By William Madouk Garang
The Vice chancellor of the University of Bahr el Ghazal, Prof. Victor Loku Kwajok, issued an order for indefinite dissolution of the executive body of the Academic Staff Association.
According to the Vice Chancellor, the decision was reached due to the body’s failure to attend a joint meeting.
This comes just days after lecturers from two public universities of Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile went on strike demanding for salaries review to cater for inflation and annual tickets allowances arrears.
The dissolution became effective in the administrative order dated January 6, 2023. According to the vice Chancellor, the directive was meant to keep order at the university campus.
“With the powers conferred upon me and in accordance to the Article No 16 (a & b) of the law of the University of Bahr el Ghazal for the year 1995, I Prof. Dr. Victor Loku Kwajok hereby issue this administrative order No.1 of the year 2023 dissolving the academic staff Association indefinitely for the following reasons,” partly reads the order.
“The Executive body of the academic staff Association refused the request of Council of States to listen to the explanation of the solution of the ‘indefinite strike’, where the government is working on the approved adjustment of new salary structure for the public Universities by services and economic clusters,” he explained.
The association purportedly did not honor a call to attend a joint meeting with Dean’s Board and head of specialized committee on higher education at Council of States.
The Vice Chancellor noted that the failure to attend the meeting by the staff association is a clear signal for a plan to twist and delay academic calendar for 2022/2023.
“The rejection to attend the joint meeting with the delegated honorable chairperson of Specialized Committee of Higher Education and General Education Council of States Assembly, Hon. Daniel Malok is an indication of the association to distort and delay academic calendar,” he charged.
Reacting to the matter, the chairperson of the academic staff association at the university, Joseph Lual Dario, said they denounced the move and called for the immediate revocation of the decision.
“This academic staff association is an independent body which did not register under the administration of the University of Bahr el Ghazal. Therefore, the Vice Chancellor has no right to remove or appoint the executive members of the academic staff association,” he said.
He maintained that the association was registered at the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and not the Ministry of Higher Education.
“The University of Bahr el Ghazal is no longer using the 1995 act to run its affairs but using the UBG act 2013. This means that it is illegitimate to quote a 1995 act as reference to dissolve the legally registered association,” he countered.
Lual further supposed that the joint meeting the Vice Chancellor referred to was not communicated early – saying the letter was received at 9:48 Am while the meeting was supposed to be at 10:00 AM.
“The executive members were not around to discuss the agenda of the meeting like they did in the meeting of the deans’ board No.8 January 5, 2023. The executive proposes in written letter that the meeting be postponed to Monday… but there was no response,” he reiterated.
He further specified that in an invitation letter, there was no mention of Hon. Daniel Malok the head of public universities affairs at council of states.
“Hon. Daniel Malok came to the office of association and threatened the few members who were in the office to attend the meeting or face arrest. He swore to arrest the chairperson personally and threatened any members of the association who opposes his decision,” Dario concluded.