Juliet UDUJI
The debilitating impact of COVID-19 on businesses in Nigeria continues to take it’s toll as Bowen University
has now joined the growing list of organizations downsizing to stay afloat.
Reports say the private university located at Iwo in Osun State, sacked over 100 workers on Tuesday, June 23.
It was gathered that the sacked staffs received their letters of disengagement through email late on Tuesday.
One of the affected staff said the school claimed that the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic was the reason for the retrenchment.
The mass retrenchment is reportedly “generating tension on the campus” and some are threatening to protest the action.
An affected staff said: “Over 100 of us are affected and we may resort to violence because the reason for the sack was not genuine.
“The Vice Chancellor, Prof Joshua Ogunwole, recently bought a vehicle worth over N42 million despite the economic situation. So you can see that it is caused by wickedness and insensitivity.”
University spokesman Toba Adaramola confirmed that the institution sacked some workers, including academic and non-academic staff. He said about 8-10% of the workforce was affected.
He said: “The decision affected those in academics and non-academic staff.
“In August 2018, it was discovered that the university is heading toward inflection point and the management deliberated on the reasons for the inflection.
“It was discovered that change of culture was part of the problem. Hence we embraced technology and so many staffers were no longer needed to perform certain duties.
“Although it is a painful decision but one that is necessary to sustain the university since it is not public institution that can rely on any subvention apart from the fees it charged its students, he stated.
