UniAbuja: Lar And The Burden Of Fighting Corruption

When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu dissolved the Governing Council of the Yakubu Gowon University (YGU), formerly known as the University of Abuja, on 6th February 2025, and appointed Professor Patricia Lar as acting vice chancellor, it provided respite to an ivory tower that was cascading down the slippery slope of incompetence and corruption.

A group of distinguished academics had alleged a plot to enthrone favouritism to appoint Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi as successor to Professor AbdulRasheed Na’Allah. The protest against Maikudi after the Senate announced her as acting vice chancellor, after the curtains were drawn over Professor AbdulRasheed Na’Allah’s tenure, was a clear confutation of a system that some alleged was manipulated to favour a candidate.

Haunted By Past

Before the unexpected dissolution of the Governing Council and the removal of Maikudi, it was clear that the university was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in a battle between both centrifugal and centripetal forces in maintaining its relevance. Then, the remonstration against Maikudi took a dramatic turn, as 67 protesting professors petitioned the Minister of Education, Dr. Marufu Alausa, against any plan to appoint her as the substantive vice chancellor of the university.

If those who plotted to appoint the Katsina-born academic to replace Na’Allah were irreversibly determined to make the camel pass through the eye of the needle, those opposed to the plot were ever ready not to cave in. Though the pro-Maikudi camp had the first laugh on 30th December 2024, when the Senate Governing Council, headed by Air Vice Marshal Saddiq Ismaila Kaita (retd), announced Maikudi as substantive vice chancellor, a terse statement by the presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, ended the charade and replaced Maikudi with Prof Lar as acting vice chancellor of the YGU. The deployment of self-interests anchored on maintaining the old order has remained the greatest encumbrance in the task of cleansing the Augean Stables unleashed on the university in the past.

In a gross violation of due process, no fewer than 400 workers were said to have been employed by past vice chancellors without recourse to the principle of federal character, in a bid to gain support in advancing and strengthening their powers to influence the direction of affairs in the school. As I write this piece, the university is still shouldering the burden of paying salaries from its internal revenue and reviewing some of its policies for academic reforms.

Witness To Scam

It’s a public secret that undergraduate admissions done in the past were conducted without involving academic heads and other relevant personnel of the university. For a university that should be a platform of straightforwardness in all endeavours, I discovered that the university had fallen short of standards through a personal experience last year. My daughter scored 273 in the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). Her first choice of course of study at the university was Law. Being ignorant of the undercurrents that take place behind admissions, many had convinced me never to bother, as she was poised to be selected on merit. Signs of trouble started when she received the screening scores of less than 15, prompting me to contact one of the academics. It was then that I was told of the monumental backside deals involved in admissions. After the first list was released, my daughter got a text advising her to change her course to (link unavailable) Broadcasting. She was not happy, but I spurred her to change, as advised. She did and promptly received the admission letter.

We wasted no time paying the acceptance fee of N30,000, including school fees of N114,000, excluding charges. After the New Year break, she returned to complete her departmental registration in the first week of January 2025. Thereafter, she was subjected to ‘bring this today, bring this tomorrow’ for another week. When she finally went for her departmental registration, she was told that the course she had applied for, been admitted to, and paid for was no longer available. A friend quickly advised her to pay N300,000 so that she could be permitted to register for the course. I dismissed the suggestion and advised her to have nothing to do with it. Her belief in competence vanished as she saw her mates with far lower scores admitted to study law. When we asked for a refund of the fees, we were told that we had to forfeit them. What a system that preys on impoverished youths and poor parents!

Lar’s Biggest Task

For those who are questioning the dissolution of the Governing Council and the setting up of a new one, headed by Senator Lanre Tejuoso, the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act 2003, otherwise called the Universities Autonomy Act, is unambiguous in spelling out the power of the President to dissolve the Governing Council and sack the vice chancellor on grounds of incompetence and corruption.

Those who are familiar with the happenings in the university can’t deny the fact that previous administrators allowed incompetence and corruption to thrive. Academic growth in the university took a back seat as the university was majorly preoccupied with revenue generation, rather than focusing on academic growth. The university is blessed with some of the best academics, but some of them willingly surrender to being manipulated under a system that proved incapable of combating rot in the system. For instance, many of the cases bordering on exam malpractices were left unattended, prompting the attention of the Lar-led administration.

How can one recall students with exam malpractice cases who had graduated and received certificates? Prof Lar recently held a press briefing where she outlined her achievements since her appointment. One is impressed with her goal to advance the academic growth of the institution. With the process for the appointment of a new vice chancellor now in place, the task of reforming a battered system can’t be abdicated.

Since her appointment, she has not relented in setting standards for the attainment of academic excellence and rallying the University for the Overall Good. Those who benefited from the decay of the past must not be allowed to continue in their despicable actions through a proxy arrangement. If it takes a year or more for Lar to fix the corrupt system, let it be. Complete disregard for some federal lawmakers playing the role of meddlesome interlopers in the urgent need to reform the YGU is the best option.