The American University of Nigeria, founded by former Vice President
of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has sacked 406 staff in one day. This comes
days after Atiku’s media outfit sacked 46 staff.
On May 1, Workers’ Day, 46 staff of Gotel Communication, a media house owned by Atiku Abubakar, were fired.
Staff of American University of Nigeria, AUN, feared that they would
be next and their worst fears became a reality yesterday, May 4, when
they received a letter via mail, terminating their employment.
A staff of AUN, who was affected by the sack told LIB that they were given no prior notice.
“They said they couldn’t generate revenue. Money issues,” the
affected staff told LIB when asked for the reason the institution gave
for the sack.
The source said the sack letter came from the board of directors of
the institution after holding several meetings. The letter was signed by
the President of AUN, Dawn Dekle.
When asked if the lockdown might have affected revenue generation,
thereby leading to the sack, the source explained that though students
were sent home, the lockdown did not slow down their academics.
“They finished their semester online, they wrote their exam online,
they were invigilated using Skype. They are now in their long vacation
to resume in August as usual.”
A copy of the termination letter sent to LIB explains that the staff
were fired “due to a desire to align the University’s expenses with
available revenue and all financial projections of the University.”
Those fired were further asked to return all the company’s property
in their possession after the lockdown to enable the University “to pay
the severance pay allowed by the contract” and to enable the affected
staff to access their retirement savings account.
