University Of Abuja: Reconstituting The Governing Council And Incongruity Of Sole Administration
It is now clear, beyond any reasonable doubt, that some minders of the Tinubu administration, especially those involved in articulating policy decisions and implementing actions in the tertiary education sector, neither care about the trajectory and image, nor the legacy the regime may leave behind for posterity. For whatever self-propelled reasons, the Minister of Education, […]
It is now clear, beyond any reasonable doubt, that some minders of the Tinubu administration, especially those involved in articulating policy decisions and implementing actions in the tertiary education sector, neither care about the trajectory and image, nor the legacy the regime may leave behind for posterity.
For whatever self-propelled reasons, the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, and his cohorts in the government only seem determined to sustain the policy fiasco unleashed at the University of Abuja in February this year, which has left the institution reeling from the inequities of an imposed sole administration. Or else, how does one rationalise the decision of the government to reconstitute the Governing Council of the University of Abuja by appointing its representatives without addressing the position of the Vice-Chancellor? Or, more appropriately put, without recalling the unlawfully disengaged Vice-Chancellor, Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi?
There was something amiss about the recent government’s announcement reconstituting the Governing Council while leaving an illegal impostor to continue occupying the office of the Vice-Chancellor.
Firstly, it is worth noting that this has been pointed out and widely acknowledged by several commentators and stakeholders, including the Minister of Education himself, before the House of Representatives Committee on Education. The President, as Visitor to the University, has no power to appoint and remove a Vice-Chancellor. Based on the provisions of the existing autonomy act, the power now lies with the Governing Council. So, if President Tinubu removed the Vice-Chancellor in breach of the existing law, the most logical and sensible thing to do is to respect the same law. Reinstate her while reconstituting the Council with his appointees.
At the same time, he should remove the acting Vice-Chancellor whom he similarly appointed in breach of the existing rules and procedure, to make way for the legitimate occupant. For the avoidance of doubt, the appointment and removal of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Federal Universities are no longer based on Presidential decisions. The powers now lie with the Governing Council as provided for by provisions of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Act 2003, No. 1 of 2007, and the specific University’s Act. Perhaps the President was not properly briefed to appreciate the dangers of usurping powers of other statutory organs of governance (i.e., Governing Councils) in a democratic setting, hence the continued reign of impunity and trampling of the Law!
Secondly, the incongruity of appointing a reconstituted Governing Council to operate with an illegally appointed Vice-Chancellor should not be lost on the government. This is because the presence of a Governing Council can never confer legitimacy on Professor Lar since the authority that imposed her lacks the power to do so. She can only remain the face and an embodiment of impunity, which is inconsistent with the operations of Nigerian universities in this autonomy-driven era, and the nation’s prevailing civil-democratic dispensation as well.
The scenario of a valid Governing Council operating with an imposed and legally unbefitting Vice-Chancellor to run the University of Abuja is a bad contemplation that should not stand.
In an unusual event that this wrong combination is deployed to produce the next substantive Vice-Chancellor for the University, such an outcome can easily be invalidated by the mere fact of the imposed Vice-Chancellor not having the locus standi to remain in the office and participate in the process. Hence, given the composition of the incoming council members appointed by President Tinubu, the current leadership mess must be cleared, so that they are not compelled to operate with a chief executive suffering from both legal and moral encumbrances. Otherwise, they may end up in a scenario capable of dragging them into the pit of lamentation and regret.
Furthermore, in the realm of administrative practices, Professor Lar has taken several egregious actions and atrocious decisions that should not be conferred legitimacy by an incoming Governing Council without some proper in-house cleansing and stabilisation of the administrative process. Since early February, the University of Abuja has been governed and administered by a two-man leadership comprising the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the one-man Governing Council, Senator Lanre Tejuoso, and the acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Patricia Manko Lar, appointed from the University of Jos. Their appointments followed the unlawful dissolution and removal of the Governing Council and the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi, respectively.
Against the backdrop of her limited working experience at the top-level, naivety, and unbridled sectarian predilection, the acting Vice-Chancellor has, in the period under review, appointed a strange trio of senior special assistants to the Vice-Chancellor who, even as her aides, have taken over the statutory roles and duties of Deputy Vice-Chancellors. She has also appointed over sixty (60) new directors of academic and non-teaching directorates and units in a sweeping, divisive exercise devoid of due diligence and attention to the unity and scholarship core values of the university, ethno-religious balancing, and federal character principles of the country.
Again, the failure to adhere to seniority in the appointment of heads of key administrative units has resulted in the current lopsided composition of principal officers and top management positions in the institution. The ongoing appointment of heads of academic departments by Professor Lar has followed a similar pattern, portraying a current picture of the University of Abuja contrary to its long-cherished core values of promoting unity and scholarship.
To further complicate matters, Professor Lar has set up a committee to look into what she euphemistically calls “staff profile”, but which is for staff audit. Headed by one of the senior special assistants, the committee has been assigned to generate information and statistics on some targeted staff recruited and promoted from 2022 to April 2025. In all honesty, and the absence of any hidden agenda, what the committee has been asked to do, based on its given terms of reference, can easily be derived from the normal staff nominal roll being developed and kept by the establishment division of the University’s Registry.
In any case, as pointed out by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in its resolutions after the branch congress overwhelmingly rejected being part of the committee’s highly suspicious assignment, only the Governing Council can undertake such a major task. And it would always appoint an external member to lead it, ensuring neutrality and fairness of the exercise.
One wonders what has pushed the acting Vice-Chancellor to conceive and pursue this seemingly routine but dangerous gambit, allegedly aimed at reducing the university’s workforce by targeting those opposed to the ‘political interest’ of her newfound allies and associates at the university. It could have been part of the initial plot to right-size the staffing in line with her tenure extension agenda. Now that the tenure extension bid has been killed with the reconstitution of the Governing Council, it will be interesting to see what becomes of the ‘staff profile’ endeavour in the remaining two months of her illegally imposed tenure.
But in the meantime, the most damaging of Professor Lar’s administrative faux pas in the long run, if not immediately checked and reversed, should be the outright termination of several high-profile disciplinary cases against some staff and the so-called ‘amnesty’ granted to several students on the verge of being disciplined for alleged acts of examination misconduct. It is known that at an earlier meeting of the ‘Management Committee’, she rode roughshod over the members to waive the staff’s disciplinary procedures. A similar scenario played out at the recent Senate meeting, when, in cahoots with her allies and supporters, the consideration of the report of the examination misconduct committee resulted in the indicted students being pardoned.
This unbecoming precedent for the university could set in an unprecedented era of gangsterism and lawlessness. Already, these strange developments have set tongues wagging, with a plethora of speculations and phantom theories indiscriminately flying in and around the University community. While the said staff’s cases had been with the Council for consideration which renders the sole administration’s misguided action dead on arrival, the strange decision on cases involving the indicted now pardoned students allegedly arose because of a particular female beneficiary who is linked to a high-profile personality in the nation’s political and governance firmament.
To make matters worse for the system and further consolidate the heinous decision, the Senate, at the prompting of the acting Vice-Chancellor, resolved to review the existing examination misconduct guidelines, which are considered stringent and not student-friendly. Specifically, the forces around Professor Lar pushing for the review aim to expunge the provision concerning the expulsion of students from the University’s guidelines and regulations.
A major beneficiary of the waived staff disciplinary cases, who is a key figure in handling student affairs at the institution, is the driving force behind this particular move.
They contend that the acquisition of education is a fundamental right that should not, under any circumstances, be denied to those involved. This is certainly a product of desperate, warped thinking. They have conveniently forgotten that degrees at the University of Abuja, like elsewhere globally, are awarded not only based on learning, but character. Unfortunately, settled issues of staff and student discipline are being revisited at the behest of an interim sole administrator without a stake in the institution. That she is supported by a self-aggrandising few in the University community is, indeed, a double tragedy!
It bears noting that the current unenviable trajectory of the University of Abuja and the attendant conspicuous administrative blunders are avoidable and should not have arisen in the first place. There was no need or justification for disbanding the Governing Council and relieving the Vice-Chancellor of her duties. All the stakeholders, including the Minister of Education, have unanimously agreed on this. While recognising and actualising Mr. President’s prerogative to change his appointees in the reconstituted governing council, it is strange and inexplicable that he has so far been unable to redress the unlawful removal of Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi. As a thoroughbred and meticulous technocrat with an eye for finer details, President Tinubu could have avoided the matter from lingering if it had been brought to his attention.
One only hopes that some state actors are not taking the matter personally against someone young enough to be their daughter, on account of her gender, regional or ethnoreligious background. That would be regrettable, marking a significant, inelegant departure from President Tinubu’s admirable inclusion of the young and brightest in his administration as he strives to reposition the country for greater achievement.
Whatever it is, it is not too late for the government to return to the stone it was misled to reject in consolidating the University of Abuja as a fast-growing, bubbling citadel of learning. At this moment, Professor Sani Maikudi remains the cornerstone for this national project because the law unshakably favours her return to the office.
~ Prof. Ityoher wrote from Abuja Leadership Centre, University of Abuja.