It’s crystal clear that the abject blunders dedicated by the Tinubu Administration in foisting the present management contraption on the College of Abuja are on the root of the newly introduced drive by the Federal Ministry of Schooling so as to add an ‘integrity’ quotient to the choice means of heads of tertiary establishments within the nation.
That is regardless of the present legal guidelines being very clear, particularly relating to the statutory our bodies liable for deciding on and appointing Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Federal Universities, of which the Ministry shouldn’t be one. On condition that the imposition of sole administration by different means on the College of Abuja was sure to be a political-cum-administrative fiasco for the Presidency that was bought and elected by Nigerians based mostly on Tinubu’s famed sagacity and admirable observe document of statecraft, the Minister of Schooling, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has been compelled to embark on harm management to rescue the federal government’s credibility within the Nigerian college system and the nation as an entire.
The sudden, unwarranted, and unexplained dissolution of the Governing Council and the illegal elimination of the newly appointed substantive Vice-Chancellor, Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi, and their substitute with Senator Lanre Tejuoso as the brand new Professional-Chancellor and Chairman of the one-man Governing Council, and the performing Vice-Chancellor, Professor Patricia Manko Lar, from the College of Jos, have remained an albatross on the neck of the Tinubu Administration.
In all materials specific, the present governance and administration construction on the College of Abuja stays a monumental howler for which Dr. Alausa is singularly liable for deceptive President Tinubu.
Therefore, within the try to wriggle himself and, by extension, the Presidency out of the regrettable mess with potential for escalation and ruining the management recruitment and total administrative processes in all the college system if not nip it within the bud, the Minister has now resorted to some flippant and unwelcome measures that will solely complicate issues within the universities, nay, all the tertiary training sector.
Or, else, how does one comprehend and conceive any constructive worth out of the unsigned press assertion of seventh April 2025 issued by the Director of Press and Public Relations of the Federal Ministry of Schooling, Boriowo Folasade, entitled “Schooling Minister Approves Coverage to Strengthen Integrity in Choice of VCs, Rectors and Provosts”? The assertion informs the Nigerian public concerning the Minister’s approval of a “guiding coverage on eligibility” for appointing heads of tertiary establishments, which, henceforth, precludes occupants of such places of work in performing capability from vying to change into substantive officers.
This goals to halt the perceived prevailing follow, “the place officers serving in performing capacities usually leverage their positions to affect appointment outcomes, thereby compromising the equity and transparency of the choice course of”. By implication of this new ministerial coverage directive, performing holders of such positions are disqualified from contesting and might solely change into eligible in the event that they recuse themselves from the positions earlier than the expiration of their performing tenure.
On its face worth, the brand new coverage directive by the Minister seems healthful and able to including worth to the choice course of in tertiary establishments. Nonetheless, on a second, profound reflection, particularly in respect to the schools with which one is extra acquainted, the contrived coverage of the Minister is solely a non-starter. It has no foundation within the present legal guidelines of the schools, the Nigerian public service, and international finest practices.
Consequently, the Minister’s coverage directive ought to be thought of as dead-on-arrival if the thinly veiled intention is to raise it to a standing of legislation. With adequate and eloquent authorized provisions and procedures made for the choice and appointment of Vice-Chancellors, the Minister must have, as a substitute, devoted his vitality to making sure that the Governing Councils at all times strictly adhere to the foundations and due course of in performing their duties.
Making an attempt to justify the federal government’s unwholesome actions on the College of Abuja by way of the again door of a rapidly and clumsily packaged coverage is an afterthought by the Minister, devoid of the enabling energy or locus standi to take action.
To begin with, the eligibility for the place of the Vice-Chancellor, identical to another public service place, is decided and guided by guidelines. For the schools, the appointment of Vice-Chancellors, whether or not performing or substantive, is strictly based mostly on the extant legal guidelines, specifically, the particular College Act and the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Modification Act 2003, No. 1 of 2007.
And there’s nothing within the provisions of those two major acts that stops an performing Vice-Chancellor from aspiring and contesting to imagine the substantive position. Once more, it isn’t the duty of the Minister of Schooling, however the unique protect of the Governing Council to find out another eligibility standards for the place.
In any case, the Minister’s directive can solely function an advisory with out the pressure of necessary compliance, identical to the associated 2013 major doc referred to within the press assertion. Accordingly, within the absence of a legislation anyplace stopping an performing Vice-Chancellor from contesting to imagine a substantive position, no Governing Council price its title ought to contemplate the Minister’s unusual and provocative innovation past what it’s: an advisory!Moreover, the best of people, together with performing Vice-Chancellors, to contest for such positions is constitutional and past the purview of a Minister to put off.
As an example, are politicians holding workplace not allowed to run for a similar workplace? Is there any “undue benefit” greater than in incumbent political office-holders (Presidents and Governors, and so on) contesting to proceed in the identical workplace, leveraging their place and workplace to win elections? Can we rely and ever set up what number of occasions we now have witnessed performing occupants of places of work in varied sectors of the bigger Nigerian public service enviornment being recognised and accorded the added benefit of ‘inheritor obvious’, finally culminating of their being appointed to imagine the substantive position? Is it not in recognition of this that the prevailing follow of asking probably the most senior officer in any service house to occupy a place in performing capability exists? For the avoidance of doubt, it’s a universally acknowledged follow that individuals occupying positions in performing or non permanent capability are permitted to contest for the substantive and are sometimes perceived and thought of because the inheritor obvious, and in sure circumstances, having fun with the executive equal of proper of first refusal.
So, why ought to it’s completely different for the performing Vice-Chancellors who, going by the Minister of Schooling’s ill-informed coverage directive, are disqualified from vying until they relinquish the place?
Maybe Dr. Alausa is, for no matter motive, not proud of the legitimate end result of the final choice course of that threw up Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi because the seventh substantive Vice-Chancellor of the College of Abuja. On the similar time, he’s additionally possible averse to the prevailing self-governing standing of the schools by which the Governing Councils now appoint the Vice-Chancellors, devoid of undue interference, and direct imprimatur of presidency as obtained prior to now.
That is along with the a number of crises that the federal government has needed to take care of within the universities throughout the brief span of his tenure because the Minister of Schooling. Nonetheless, it’s crucial to notice that he can’t stay accountable for the nation’s training sector endlessly, and he should rapidly adapt to understand and function by the foundations of engagement.
There isn’t any higher means than the Minister to make sure that normalcy is promptly restored to the College of Abuja by way of the reinstatement of the dissolved Governing Council and the ousted Vice-Chancellor, Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi. That is in order that the present actuality of sole administration shouldn’t be solely dropped at a direct closure, however it is usually not used as a supply of inspiration for future related or different unwelcome developments within the Nigerian college system.
Dr Dan-Marke is of the Abuja Management Centre, College of Abuja,
