Buhari earns respect by admitting mistakes in varsity councils sack – Pro-Chancellor

How did you feel after the government announced the dissolution of your Governing Councils and ‎sacked VCs of 13 universities? I know the decision was not appropriate and that later we shall be reinstated. They did not follow the law. The 2003 Act said VCs can only be removed by the Councils while the Council […]

How did you feel after the government announced the dissolution of your Governing Councils and ‎sacked VCs of 13 universities?
I know the decision was not appropriate and that later we shall be reinstated. They did not follow the law. The 2003 Act said VCs can only be removed by the Councils while the Council can be removed if it is found incompetent or corrupt through established procedure by the Visitor. The Act was as a result of long years of struggle by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to bring about autonomy in the university administration and to bring about checks and balances.
There are three major operators in the university system namely; (1) the ownership of the university. The owner of a federal university is the President of Nigeria that is why he is referred to as the Visitor. A Visitor must ensure that the university is run according to the law and thus, must make sure that there are drivers which we refer to as principal officers. (2) The principal officers including the VC, Deputy VCs, Librarian, Bursar and Registrar. And in order to have checks and balances the Visitor must put in place (3) the Governing Council.
Again, in order not to put doubt in the system, laws were made specifying the functions of the Visitor. Even before 2003, there were Councils. They were vested with the powers of recommending after due process, three professors and send to the Visitor‎ who will choose any of the three as VC, because all of them are qualified.
In order not to bother the university on who to be the VC, former President Ibrahim Babangida felt that the university should have its autonomy and the Councils were put in place. Averagely, there are 17 Council members of whom only five are appointed by the government while 12 are internal members out of which seven are elected directly or indirectly. The seven comprise of two representatives of the Senate, two representatives of the congregation, a representative of the Alumni Association and the two Deputy VCs. The VC is a member and so also the Registrar who acts as the secretary to Council. The congregation refers to graduates of a university working in that university.
From 2003, the responsibility of appointing the VCs rests  with the Councils. The Councils send the name to the Visitor. They don’t just choose, they advertise ‎and for anyone to qualify for the job of a VC; he must have at least 7 years of post-professorship experience in any discipline, this is because it is believed that the university should be a good foundation to select the best in terms of merit. In the University of Dutse specifically, we followed due process by advertising for the VC position in August and completed recruitment process in November 2015. We invited eleven candidates for interview and appointed Professor Abubakar Musa Kundiri as VC and I am happy to tell you that the process went without any rancour.

The government was said to have sacked the Councils and the VCs without due diligence, what will be the implication of the decision to the university system?
It poses danger to the university system. Councils are in place to chart a course for effective management of the Nigerian university system and for me as a person, I have been in the system and I know the nitty-gritty of what is required to have an effective management system. I am over 60 years of age and became a professor at the age of 42. I was Dean at the Faculty of Education, Bayero University Kano after working with Professor Jibril Aminu at the University of Maiduguri. I rose to the position of professor, so I know the system. I am familiar with primary education because I was the chairman of Universal Basic Education. I was a commissioner in charge of secondary education and a provost of a College of Education. I was part of the executive council that approved the establishment of these 12 universities in order to have access where there were no federal universities. They were established with their laws and at a time, there was gap in information, because university laws are to guide the university and you don’t expect as the law is passed it is published in a newspaper. For instance, that of Federal University of Dutse, is a 50-page document and it can be very expensive to make copies for all Nigerians. I strongly believe that to have an effective management system in the university there must be checks and balances. The Visitor appoints the Council and the Council appoints the VC while the Senate appoints the deputy VCs. The Visitor cannot remove the Council unless it is found guilty of corruption and the Council cannot remove the VC until it is asked by the Senate to do so after presenting an evidence of impropriety. There were only five members of the Council appointed by government to reduce government inexperience in the system. So, even if the President dissolves the Council, he cannot dissolve the internal members because they are representing a constituency. If you hear that congregation is represented in the Council it means graduates from the university who are workers in that university are represented.

Is it correct that there was confusion in the universities after the sack of Councils and VCs?
Definitely, confusion arose in the administration of those universities because before they were dissolved, the Councils have started two things. (1) They have already advertised for the position of VCs and they have already shortlisted those to be invited for interviews. (2) The VCs of nine universities were to complete their tenures on January 15 and the Councils have already appointed either the DVCs or the most senior professors in the Senate as acting VCs for six months before the recruitment process was completed except that of Dutse where it was already advertised. So, the universities by the pronouncement had two administrators; those appointed by law and those without legal backing.
The university system is matured; if it were a political organisation, it will have been a mess today. You would have had a plethora of infighting and court cases. The system believes in the President Buhari’s change mantra and the rule of law and that he will solve the problem. Even ASUU had kicked against what government had done.
To be frank with you, with the recent pronouncement by President Buhari that a mistake was done, he had earned more respect. If the mistake continues that way, there will be chaos in the system. So, by implication and body language, it is left for the implementers to make correction and ask the Councils and the VCs to return to work. It is not only in the academia, there were governors either nominated to contest election or who won election without following legal procedure and the courts removed them from office. Others were impeached.
The Minister of Education Malam Adamu Adamu is an experienced person and fortunately, he came from the media background which is to educate and inform and the system had educated and informed Nigerians about the mistake. I am sure he will solve the problem because we have confidence in him.