Ministerial Fumbling And The ‘Occupation’ Of The University Of Abuja

The present administration of the College of Abuja by the mixed group of an unlawfully foisted appearing Vice-Chancellor and amputated one-man Governing Council has remained probably the most egregious blunder dedicated by the Tinubu Presidency since its inauguration on Could 29, 2023.

The imposed management, comprising Professor Patricia Manko Lar because the appearing Vice-Chancellor and Senator Lanre Tejuoso because the Professional-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, happened following the illegal and drastic sweeping away of correctly constituted governance and administration authorities of the now ‘occupied’ College by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Earlier, on sixth February 2025, your complete Governing Council and the newly appointed substantive Vice-Chancellor of the College, Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi, have been instantly and with out said purpose(s) faraway from workplace.

Within the press assertion saying this ominous growth for your complete Nigerian college system, the federal government solely claimed that the management modifications mirrored Tinubu’s “dedication to revitalising Nigeria’s increased schooling system by dynamic management and accountability”. No matter meaning.

On condition that the federal government ignored and contravened all the foundations and processes in taking its actions, it’s troublesome, if not unimaginable, to uphold and help its claims to justify the management contraption imposed on the College of Abuja. Except for the truth that the system has adequate guidelines regulating the setup and governance of the colleges. The establishments are well-known for being run by way of prescribed or established processes, procedures, and practices with no room for unilateral actions taken by President Tinubu. It’s, due to this fact, unusual and surprising that the President would usurp the powers of statutory organs within the system in a single breath and erode the prevailing hard-earned college autonomy. It’s merely indefensible.

Hitherto touted as probably the most consummate Nigerian politician and thoroughbred technocrat with an eye fixed for finer particulars of statecraft, but the President allowed himself to deviate from his correct position as a Customer to the College and opted for the position of an imperial dictator to topic the college system to his whims, or these of his cronies, on the expense of the established guidelines of engagement. On the price he’s going, if not checked or made to retrace his steps, the Presidency below his watch could also be stooping to ‘micro-manage’ the colleges with all of the potential attendant repercussions on the well-being of the nation’s tertiary schooling sub-sector.  Already, indications are ripe that the Minister of Training is poised to exit of his option to approve some main administrative and statutory modifications on the College being articulated and proposed by the appearing Vice-Chancellor.

It is a certain recipe for one more spherical of company disharmony and system disaster paying homage to the final strike by the educational employees to reject the ministerial approval of the primary advert revealed for the place of Vice-Chancellor in March 2024.

Nobody wants a reminder about how politically flamable the Nigerian College system might flip very quickly when confronted with existential threats from authorities insurance policies or measures. The lecturers below the auspices of the Educational Employees Union of Universities (ASUU) won’t ever enable a throwback of the establishments to be subjected to the dictates of extreme authorities interference and subjugation. Instances have modified in parallel with the phrases and situations below which the colleges function. That is the period of college autonomy, and there will be no going again. It bears restating that the Nigerian college must be allowed to breathe throughout the atmosphere of its new discovered self-governing standing to keep away from a return to previous incessant crises and interrupted periods. Certainly, the final ASUU NEC Decision of Eighth-Ninth February 2025 by which the Union referred to the College of Abuja saga and “Condemned the erosion of the College autonomy by the flagrant elimination of the Vice-Chancellor and dissolution of the Governing Council with out recourse to the College’s extant legal guidelines”, says all of it in regards to the unwelcome growth.

On the similar time, the query stays: who and what impelled the Tinubu Presidency to sidestep the regulation and due course of in effecting management modifications on the Establishment? Was it the cacophony of post-transition noise in and across the College after Professor Aisha Maikudi emerged because the seventh substantive Vice-Chancellor that inspired some vested pursuits to mischievously package deal it as a “disaster” and promote a dummy to the Presidency to behave upon? Assuming however not conceding that the noise assumed the dimension of a disaster, is dismantling your complete governance construction and changing it with a contraption on the College as seen immediately in step with the extant legal guidelines and due course of? By regulation, who appoints and removes a Vice-Chancellor on the College of Abuja?  Who appoints an appearing Vice-Chancellor for the College? Did the Presidency accuse and or discover the Governing Council responsible of incompetence and corruption to warrant its dissolution? Does the President have the facility to sack inner members of the Council appointed by the College Senate and Congregation? Infinite questions are begging for solutions!

In an earlier intervention on the unfolding disaster of governance created by the federal government on the College of Abuja titled Removing of the College of Abuja Vice-Chancellor: The untold story of President Tinubu’s missteps, revealed in and on tenth February 2025, I alluded to the truth that the brand new governance and administration group personified by Senator Tejuoso and Professor Lar was presumably put in place and mandated to revive what it referred to as ‘sanity’ to the establishment.

This a lot was reportedly admitted by the brand new Professional-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council in a number of conferences with sections of the College group. Nevertheless, it ought to be apparent that the so-called management disaster on the College of Abuja was invented by some vested pursuits to achieve their fascinating aims. The federal government fell for the false narrative largely because of the grand failure or collusion of the supervising companies and actors, notably the Federal Ministry of Training, whose Minister, Dr. Maruf Olatunji Alausa, has demonstrated gross misunderstanding of the extant legal guidelines and processes concerned in working the colleges.Or, else how might the federal government be satisfied or stampeded into the mess it has created and foisted on the College of Abuja?

It’s worthy of be aware that Presidential choices or actions are sometimes hinged on applicable data and or recommendation made out there to it by the companies or officers superintending involved areas or sectors. For the colleges, the Federal Ministry of Training (and Ministers), with the involvement or in any other case of the Nationwide Universities Fee (and the Government Secretary) because the case could also be, deal with and course of the knowledge and recommendation resulting in actions as just lately taken regarding the College of Abuja. After all, different variables and forces could come into play and form authorities insurance policies and choices, however the centrality and key position of the accountable Ministers and companies can’t be discountenanced by any means.

Nevertheless, it’s evident that the Presidency was not correctly and truthfully suggested on the scenario on the College of Abuja earlier than the federal government wielded the massive stick, sacking the governing authorities. What was taking place in and across the ivory tower was the standard cacophony of post-transition noise involving those that misplaced out within the race to be Vice-Chancellor and chief government. The noise didn’t translate right into a disaster, nay, management disaster for that matter. The College has at all times been recognized for such occasional noise anytime a brand new helmsman is appointed. It occurred in 2004, 2009, 2014 (marked by litigation), and just lately, 2024. However at no time in any way was the federal government satisfied or railroaded to take any unbecoming drastic motion till now.

Figuring out the configuration and permutations of the College as I do, I can guess my final kobo that the identical noise will repeat itself after the subsequent transition in 5 years. If that occurs, what’s to be carried out? Sack the Council and the Vice-Chancellor once more? Certainly, Minister Alausa ought to have carried out higher as a result of if he had carried out the needful, probably the most the Presidency might have carried out was to order a proper investigation into the matter and take it from there. It bears reiterating that the President, because the Customer to the College, can arrange a particular visitation panel to unravel happenings and develop a white paper for crucial motion. That’s due course of to which the Minister both woefully failed or wilfully refused to advise the Presidency to stick.

As a substitute, exhibiting poor data of the system, its guidelines and protocols, however leveraging and uncannily parading his shut relationship with the President, has emboldened Dr. Alausa to do as he pleases because the Minister of Training. Consistently disregarding the established communication channels and the endless conflicts with the Everlasting Secretary and senior Administrators on the Ministry have change into the order of the day. It’s a trait he imported from the Federal Ministry of Well being, the place he beforehand served because the junior Minister of State. For her half, the Minister of State for Training, Professor Suwaiba Stated Ahmad, who’s a product of the college system, seems suffocated and intimidated right into a docile submission on issues over which she ought to ordinarily be capable to assert her authority as a fresh-mint professor and fast previous Provost of a Faculty of Training. That is the mixed group of the boastful senior Minister and the educated however timid junior Minister of State accountable for the schooling sector whose fumbling has led the federal government to create the present ugly management contraption on the College of Abuja.

In conclusion, that the Tinubu Administration has diminished college governance and administration right into a sickening joke is not doubtful. Because the Training Ministry’s management stays the primary facilitator of the erosion of college autonomy in Nigeria, it stays to be seen how far a highway to governance and administrative perdition its blundering steps can take the Nigerian College system, and notably, the ‘occupied’ College of Abuja. No matter it’s, the premier college on the nation’s federal capital requires pressing redemption from the grip of the unlawful occupiers, and the time to take action is now!

~ Joseph wrote from Outdated Kutunku Street, Gwagwalada, Abuja.