The current administration of the University of Abuja by the combined team of an unlawfully foisted acting Vice-Chancellor and amputated one-man Governing Council has remained the most egregious blunder committed by the Tinubu Presidency since its inauguration on May 29, 2023.
The imposed leadership, comprising Professor Patricia Manko Lar as the acting Vice-Chancellor and Senator Lanre Tejuoso as the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, came about following the unlawful and drastic sweeping away of properly constituted governance and management authorities of the now ‘occupied’ University by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Earlier, on 6th February 2025, the entire Governing Council and the newly appointed substantive Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi, were suddenly and without stated reason(s) removed from office.
In the press statement announcing this ominous development for the entire Nigerian university system, the government only claimed that the leadership changes reflected Tinubu’s “commitment to revitalising Nigeria’s higher education system through dynamic leadership and accountability”. Whatever that means.
Given that the government ignored and contravened all the rules and processes in taking its actions, it is difficult, if not impossible, to uphold and support its claims to justify the leadership contraption imposed at the University of Abuja. Aside from the fact that the system has sufficient rules regulating the setup and governance of the universities. The institutions are well-known for being run via prescribed or established processes, procedures, and practices with no room for unilateral actions taken by President Tinubu. It is, therefore, strange and shocking that the President would usurp the powers of statutory organs in the system in one breath and erode the prevailing hard-earned university autonomy. It is simply indefensible.
Hitherto touted as the most consummate Nigerian politician and thoroughbred technocrat with an eye for finer details of statecraft, yet the President allowed himself to deviate from his proper role as a Visitor to the University and opted for the role of an imperial dictator to subject the university system to his whims, or those of his cronies, at the expense of the established rules of engagement. At the rate he is going, if not checked or made to retrace his steps, the Presidency under his watch may be stooping to ‘micro-manage’ the universities with all the possible attendant repercussions on the well-being of the nation’s tertiary education sub-sector. Already, indications are ripe that the Minister of Education is poised to go out of his way to approve some major administrative and statutory changes at the University being articulated and proposed by the acting Vice-Chancellor.
This is a sure recipe for another round of corporate disharmony and system crisis reminiscent of the last strike by the academic staff to reject the ministerial approval of the first advert published for the position of Vice-Chancellor in March 2024.
No one needs a reminder about how politically combustible the Nigerian University system could turn in no time when faced with existential threats from government policies or measures. The academics under the auspices of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will never allow a throwback of the institutions to be subjected to the dictates of excessive government interference and subjugation. Times have changed in parallel with the terms and conditions under which the universities operate. This is the era of university autonomy, and there can be no going back. It bears restating that the Nigerian university needs to be allowed to breathe within the ambience of its new found self-governing status to avoid a return to past incessant crises and interrupted sessions. Indeed, the last ASUU NEC Resolution of 8th-9th February 2025 in which the Union referred to the University of Abuja saga and “Condemned the erosion of the University autonomy by the flagrant removal of the Vice-Chancellor and dissolution of the Governing Council without recourse to the University’s extant laws”, says it all about the unwelcome development.
At the same time, the question remains: who and what impelled the Tinubu Presidency to sidestep the law and due process in effecting leadership changes at the Institution? Was it the cacophony of post-transition noise in and around the University after Professor Aisha Maikudi emerged as the 7th substantive Vice-Chancellor that encouraged some vested interests to mischievously package it as a “crisis” and sell a dummy to the Presidency to act upon? Assuming but not conceding that the noise assumed the dimension of a crisis, is dismantling the entire governance structure and replacing it with a contraption at the University as seen today in line with the extant laws and due process? By law, who appoints and removes a Vice-Chancellor at the University of Abuja? Who appoints an acting Vice-Chancellor for the University? Did the Presidency accuse and or find the Governing Council guilty of incompetence and corruption to warrant its dissolution? Does the President have the power to sack internal members of the Council appointed by the University Senate and Congregation? Endless questions are begging for answers!
In an earlier intervention on the unfolding crisis of governance created by the government at the University of Abuja titled Removal of the University of Abuja Vice-Chancellor: The untold story of President Tinubu’s missteps, published in https://www.vanguardngr.com and https://tribuneonlineng.com on 10th February 2025, I alluded to the fact that the new governance and management team personified by Senator Tejuoso and Professor Lar was presumably put in place and mandated to restore what it called ‘sanity’ to the institution.
This much was reportedly admitted by the new Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council in several meetings with sections of the University community. However, it should be obvious that the so-called leadership crisis at the University of Abuja was invented by some vested interests to attain their desirable objectives. The government fell for the false narrative largely due to the grand failure or collusion of the supervising agencies and actors, particularly the Federal Ministry of Education, whose Minister, Dr. Maruf Olatunji Alausa, has demonstrated gross misunderstanding of the extant laws and processes involved in running the universities.
Or, else how could the government be convinced or stampeded into the mess it has created and foisted at the University of Abuja?
It is worthy of note that Presidential decisions or actions are often hinged on appropriate information and or advice made available to it through the agencies or officers superintending concerned areas or sectors. For the universities, the Federal Ministry of Education (and Ministers), with the involvement or otherwise of the National Universities Commission (and the Executive Secretary) as the case may be, handle and process the information and advice leading to actions as recently taken concerning the University of Abuja. Of course, other variables and forces may come into play and shape government policies and decisions, but the centrality and key role of the responsible Ministers and agencies cannot be discountenanced by any means.
However, it is evident that the Presidency was not properly and honestly advised on the situation at the University of Abuja before the government wielded the big stick, sacking the governing authorities. What was happening in and around the ivory tower was the usual cacophony of post-transition noise involving those who lost out in the race to be Vice-Chancellor and chief executive. The noise did not translate into a crisis, nay, leadership crisis for that matter. The University has always been known for such occasional noise anytime a new helmsman is appointed. It happened in 2004, 2009, 2014 (marked by litigation), and recently, 2024. But at no time whatsoever was the government convinced or railroaded to take any unbecoming drastic action until now.
Knowing the configuration and permutations of the University as I do, I can bet my last kobo that the same noise will repeat itself after the next transition in five years. If that happens, what is to be done? Sack the Council and the Vice-Chancellor again? Indeed, Minister Alausa should have done better because if he had done the needful, the most the Presidency could have done was to order a formal investigation into the matter and take it from there. It bears reiterating that the President, as the Visitor to the University, can set up a special visitation panel to unravel happenings and develop a white paper for necessary action. That is due process to which the Minister either woefully failed or wilfully refused to advise the Presidency to adhere.
Instead, exhibiting poor knowledge of the system, its rules and protocols, but leveraging and uncannily parading his close relationship with the President, has emboldened Dr. Alausa to do as he pleases as the Minister of Education. Constantly disregarding the established communication channels and the unending conflicts with the Permanent Secretary and senior Directors at the Ministry have become the order of the day. It is a trait he imported from the Federal Ministry of Health, where he previously served as the junior Minister of State. For her part, the Minister of State for Education, Professor Suwaiba Said Ahmad, who is a product of the university system, appears suffocated and intimidated into a docile submission on matters over which she should ordinarily be able to assert her authority as a fresh-mint professor and immediate past Provost of a College of Education. This is the combined team of the arrogant senior Minister and the knowledgeable but timid junior Minister of State in charge of the education sector whose fumbling has led the government to create the current ugly leadership contraption at the University of Abuja.
In conclusion, that the Tinubu Administration has reduced university governance and administration into a sickening joke is no longer in doubt. As the Education Ministry’s leadership remains the main facilitator of the erosion of university autonomy in Nigeria, it remains to be seen how far a road to governance and administrative perdition its blundering steps can take the Nigerian University system, and particularly, the ‘occupied’ University of Abuja. Whatever it is, the premier university at the nation’s federal capital requires urgent redemption from the grip of the illegal occupiers, and the time to do so is now!
~ Joseph wrote from Old Kutunku Road, Gwagwalada, Abuja.
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