N410m subvention insufficient to pay workers wage bill, varsity tells Ekiti govt

Senate Leader, FIRS boss, BoI chairman bag honorary degrees
Ekiti State University Ado-Ekiti (EKSU) has appealed to Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, to increase the N410 million monthly subventions to the institution, which it said, were insufficient to defray the N810 million wage bill.

This is just as the university will confer honorary doctorate degrees on the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele; Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Dr Zacch Adedeji, and Chairman, Board of the Bank of Industry (BoI), Mansur Muhtar.

The Vice-Chancellor (VC) of EKSU, Prof. Babalola Ayodele, who appealed yesterday, in Ado-Ekiti, during a media briefing to herald the 29th convocation ceremony of the university, said that the institution is faced with many challenges, one of which is the lack of funds.

“We need more money to build the faculty of Pharmacy; we need a new faculty of law. We need the Department of Laboratory Science. With the implementation of the new minimum wage, our wage bill is N820 million and the government’s subvention is N410 million.

“We are appealing to the governor to assist the university. We want to plead that the monthly subvention be jacked up to enable us to do more to enhance the human capacity as well as drive the development of the state.”

The VC also disclosed that no fewer than 37 members of staff of the university had either been dismissed, suspended or barred from holding positions of responsibility for three years for offences ranging from sexual misconduct to abandonment of duty post, among others.

Meanwhile, Bamidele, in a statement by his Directorate of Media and Public Affairs, thanked the Governing Council and Senate of the institution for the resolve to confer the honorary doctorate on him.

He said that the conferment of the honorary doctorate is a challenge for the pursuit of greater public good, to which he was utterly committed.

He vowed to leverage his good office to promote the rule of law, pursue the enactment of pro-people legislation and lead the path to collective peace and prosperity.