KWASU: Why Kwara North is crying foul over new VC appointment

Since the appointment of Professor Mohammed Akanbi from Kwara Central as Vice Chancellor of Kwara State University, Malete on 1st April 2020 by the State Government, interest groups in Kwara North have argued that vice chancellor should come from Kwara North and not Kwara Central. Their rejection of the appointment is premised on the fact […]

Since the appointment of Professor Mohammed Akanbi from Kwara Central as Vice Chancellor of Kwara State University, Malete on 1st April 2020 by the State Government, interest groups in Kwara North have argued that vice chancellor should come from Kwara North and not Kwara Central.

Their rejection of the appointment is premised on the fact that his predecessor and pioneer VC, Abdulraheed Na’Allah, in charge for 10 years, is from Kwara Central.

Last week, the Coalition Of Kwara North Groups (CKNG) in a statement signed by its Chairman, Comrade Musa Idris Buko and  General Secretary Comrade Mohammed Salihu described the appointment as  “a betrayal of trust and seal of insensitivity to the interest of Kwara North.”

“Since inception of this administration, led by His Excellency, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazak, we have observed lop-sidedness, crass marginalization and insensitivity to the rights and interest of Kwara North in the distribution of appointments both substantive as well as ad-hoc. The most recent appointment of the KWASU VC from Kwara Central is a confirmation of the insincerity of this administration as far as Kwara North affairs is concerned.”

The group listed 25 appointments by the governor to buttress their point and insisted that “the Registrar and University Librarian are also from Kwara Central while the Bursar until this minute is pencilled from the South?”

Kwara North leads in food/cash crops production, has the largest grazing and livestock resources, highest fisheries and forestry resources as well as largest border stretch to Benin Republic in the state. This, as well as its belief that the zone contributed the highest number of votes to the governor should have seen it treated fairly.

The appointment has also received knocks from the Offa Professors’ Forum, which described the process leading to the appointment as unfair since Prof. Akanbi was rated third behind Prof. Mahmud Sakah from Kwara North and Prof. Gana, who was also from Kwara Central.

In a statement by Chairman of the forum, Professor Hussein Oloyede, the group described the appointment as a “shock.”

During the selection process in 2019, the OPF protested that four out of the five members of the selection board (a Committee of Council), including the chairman, were from Kwara Central.

The exercise went on regardless and three professors were recommended in the following order of merit: first, Professor Mahmud Sakah (from Kwara North), second, Professor Gana (from Kwara North) and third, Professor M. M. Akanbi (from Kwara Central).

This was the situation Gov. Abdulrazak walked into when he took over office in May 2019.

The Transition Committee had advised the then in-coming governor that the VC selection process was faulty and that the Council should be dissolved and a new one constituted for a fresh recruitment exercise.

When the government took office, it ordered a Visitation to KWASU, which was overdue and also recommended by the Transition Committee. That visitation panel was also chaired by someone from Kwara Central.

The Visitation Panel also recommended the dissolution of the University Governing Council.

The government thereafter constituted a panel, also headed by someone from Kwara Central, to draft a white paper on the Visitation Panel’s Report, Daily Trust gathered.

The OPF had decided to support Professor Mahood Sakah’s candidacy considering his qualification.

“The argument being put forward that Sakah is 67 years old does not hold water,” the forum said. “The Council saw his age before he was short-listed, interviewed and ranked first in the selection process carried out by a panel of five consisting of four members from Kwara Central. To now use his age to disqualify him is a ploy to perpetrate over-lordship of a zone over the two other zones.”

Other groups, like the Kwara Community Association for Grassroot Transformation, (KWARA -CAGRAT) have also issued statements calling on the governor to reverse his decision in favour of Prof. Sakah, “in the interest of fairness.”

However, the Ilorin Emirate Professors’ Association, in a statement by its chairman, Professor A.S. Kuranga said position was duly advertised in national dailies in accordance with the 2008 law that set up the university and that at no point did the advert specify that the candidate must come from any particular senatorial zone.

“Therefore, applications were made voluntarily and upon the will of the applicants and not by community or ethnic representation,” the statement said. “The law that set up the university did not emphasise that the leadership of the university would be rotational among the Senatorial Zones of the State. One of the conditions of the application was that the prospective applicants must be in full time employment in universities. Only Akanbi fulfilled this condition among the three shortlisted candidates. The advertisement stated that the applicants should be experts in disciplines offered by the university and must not be less than five (5) years as a professor. The three candidates seem to have fulfilled this criterion. However, the position was stated to be for a single term of five (5) years. In other words, applicants who were above 65 years at the time of application should not have applied because if such candidate were successful, he would not be able to complete his tenure. It is expected that anybody of professorial status in public universities in Nigeria should know this.

“On 1st April, one of the candidates was announced by the Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, having been previously approved by the Executive Governor and Visitor to the university on the recommendation of the Governing Council of the university. It is therefore absurd that an intellectual forum, Offa Professors Forum (OPF) should declare the choice of Prof M.M. Akanbi (SAN), the most suitable for the VC, as unfair,” he said.

It explained that all rectors of Offa Polytechnic, since inception, except the founding rector, have all been from Offa despite the availability of more qualified candidates/applicants from other places.

“A recent reminder is the denial of the present Rector of Kwara State Polytechnic from being appointed as the Rector of Federal Polytechnic Offa despite his impressive performance at the interview.”

Despite the arguments advanced by this group, it is not clear how the controversy will unfold as of now; the governor has said nothing in response to the allegations.