Obaseki tasks AAU governing council on discipline, funding options

Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo has tasked the Governing Council of Ambrose Alli University (AAU) to instil discipline in the institution, especially in the areas of with holding students grades by lecturers and granting of impunity to fraudulent staff.

“People have to be prosecuted and refund resources that belong to the institution, people who steal must be prosecuted.

The governor gave the charge when members of the AAU Governing Council paid him a courtesy visit at Government House in Benin on Thursday.

The governor urged the university to source for private investment to augment its funding, noting that the state government could not increase budgetary allocation to the school due to financial constraints.

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He said the money to run the institution could be generated internally from the school and investments by Alumni.

“I want to work with you to streamline your system, processes and extract the values that exist in the university.

He said the embargo on employment had been lifted but the institution should employ people it could pay.

“So sort out what you have before you employ, check the quality of people you want to employ.’’

He assured of continued support from the state government, urging the council not to relent in its efforts in changing the narrative of the school.

Obaseki said the institution had no reasons to still be operating a non-contributory pension scheme when ministries in the state where already benefiting from the contributory pension scheme.

Earlier, the Chairman of the AAU Governing Council, Mr Lawson Omokhodion, said the council had resolved to promote a productive faculty of agricultural to generate revenue for the school and was implementing the recommendations of the Due Diligence Exercise it carried out.

He thanked the governor for steady provision of monthly subventions for both salary and pension payments, saying that the governing board was working to make the institution one of the best five universities in the country within the next five years.

He listed projects to be embarked upon by the board to include, Staff audit, forensic audit, having a new pension scheme and planning of an annual convocation ceremony.

The council chairman noted that the institution needed more hostel accommodation, more staff and completion of the administrative block being built by the state government.

He said encroachment into the institution’s land by herdsmen was worrisome and pleaded for the fencing of the school.