By Joseph Erunke

The University of Abuja has been enmeshed in succession crisis since March, this year. The development which began six months prior to the expiration of the tenure of outgone vice chancellor, Prof. Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, has left the university without a substantive vice chancellor. The Dean of Students’ Affairs of the university, Prof. Abubakar Kari, who has held many positions, among which is member of the university’s governing council, explained in this interview why peace has eluded one of the nation’s ivory towers. Excerpts:

The University of Abuja seems not to be knowing peace even several months after the exit of Prof. Abdul Rasheed Na’Allah’s leadership as the vice chancellor, what is happening, sir?

The position of the vice chancellor in the University of Abuja became vacant on July 1,2024,following expiration of tenure of Prof. Abdul Rasheed Na’Allah as the university’s vice chancellor. Before he left, the acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Aisha Maikudi was appointed amidst crisis from some university professors who think that she is yet to clock ten years as a professor to contest for the position of vice chancellor.

Before then, the outgone vice chancellor wrote and got approval of then Minister of Education,Prof. Tahir Mamman,to advertise for post of vice chancellor of the university, which normally comes up six months to the expiration of tenure of a sitting vice chancellor. This could not happen because there was no governing council in place in the university. But three months to the end of his tenure, he got approval to advertise. When advertisement came, ASUU kicked against it, saying it wasn’t the responsibility of the vice chancellor but that of the governing council and made it part of their reasons for going on strike.

So, when a new council was reconstituted in June, just few weeks before the expiration of the tenure of the outgone vice chancellor, the new council swung into action and persuaded ASUU to suspend their strike, promising to look into their grievances, including their advert issues. So it was agreed that they would review the advert.

What now became a review was another advert which was issued in August, but the council in its wisdom decided that the former advert was valid ,but then there was a new advert, meaning that there have been two adverts for the position of the vice chancellor, one in March and the other in August.

The first advert was not invalidated, it was sustained, meaning that the two adverts would be considered simultaneously. That is to say they would coexist. That was why they called it review, so it was not withdrawn, it was only reviewed. The second one is supposed to serve as vice versa, without invalidating the first one. So it lapsed only in early October,so the procedure for appointment of vice chancellor after advert is for the council to do what is called “search.” It’s in academic tradition, to search for those who in the estimation of Council and Senate, ought to have applied but they did not apply. So that search was delayed, ordinarily, it should have come before after the expiration of the advert,but it only came in November.

So in the first two adverts combined, 80 candidates applied and then seven others were searched from all over the world. In 2019,some people applied from abroad but I don’t know this time around. Those who applied internally, I think were 24,some of the applicants were not even professors.

The next step was the constitution of what is called “Joint Council and Senate Selection Board,JCSSB”, based on the Universities Miscellaneous Act. It’s general, not just peculiar to the University of Abuja. The JCSSB comprises five members and they are defined. The pro-chancellor is an automatic member and is the chairman or the chairperson of the board. Then, they are two members of Council who are not members of Senate and two members of Senate who are not members of Council, so that is the definition which means that apart from the pro-chancellor, there would be two other members of council but who are not members of Senate. And then Senate will elect or nominate or appoint two members, making five members of the Council altogether.

The Joint Council of Senate and Selection Board had enormous powers and one of these powers is that they are the one who would score the candidates, rate them, interview them and then come up with the shortlist of three candidates. Before 2003,when the Universities Miscellaneous Act was amended, the three shortlisted would be submitted to the visitor. But with the amendment, they are now submitted to the Council. This is what has been happening since 2004,all over Nigeria, as a result of ASUU strike and agitation. It was one if the concessions government made to ASUU, so it’s the Council that has exclusive power to appoint vice chancellor.

So, based on the Universities Miscellaneous Act, the way I understand it and based on tradition, it is also the Council that sets the criteria. They do the first scrutiny of the paper, do the shortlist and give Joint Council and Senate Selection Committee. That is the beginning of the present controversy, because the two members of Senate now claim that it is their power to do everything.

So, when council set up a Sub-committee to do a shortlist that would be given to the JCSSB, they now wrote a petition or a complaint that the council has taken over their job. The Council now summoned the legal adviser to the university who came and read it out and said ‘no, what it did was right,’ I know this because I was a member before.

This crisis is happening because of the manifest interest of these two people, they have someone in mine. They are even insisting that no, they are the ones to do the scoring and it’s not their job, it is clearly written. When you get the University of Abuja Act, you would see that it is the Council that would do the criteria, and shortlisting and then give you to do the work. Your own is to do the scoring, the interview, the selection up to three and then bring it.

So, we thought that was the end of the matter. These guys on Monday caused an ASUU meeting to take place, they wanted to use ASUU to say the Council has taken over their job but ASUU did not agree with them. And ASUU came up with the resolution that no, they didn’t see wrong with what Council did, that the council should just be enjoined to do their work without partiality.

So yesterday, the Joint Council and Senate Selection Board was to be inaugurated to do their job, they attended the inauguration and then staged a walkout. The Council now said well, the University Act says this thing is Joint Council and Senate Selection Board, and wrote to the management of the university to say ‘this is what your people did, they went to our meeting and staged a walkout.’

Before that meeting , government got concerned about the delay in the process because this is something that started in March and up to December, it is still going on. Almost all the universities that even started after us have finished. So the minister caused a letter to be written to the Council two weeks ago to conclude everything on or before December 31. So there is a government’s directive that this process must be concluded. So council sat down and drew up a timetable which is even supposed to terminate on 30th. As they staged a walkout, Council now wrote to management of the university to select their replacement, that these people are not ready to work. That was supposed to take place today. These people now mobilized and came very early with their supporters and invited the media to grant interview. That was what happened. So there was no protest from anybody whatsoever as reported in some media. In fact, we are shocked over such report and I really can’t understand why.

The people opposed to the candidacy of Prof. Aisha Maikudi claimed that she hasn’t attained 10 years as a professor to qualify in contesting for the position of substantive vice chancellor, what is your position on this?

The appointment of the VCs of every Nigerian university is determined by two documents-the act of the specific university and the university’s miscellaneous act. These are the two documents.
And the act of specific universities varies a little. But I can tell you that none of them states that you have to be a professor of 10 years before you become a vice chancellor.

As a matter of fact, if you do an analysis of all the vice chancellor of federal and state universities, I can tell you that 70 percent of them, you can mark that whatever, became vice chancellors at less than 10 years as professors. The document that they are brandishing, is a document prepared by the National Universities Commission,NUC, many years back as an advisory.It’s not a law. It’s not an act. And to the best of my knowledge, no university has ever used it as an advisory, that perhaps you may consider this.

And some of us, maybe we are younger professors. I’m a professor of two years. I can tell you that as a professor of only two years, I have been in every organ of the university.I was a coordinator, I was an exam officer, faculty representative in the Senate, head of department, dean, and council member. There is nobody in my department that has attained this, and there are professors of 10-15 years in my department, but there is no single of them that has held the position that I have held. So that issue of age is nonsense. There is nobody in my department that has been level coordinator, exam officer, head of department, dean, member of council. And I’m only a professor of two years.So that document they are relying on is not a law, it’s an advisory, it’s just advisory. It is advisory, and you can confirm that from NUC and from the Federal Ministry of Education.

What if during the interview session, she doesn’t come in the first three?

I told you, if she doesn’t come, anybody who does not fall in the first three has lost ou,because the law says the Joint Council and Senate Selection Board should rate all the applicants with scores, interview them, score them, and select the best three and reports to Council.

Are you optimistic of transparency in the exercise?

Absolutely. I told you, in 2019, I served as a member of Council. I represented constituency, which is the highest, I mean, the constituency in campus.

And by virtue of that, I wasn’t a professor at that time, so I was privileged to serve as a member of the Joint Council and Senate Selection Board. So I know everything in terms of selecting a vicechancellor. So, in fact, the first aspect of the selection is objective.

Where tenure as a professor is an advantage is that one of the scoring is how many years one has been as a professor. During our time, we give everyone here one mark. Therefore, somebody who is 10 years as a professor would have 10 marks. Somebody who has five years would have five marks, in that order So that’s just the advantage. It may score you high, but it’s not a condition. It is the same thing as years of service. Somebody who has been working in the university for 20 years will score higher than somebody who has been working for 10 years. So this is the marking whatever there. There’s nothing like ‘you must be ten years to qualify as the vice chancellor,’

Nnamdi Azikiwe University was recently engulfed in similar crisis over this issue bothering on number of years required of a professor to be eligible for the position of vice chancellor. This had snowballed into the removal of the vice chancellor, are you not worried of what is happening here?

It was not the reason. The reason in Unizik was that the Council took over everything. They even purportedly appointed a vice chancellor without Senate. That was what happened. There was nothing like years of being professor there.

In the advert of Othman Fodio University,Sokoto, there is no year specified that you must be a professor, It’s just like that. So it is all council’s affairs. They will say the candidate must be a professor, that’s all. When they come to score you, you are a professor one day,it doesn’t matter. I tell you, if you are a professor of one year, when it comes to scoring, you score one mark. A professor of two years, two marks,a professor of 10 years, 10 marks. So that’s where the advantage is. It gives you higher marks the longer you are a professor. From experience, that’s what it does. But it doesn’t stop anybody from contesting. Go and check the adverts of UNIMAID, ATBU,among others. All are this year.