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President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday ordered the immediate screening of students of the University of Abuja, to ''flush out the bad eggs and those that gained admissions through the backdoor”.
The President gave the order in Abuja at the swearing-in ceremony of Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir as the new Minister representing Sokoto State in the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
The Chairman and five other members of the Federal Civil Service Commission were also sworn-in by the president.
The ceremony preceded the weekly FEC meeting presided by the president at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa.
Speaking against the backdrop of pervasive lack of consideration for merit in the offer of employment especially in the civil service, Jonathan said the menace had permeated the education system.
He said one of the causes of the lingering crisis at the University of Abuja, was the admission of unqualified students with backings of political big-wigs.
President Jonathan said he had directed the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayat Rufai, to set up a committee to screen the students and flush out the unqualified ones.
``Only yesterday, we had a meeting with Minister of Education; we are looking into the situation at the University of Abuja because of their crises.
``The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, revealed that one thing about the UNIABUJA’s case is that there are students there who do not even have the basic qualification to be admitted but they are there as undergraduates.
``And I said that those must be political students. They must be students that we politicians pushed in and I told the minister that he must instruct the council to set up a committee to send the political students back to us.
``We cannot allow the universities to be taken over by political students; those are the kind of students that create confusion; create all kinds of cults; and all kind of practices because definitely they cannot cope with the academic challenges.
``So to be relevant, they have to cultist and all kinds of behaviours that are anti-social.’’
The President urged the new chairman and members of the Federal Civil Service Commission to collaborate with the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, to regain the glory lost by the civil service.
He decried the poor attitude of civil servants to work as well as their disloyalty to the government of the day.
``Sometimes civil servants are even accused of frustrating political office holders deliberately.
``There are stories where some very senior civil servants in the parastatals made very silly comments as “Soldier go, Soldier come, barrack remain” which is a reference to the fact that the ministers and permanent secretaries will go and come, but they will remain.
``So they stay there to perpetrate actions that are not progressive and are frustrating the implementation of government policies.’’
He also urged them to sanitise the service, and ensure merit and professionalism were considered in the employment of personnel into the civil service.
NAN reports that the President administered the Oath of Office on the new minister; the Chairman of the Commission, Mrs. Olatoyosi Ayo, and the other five federal commissioners.
The five federal commissioners in the commission include Alhaji Ibrahim Mohammed representing, Kaduna and Katsina states; Dr. Garba Boi, representing Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States; and Alhaji Yahaya Yusuf, representing Bauchi State.
Others are: Dr. Mohammed Babanka, representing Gombe, Adamawa and Taraba states; and Alhaji Rauf Tinubu, representing Lagos and Ogun states.
NAN also reports that the new minister replaces the former Minister of Sports, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman, who was relieved of his post by Jonathan on Dec. 2, 2011.
The President had relieved Suleiman of his post to enable him to contest the Sokoto governorship re-run elections.
