence, the University is “strengthening the Directorate of Alumni Relations towards cultivating the Alumni to give back to their Alma-mata”. The response so far has been positive and so he urged all alumni to keep up the good work. According to him, its Advancement Office and other units have been employed to bring donors and people of goodwill all over the world so the University can actualize its dream of becoming one of the best in the world. This can be seen as in the last one year, the University of Jos signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kenyatta University, Makerere Business University, Gaston University, University of Bea, Cameroun, Saint John’s University, Tanzania, University of Botswana, Mansoura University of Egypt and European Union as a technical partner.
The Center for Entrepreneurship Studies (CES) has not been left behind as the Center has moved to its permanent site in September 2016. This has enabled their services of lecturing the students and its community. A vocational training center has also been proposed to the South Korean Embassy.
He talked about the challenges that still need to be addressed and he enjoined management, staff, students, unions and all stakeholders to continue to pray, support and join hands with Management toward enhancing and moving the university to greater heights.
