UNIABUJA and Its Leadership: Who the Cap Fits?

By Chief Maisamari B. Mallam, Former Publicity Secretary, University of Abuja Staff School PTA

The hypocrisy and double standards of those within and outside the University of Abuja who recently inundated the national space with the relentless singsong and media noise of Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi as too young a professor to be Vice-Chancellor at the Federal Capital’s premier university stinks to high heavens. The mischievous campaign laced with barefaced lies against her has been that she was a two-year professor and far below the 10-year professorial legal benchmark stipulated by the Federal Ministry of Education. Now that the Tinubu Presidency has unilaterally and unlawfully removed her in a process described by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as an “erosion of University Autonomy” and replaced by an acting Vice-Chancellor of lesser cognate administrative stature and pedigree, they have suddenly lost their voice and one no longer hears the cacophony of deafening noise about required qualifications for the position of Vice-Chancellor.

What has suddenly gone wrong? Or rather, what has changed to suddenly make the position eligible for professorial all-comers? Is it correct or acceptable to appoint an acting Vice-Chancellor for the University of Abuja from another University? In other words, would the University of Jos accept an acting Vice-Chancellor appointed for it from the University of Abuja? Is there any substantial difference in law between Abacha’s appointment of late General Mamman Kontagora as Sole Administrator at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and President Tinubu’s appointment of Professor Patricia Lar as acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja other than occurring under separate dispensations? In other words, are they not both unlawful, unilateral, and done by fiat notwithstanding that one perpetrator was dressed in military khaki and the other wore civilian agbada? Is the Nigerian University System not headed for a return to an era of sole administration?

The questions become pertinent and must be asked because, at the height of the hate-driven Aisha Maikudi must-go campaign, the now-dissolved Governing Council was vilified and condemned by the internal dissenters including some of the contestants and sore losers in the race for allegedly designing and implementing a template that facilitated her appointment as the 7th substantive Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja. All because it refused to be swayed and blackmailed by some desperate candidates and their supporters to abandon the path of the law and due process in the selection and appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor.  And because of the intense politics of hate against one of their own, they now appeared too willing to accept an acting Vice-Chancellor from another university whose appointment contravenes all the relevant extant laws and due process. This is their new chief executive or rather sole administrator for the next six months with the highest position of responsibility she ever held before now being Head of Department and Director of a non-academic centre. Yet they opposed their substantive Vice-Chancellor who is young, full of energy, and erstwhile Head of Department, Director, Deputy Dean of Faculty of Law, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, acting Vice-Chancellor, and a member of the Governing Council.

Owing to sheer ignorance or outright mischief, most of the attack dogs hired to escalate the media war against the University elevated attaining the 10-year professorship as the single most important metric for clinching the position of Vice-chancellor in Nigerian universities. This is shamelessly advanced without regard to extant laws, the history of university development in Nigeria, contemporary global realities and practices, as well as the context of the University of Abuja itself. To start with, there is no law anywhere that stipulates that only professors can be appointed as Vice-Chancellors, not to talk of benchmarking it to a specific number of years, 5, 10, or whatever. The only place a 10-year professorial recommendation is mentioned is a handbook of guidelines produced by the Federal Ministry of Education for its representatives serving on the Governing Councils of the tertiary institutions, namely, Universities, Polytechnics, and Colleges of Education. Being merely advisory they are not legally binding on anyone. In any case, the only laws guiding the appointment of Vice-chancellors at the University of Abuja remain the University of Abuja Act and the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Act 2003, No. 1 of 2007; and the sole authority responsible for the appointment whether in substantive or acting capacity is the Governing Council!

Anyone with the slightest familiarity with the requirements for appointment into the position of vice-chancellor in Nigerian universities should know that being a professor important as it may be, is simply not enough. For, one can be a professor and still be a specialist in marking time by way of not being productive in research and publications, academic leadership activities, capacity for fund generation and application, administrative acumen, human relations, ethical conduct, mentoring, domestic, national, and global scholarly networking, as well as digital inclination and dexterity. All of which can be used as metrics for assessing the suitability of one for the exalted position. It is an open secret that in the last transition process, Professor Maikudi emerged victorious, and several of the so-called ‘senior professors’ fell by the wayside on account of insufficient publications (both local and international), poor visibility on the national/global academic scene, poor grant attraction record, incoherent mission statement, and failure to conform with the application requirements.

Notwithstanding that the losers in the contest that produced Professor Aisha Maikudi as the 7th substantive Vice-Chancellor have shamefully failed to accept their fate with grace, one is more disappointed by the inexplicable actions of President Bola Tinubu in the saga. Leading a regime that is being noted and applauded for unprecedented engagement with the youth in its operations and policies, Asiwaju has in the matter of the University of Abuja left many Nigerians aghast and wondering what has gone wrong. Or, else how can one situate the removal of a young accomplished Professor Maikudi from office by the same Presidency that appointed what may be described as ‘greenhorns’ in several chief executive and ministerial positions in the current dispensation? Is she a victim of high-stakes politics orchestrated from outside the confines of the University community as is being suspected by a growing number of concerned Nigerians? Whatever it is, there is no doubt that Tinubu’s Presidency has found itself in an administrative cul-de-sac arising from the mishandling of the University of Abuja saga. Other than the reinstatement of the unlawfully removed Vice-Chancellor, any other step being contemplated by the regime may end up being an exercise in futility in restoring Asiwaju’s lost credibility and the University’s sanity.

Chief Maisamari B. Mallam is the Former Publicity Secretary, University of Abuja Staff School PTA. He wrote from Abuja.