The senior staff workers at the Lagos State University (LASU) have rejected the results of the recently conducted promotional examination by the university, saying the outcome “is not a true reflection of the performance of those who partook in the exam”
The workers under the aegis of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), LASU branch, raised this concern at their emergency congress held on Monday, 1st of December and vowed never to allow the management to implement the outcome of the exam, insisting that due process was not followed.
According to a resolution issued after the congress and jointly signed by the Chairman, Mr. Demu Bankole Odumosu and General Secretary, Mr. Olori Adewunmi Sameul, “the union stated that “The process of our recent promotion exam was marred by opacity, selective favouritism, and a blatant disregard for due process.
“We observe that the pattern of results, wherein only a narrow circle of individuals, predominantly heads of key divisions working directly with Principal Officers, especially in the registry, bursary and other non-teaching staff directorates, emerged successful, raises serious questions about the integrity of the process.”
The union went down memory lane, saying: “This is not the first time SSANU-LASU has been confronted with institutional injustice of this nature.
The workers noted that, “The university has, over the years, developed a disturbing pattern of conducting promotion exercises that lack transparency, fairness, and objectivity.
According to them, Congress notes with grave concern that the current agitation is not limited to those recently considered for advancement to CONUNASS 14 and 15 under the career elongation scheme.
The group added: “There is still an unresolved backlog of aggrieved members who sat for similar promotional examination earlier in the year for elevation to CONUNASS 14.
“For those members, their cases remain unaddressed while they continue to suffer in silence.”
The union therefore demanded that the university management should immediately constitute an independent panel that will include SSANU-LASU representatives to review and audit the entire process of the last two promotional exams so as to make the redress comprehensive.
This panel, according to them, must investigate the criteria used, the marking scheme, and the rationale behind the lopsided outcomes and also make it comprehensive by capturing all categories of staff affected by the outcome of both exams.
They declared that “Until this is done, the current results in particular remain unacceptable and must be set aside.”
“But should the university fail to address this our concern within a short timeframe, we won’t hesitate to activate all lawful industrial mechanisms, including but not limited to mass action, to defend the rights and dignity of affected members,” the union concluded.
Reacting to this development, the university’s spokesperson, Mrs. Oluwayemi Thomas-Onashile, said that the management is looking into the matter, suing for calm.