Removal of the university of Abuja Vice- chancellor: The untold story of president Tinubu’s missteps
To say that Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi’s removal from the office of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja last week on the reported orders of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was conceived, processed, and executed in blundering steps is to say the obvious. How President Tinubu was convinced or allowed himself to be persuaded to approve such an ill-advised course of action in the attempt to address the lingering, albeit usual noises over the appointment of the new substantive Vice-Chancellor at the University completely beats one’s imagination.
As an alumnus of the only federal university in the federal capital territory and who is still reeling with anger over the unwelcome change of its name to Yakubu Gowon University, one is concerned and alarmed because this is one action when thoroughly interrogated, is capable of rubbishing and undoing Asiwaju’s records as a thorough-bred technocrat and legendary talent-hunter up until now. This will be doubly so to me, given that I have always admired the Jagaban and his famed political sagacity.
His precipitate intervention in my beloved alma mater was poor in every material particular, and I should know having obtained all my three degrees from the University in my over three decades of engagement with the Institution. My current sojourn as adjunct staff at the University has exposed me to what transpired during the transition and the immediate fallout after Professor Maikudi was announced as the new substantive Vice-Chancellor on 31st December 2024. It may be pertinent for the outside world to be informed of the untold story of the gross injustice meted out to one of Nigeria’s youngest leading academic lights.
For starters, the contrived ‘leadership crisis’ at the University of Abuja that some online media outfits, were being used to sensationalise and scandalise was not the first at the Institution. In the 2014 transition that threw up Professor Michael Adiukwu as the 5th substantive Vice-chancellor of the University, a similar crisis erupted with even a dangerous religious dimension that escalated into a legal dispute instituted by some internal members of the then Governing Council led by a Deputy Vice-Chancellor. The protracted crisis simmered for years yet the President Muhammed Buhari-led regime rightly and sensibly too did not deem it necessary to intervene not to talk of wielding the big stick of a sack on anybody involved. The University subsequently resolved the crisis and found its bearing to allow the Professor to enjoy his full tenure as the Vice-Chancellor. So also did the Council led by the late General Ogbumedia serve out its tenure without undue interference from any official quarters.
Again, the current crisis was simply a matter of a sore loser in the race for the topmost position, Professor Sani Mashi mobilising his friends and associates in the Institution to protest the outcome after Professor Maikudi was announced the 7th substantive Vice-Chancellor by the now dissolved Governing Council. The protesting group has been crisscrossing the media houses accusing the Council of legal violations and non-adherence to due process in the appointment of the new Vice-chancellor. It specifically alleged that Professor Maikudi was not qualified for the job having been just two years Professor and that the position is meant for a professor of not less than ten years. To buttress its position and relentless campaign against both the Council and the newly appointed Vice-Chancellor, the group continuously referred to the guidelines the Federal Ministry of Education produced for its representatives on the Councils of all federal tertiary institutions.
Notwithstanding that the guidelines in question are merely advisory without the force of law and therefore not made mandatory for any of the tertiary institutions to apply, the protesting noise-making dons have to date not specifically cited any provision of the only two Acts regulating the appointment of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian federal universities that has been breached by the defunct Council. These are the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act 2003, No 1 of 2007, and the University of Abuja Act. Even in all interviews with the press and the petitions, they wrote to both the government officials and the immediate past Chairman of the Governing Council, Air Vice Marshal Sadiq Kaita (Rtd), did they dare to mention specific provisions of these extant laws that the Council breached in the process of appointing Professor Aisha Maikudi. Simply because there were none so breached. They further exposed themselves to the University community when the two members among them initially appointed by the University Senate to serve on the Selection Board for the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor K.M. Waziri and Professor Rose Udeozor, avoided all the meetings convened involving the Council, Management and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to address the issues they raised on the transition. At several meetings held with various stakeholders, including the local ASUU expanded Executive Council and Congress meetings, Senate meetings, and the Council’s interaction with the staff of the University’s Legal Directorate, the unanimous position was that the Council did not breach any of the extant legal provisions for the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor. It is an open secret in the Nigerian university system that ASUU would have been the first to raise the alarm or protest any breach of the selection process by the Governing Council.
Given that the protesting professors could not convince anyone to their side within the University community, they opted to escalate the matter outside the Institution. Together these dissenting members of the Senate and Council continued to make noises replete with hackneyed lies and unfounded allegations against the Council and the newly appointed Vice-Chancellor. For instance, in the case of the Vice-Chancellor, they continued to peddle the lie that she was a two-year professor when in truth is, she became a Professor in 2021; the same year, the current vice-chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Professor Faruk Adamu Kuta, became a professor. The latter was appointed and assumed office as Vice-Chancellor on 3rd December 2022 barely one year two months after becoming a professor!
The dissenting group further leveraged links with the media practitioners being a long-term journalism and mass communication teacher to continue instigating negative press on the so-called crisis which led the government to inexplicably wield the big stick against both the Council and the Vice-Chancellor. President Tinubu’s actions on the day Professor Maikudi presided over the most colourful and highly attended matriculation ceremony for new students in the annals of the University have left the community confused, dumbfounded, shocked, and awed. The bizarre and shocking news also filtered into the University’s Main Campus at a time when Air Vice Marshall Kaita was presiding over the meeting of the Council’s Finance and General Purposes Committee.
It is now one week after the government’s pronouncement via an unsigned press statement issued by the Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga and the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. Nasir Sani-Gwarzo. No reason(s) has been given by the government for the drastic actions it took against the properly constituted and operating governing authorities of the University of Abuja. Unlike the copious explanations, it offered in the earlier cases, especially involving the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, and the University of Health Sciences, Oturkpo. Hence, the question remains, why did Tinubu remove Professor Aisha as Vice-Chancellor? Assuming but not conceding that those who were agitating against her appointment had a point, should that warrant her sudden disengagement without the allegations of wrongdoings by the Council being established?Considering that she did not appoint herself to the exalted position, is there not a prescribed or established process for her disengagement other than by a sudden release of a terse press statement?
According to sources familiar with the workings of the university sector, the established practice is for the government to set up an investigative body, whether called a Special Presidential Visitation Panel, Special Ministerial Investigation Panel, or a Fact-Finding Panel through the National Universities Commission (NUC) to look into issues as recently occurred at the University of Abuja and come up with appropriate recommendations for the government. In the alternative, invite the feuding parties to the Federal Ministry of Education for a clear-the-air interaction with the Ministry’s top officials often led by the Permanent Secretary. It is only after one or all of these measures are taken that the government may be compelled to take further drastic action if warranted. We have seen this scenario recently played out at the University of Lagos and even under this regime at Awka and Oturkpo earlier mentioned. However, the strange thing about the case of the University of Abuja is that no attempt was made whatsoever to invoke due process before the President was made to approve what now looks like a premeditated action.
Mahmud Jega has in his inimitable style already drawn attention to President Tinubu’s howler of approving the actions not in his capacity as the Visitor to the universities which is the norm, but as the President which is abnormal. What this implied is that acting as the Visitor, the President would have duly complied with the extant rules and due process which are provided for within the purview of his office. That would entail him to at least authorise a special visitation or cause an investigation into the affairs at the University of Abuja the outcome of which could result in a well-informed decision by the government. Sadly, in the case under review, he acted as the President lording over the university system and the attendant actions taken on the University of Abuja reek of impunity with grave implications for the system.
Disbanding the properly constituted 10th Governing Council of the University of Abuja without evidence of incompetence or corruption, removing the Vice-Chancellor properly appointed by the same Council without reason(s), and appointing an acting Vice-Chancellor to replace her contrary to the extant laws and laid down procedure for such an appointment,are needless monumental blunders. There is the additional unsavoury dimension of the President appointing a Christian Chairman of the Council and acting Vice-Chancellor to take over from the Muslim Chairman of the Council and substantive Vice-Chancellor. Whoever advised President Tinubu to attack and undermine the autonomy being enjoyed by the University, the sanctity of its extant laws, and its established or prescribed processes, procedures, and practices does not wish the President well.
However, the situation at the University of Abuja is not beyond redemption should President Bola Ahmed Tinubu be willing to demonstrate statesmanship and rise above the iniquities of his minders and advisers and opt not to go down in history as the one consummate Nigerian politician who ironically set the nation’s universities on the road to academic perdition via antediluvian dictatorship. The University community expects and history beckons on President Tinubu to reverse the removal of Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi who fits the office of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja in every material particular that resonates with his administration: youthful age, profound knowledge, capacity to deliver, gender inclusivity, and beauty.
Dr. Joseph O. Ibrahim Old Kutunku Road Gwagwalada, Abuja.
