Averting Looming Crisis At University Of Abuja
It is increasingly becoming evident by the day that the precipitate removal of the legitimate governing authorities of the University of Abuja in early February and their replacement by the two-man-driven sole administration are gravitating toward a monumental crisis, ever witnessed by the 37-year-old fourth-generation university. The two administrators running the University of Abuja are […]
It is increasingly becoming evident by the day that the precipitate removal of the legitimate governing authorities of the University of Abuja in early February and their replacement by the two-man-driven sole administration are gravitating toward a monumental crisis, ever witnessed by the 37-year-old fourth-generation university. The two administrators running the University of Abuja are the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of a one-man Governing Council and an acting Vice-Chancellor, Senator Lanre Tejuoso, and Professor Patricia Manko Lar, respectively. Neither did the appointments conform to the extant laws of the University and due process. The unexplained unlawful actions by the Tinubu administration have neither justified the resort to an imposed sole administration nor the current placement of the university in a state of heightened uncertainty.
The initial claim by the imposed duo currently running the university that their mission was to restore sanity was just a ruse to earn legitimacy in the face of the confusing incoherence of the government. Now, almost halfway into the six-month tenure of the acting Vice-Chancellor appointed from the University of Jos in contravention of the extant laws, indications are that the Professor has wittingly shed the self-declared toga of a peacemaker and has plunged herself into the internal politics of the university. Whether it is for the administration’s survival or her enlightened self-interest, Professor Lar is now neck-deep in the politico-administrative quagmire created by her coming on board. This is to the extent that she is currently bogged down, and if care is not taken, may remain hostage to forces inimical to the university’s stability and progress until the end of her illegal tenure. The repercussions arising thereof may not spare her or the image and integrity of the forces within the Tinubu administration who packaged and executed her ascension as an imposed and unwelcome sole administrator of a Nigerian university in the era of autonomy.
The irony is that the leadership contraption that was ostensibly conceived and imposed to restore sanity is turning out to be the very catalyst for a new wave of crisis and instability at the University of Abuja. An immediate precursor to the collapse of order and discipline in the system is the recent decision by the University Management under the leadership of Professor Lar to wilfully terminate an ongoing disciplinary procedure against some high-profile senior staff. The disciplinary matter which commenced during the tenure of the no-nonsense Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na-Allah, borders on an alleged unauthorised and strange award of a study fellowship of six years to a staff in the university’s health sector, instead of the one year that was approved by the then Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Adikwu.
Following a formal investigation as required by law, the matter was subsequently considered by the 10th Governing Council before it was dissolved in early February, with the unlawful removal of Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi, the 7th substantive Vice-Chancellor. It is this same case that a so-called Management Committee, chaired by the acting Vice-Chancellor, decided to close out without any reason or justification. To casually apply a closure to a disciplinary case of such huge magnitude is strange, unprecedented, and ominous. Whatever the underlying motive(s) behind the condemnable act, it is worth noting that disciplinary matters in the university system are not instituted, pursued, or terminated at the pleasure of any individual Vice-Chancellor.
Disciplinary cases are statute-bound in their pursuit and determination, just like the university operations in general. Perhaps Professor Lar is determined to prove that the University of Abuja is truly a ‘conquered entity’. That should explain her audacity of using a non-statutory, administratively convenient but legally unrecognised body- the Management Committee- in the university to quash such an important case within the purview, and already under the consideration of the Governing Council. However, since actions have consequences, the repercussions of this gangster-like approach to university management can only be imagined.
If the sloppy decision is left unchecked and unreversed by the incoming Governing Council, a dangerous precedent would signal the ‘death’ of discipline, law, and order at the University. However, if an incoming Council rightly reverses the decision and pursues the case to a logical conclusion, it will still engender a conflict of interest and clashes. These will involve the so-called Management Committee members, the Governing Council, the affected staff, and those directly involved in the disciplinary process. Either way, the University of Abuja will be damned and engulfed in a needless crisis, with Professor Lar going down in history as its undistinguished author and enabler.
Beyond this, as was mentioned earlier, the acting Vice-Chancellor has been unable to stay above the fray of the politicking, contestation, and intrigues of the various contending forces at the University of Abuja. Nothing eloquently demonstrates this than the recent sweeping administrative changes occasioned by the large-scale appointment of Directors and heads of other units and centres in the institution.
These new appointments have been adjudged to be politically incorrect, ethno-religiously one-sided and unbalanced, divisive and uncalled-for on account of the less than four remaining months of Professor Lar’s tenure. For instance, out of the fifty-seven (57) new appointments she announced, forty-four (44) were Christians and only thirteen (13) Muslims.
In contrast, it is on record that Professor Na-Allah had, by the year 2023, and based on information contained in the University’s convocation brochure, made a total of forty-nine (49) similar appointments. Of this number, twenty-three (23) were Christians and twenty-six (26) Muslims. And in 2024, the combined records for Na-Allah and Maikudi (as acting Vice-Chancellor from July to December) indicated fifty-six (56), out of which twenty-six were Christians and thirty (30) Muslims. Also, during her tenure in acting capacity, Professor Aisha Maikudi, even with her relatively in-depth knowledge of the University, did not change any Director and Head of Department, except extending the appointment of those whose first tenure in office expired.
Quite expectedly, these new appointments have engendered disquiet and murmurings of discontent within the university community, and furious furore outside the university. Consequently, a wave of renewed mistrust and discord has been unleashed in and around the inner circles of the interim sole administration, with potential for escalation and plunging the entire university into a crisis of monumental proportions. Not only that, several dissenting allies and hitherto professed supporters of the administration rejected the new appointments offered to them; such positions have remained unoccupied and thereby currently stifling the smooth operations of the system.
While some declined the appointments because of Professor Lar’s alleged insensitivity to the university’s ethno-religious composition and core values, others rejected them because they deemed what was offered to them beneath their standing in the current scheme of things. Others have opted to go back to the drawing board to orchestrate plots of how to undermine Professor Lar and preclude her from facilitating the transition to a new leadership within the remainder of her tenure in office. And if this happens, they will ensure that her appointment is not renewed and an insider among them, whom they trust, is appointed the new acting helmsman. However, Professor Lar seems to be aware of their intrigues and is allegedly leaving no stone unturned to ensure that, if need be, another acting Vice-Chancellor should also be appointed from outside the University of Abuja. What a short-lived marriage of convenience and political honeymoon!
Furthermore, the creation of alien positions like senior special assistants has started haunting the University, even under the interim sole administration. Only recently, at a statutory meeting of the all-important Committee of Deans, Directors and Provost, the members stoutly rejected the idea of the meeting being presided over by a senior special assistant in her new capacity, which is unknown in the university system. The so-called senior special assistant was compelled to drop the unwelcome title and to agree to preside as a representative of the Vice-Chancellor before the meeting could be held. Being a statutory body recognised by the university’s extant laws, it would have been abnormal and dangerous for meetings of such a vitally important Committee to be presided over by a holder of strange and unknown positions.
Adding to the mix is the continuous incredible dance of the absurd by the G44-inspired sections of the University’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). With the sole administration seemingly providing the enabling environment for their chicanery, these self-styled ASUU progressives recently dodged the bullet of electoral defeat and disgrace when they shamefully triggered the postponement of elections into the branch executive offices. This was after sensing the defeat of their sponsored candidates, especially the highly anticipated continuation in office of their hitherto ally, who has now turned into their ultimate nemesis, Dr. Sylvester Ugoh.
Earlier, this same group had written two petitions to the national secretariat accusing the Ugoh-led executive committee of misdoings over the selection process that threw up Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi as the substantive Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja. However, when in line with its due process, the national body of ASUU sent a fact-finding committee to the University, these charlatans not only shunned an interaction with the visiting team, but have now turned against the union for what they perceived to be its undue interference in the affairs of the University. Not minding that they dragged the Union into the saga in the first place.
Also, contrary to ASUU’s stance, they publicly appreciated President Tinubu for eroding the university’s autonomy and sacking its legitimate governing authorities. With the cat-and-mouse game between them and their union, but relying on the sole administration for relevance and survival, they have become desperate over an uncertain future. They are also primed to exhibit gangsterism for any slightest reason or excuse. In the meantime, the Ugoh-led executive remains in charge of the union at the University of Abuja pending the National Executive Committee (NEC) fixing a new date for the branch elections. With their opportunism and self-aggrandising antics increasingly being exposed, any unbecoming acts driven by the heightened fear, uncertainty, and loss of integrity and relevance of the ASUU renegades operating as G44 members and associates will surely be checked by the majority of members genuinely interested in the University’s progress and development.
The major drawback of all the foregoing is the continued disregard and undermining of the extant laws of the University of Abuja and due process in the scheme of affairs under the current leadership structure. It is sad enough that the government unilaterally and unlawfully dismantled the legitimate governing authorities of the university and replaced them with a leadership structure outside the provisions of the law. However, the tragedy of the situation is that instead of stabilising the university, the unlawfully imposed leadership and its allies and supporters are fast creating a renewed leadership crisis and further instability in the Institution.
The foisting of the illegal interim administration at the University of Abuja by the Tinubu administration has been a colossal failure in all ramifications. This only reminds and reinforces the need for the stone the builders rejected: Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi, alongside the disbanded Governing Council. It is, therefore, time for President Tinubu to do what is needed. By reinstating the lawful authorities, the President will be averting a looming crisis while saving the University of Abuja from the misadventure of reincarnated sole administration.
~ Dr Ogundare is of the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, University of Abuja.