BREAKING : ASUU gets new president

A Professor of Medicine and Consultant Psychiatrist, Chris Piwuna, has emerged as the new National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Until recently, he served as the union’s National Vice President.

His election took place at the 23rd National Delegates Congress of ASUU, which began on Thursday, May 8, and concluded today, May 12, at the University of Benin in Edo State.

Professor Piwuna, who has previously held the role of Dean of Student Affairs at the University of Jos, was elected after defeating Professor Adamu Babayo of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi.

He succeeds Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, an Agriculture expert from the University of Agriculture in Umudike, Abia State, who had been in office since May 2021. Sources at the event confirmed that the handover has already taken place, though the union is yet to issue an official communique.

“Other details will be contained in the communique that will be issued later today,” a union official told this newspaper under anonymity.

While information about other newly elected officers remains undisclosed, Piwuna’s emergence has already drawn praise from his colleagues.

Describing him as a fitting successor, a source said: “Much more progressive but very disciplined, exposed, and a comrade in its true sense.”

Professor Piwuna earned his MBBS from the University of Jos in 2000 and later obtained a Master’s degree from the University of Malta. He holds a fellowship with the West African College of Physicians and is also affiliated with the International Psychogeriatric Association.

Currently serving as a consultant psychiatrist at the University of Jos Teaching Hospital, he previously led the psychiatry unit at the same institution.

His election comes amid ongoing challenges in Nigeria’s higher education sector, including funding shortfalls, infrastructure decay, unresolved salary issues, and continued debates over university autonomy.