A few weeks back, Ahmad Umar a University
of Maiduguri staff with the Bursary
Department took to Social Media to call out
his bosses on illegal salary deduction.
Weeks after his post, the University
management suspended him for posting his
grievances which has been termed as
‘whistle blowing’, online.
Now, Amar has written an Open Lettter to
the school’s Vice Chancellor to address the
issue.
Read the letter below…
“I am compelled to write this open letter to
you, although in addition to the inner and
unconscious thing that force me from
within and the ethical and moral duty. I do
write this for two reasons;
The first reason is to serve as an advice to
you and the second is to awaken your
consciousness so as to transparently and
honestly manage the affairs of the
University, with the fear of God and in good
faith. For as things are since the inception of
your leadership, arrogance and impunity
thrived more than any other thing, This is
obvious in your self-centered style of
leadership which is dictatorial.
Sir, I wish to bring to your notice that,
majority of the staff of the University are
living in fear and seriously grumbling, but
they chose to keep their mute, out of fear of
victimization that could lead to
redeployment, suspension from work and
eventual dismissal from the university.
The above is true considering my recent
suspension from duty through a letter dated
Tuesday 11th,July,2017. Signed by the
Registrar, of the University of Maiduguri Alh.
Tijjani Bukar, Further establishes and
corroborates the spate and speed of which
the trio of impunity, dictatorship and
arrogance characterize your leadership style.
As it is no longer news that my feud with
the University leadership is as a result of my
blunt and famous publication on Facebook
title “UNIMAID IN DISARRAY”. As a university,
this institution ought not only to have thick
skin for positive criticism when aired by
others but to appreciate and make amends
instead and yearn for more of same.
Unfortunately the management of this
University chose to intimidate my person
threatening me in number of occasions,
unknown to them that the more they insist
on silencing me, the more I feel courage to
silence their urge of impunity.
However, I want to remind you that, this will
not change anything and I have not
regretted my actions as long as the bit of
facts I published remain unchallenged and
the allegations leveled against you are
neither proved wrong by you nor debunked
by those who were used to intimidate,
persecute and threaten me on your behalf.
This point to the fact that the truth will
forever triumph over falsehood.
Meanwhile, I want to challenge the legality
of my suspension based on the fact that,
what I posted was on social media network,
and I can’t remember any law that prohibits
the freedom of expression in any form
including, social media network or
electronic print media. Equally the University
where I work, had never issued any internal
or external circular prohibiting staff from
making posts on social media network, even
as I know it is impossible in any democratic
society.
Please permit me to also remind you that as
at when the former governor of the Central
Bank, Mallam Sanusi Lamido blew the
whistle against the Jonathan led Federal
government, whistle blowing was alien, he
was
immediately suspended. But as he rightly
said: “You can suspend me but you can’t
suspend the truth” barely a year or so after
the man’s suspension, the truth came
hunting Jonathan, and to the surprise of all,
Jonathan became the first incumbent
president to lose election. It is therefore
right to say that as things are, whistle
blowing is alien in the University of
Maiduguri, hence my suspension is
understandable, I therefore say: “You can
suspend me but you can’t suspend the
truth”
Additionally, I want to inform you that the
silence of the intellectuals in the University
community and elders of Borno State is not
something you should relax and rejoice as
an emperor that you think you are, it means
you should continue with the impunity,
everything will eventually end, but you
should await the consequences.
