Gbenro Adesina
The last has not been heard of the controversies surrounding the appointment of the 13th Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan (UI), following the Federal Government’s indefinite suspension of the appointment process on February 8, 2021.
PrimeStarNews reliably gathered that sequel to this development, members of the Institution’s Senate are already mobilising to convene a Special Meeting to discuss the development and chart a way out of the logjam.
It would be recalled that the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, ordered the Executive Secretary, National University Commission (NUC), Prof Abubakar Rasheed, through a letter to stop the Governing Council of the Premier University from holding a meeting scheduled to hold on February 8, 2021, to discuss how to complete the process of appointing a substantive Vice Chancellor for the institution.
The new development has technically ruined the arrangement initially put in place by the Federal Government to complete the appointment of the VC, which ordered the outgoing VC, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka to hand over to an Acting VC to be appointed by the Senate of the institution.
The appointed Acting VC, Professor Adebola Babatunde Ekanola, was given a mandate to mandatorily complete the appointment process in a transparent manner and hand over to a substantive VC within six months.
However, the Ministry and NUC have tied the hands of the Acting VC and relatively changed the rule at the middle of the game by stopping the process indefinitely.
The action of both the Minister and the NUC has created palpable anger and tension in the University community.
Some of the members of the University community told our correspondent that the Federal Government has shown clearly that it wants to impose a VC on the institution.
One of them, under anonymity said, “The NUC Executive Secretary and the Minister of Education should just name their preferred candidate for the Council to “rubber stamp” so peace and normalcy can return to the campus rather than hiding under oversight functions not founded in law to perpetrate illegalities”.
Some members of the Senate of the institution, who have passed a vote of no confidence on the Minister of Education and the NUC Executive Secretary, wondered why the Ministry and the Commission failed to act on the letter received from the Senate of the institution on the first week of November 2020.
She queried, “The question is what necessitated the letter from the Minister in response to the NUC Executive Secretary’s request to ask Council to suspend her statutory meetings pending further directives? The Community deserves to know the content of the Executive Secretary’s letter to the Minister and the reasons advanced for such illegal and draconian instruction”.
Some members of the institution described the Minister and NUC’s latest action as aberration, affront and arrogance, and unconstitutional, saying the University would resist their attempt to impose their warped preference on the University.
A Senate member said: “Recall that the Senate of the University sent a delegation to Abuja to deliver letters to the Minister of Education and the NUC Executive Secretary during the first week of November 2020; both officials of Government could not exhibit enough decency to reply Senate, but under twenty four hours letters flew from one end to the other culminating in the suspension of Council activities in UI. It is bad enough that the complicity and overlordship of the Executive Secretary ended up foisting an Acting Vice Chancellor on the premier University. The latest saga has turned the Acting Vice Chancellor into a Sole Administrator. As it were, the coast is now clear for the Executive Secretary to begin to issue directives to the Acting VC thereby perfecting the micromanagement. We need all to congratulate the Executive Secretary NUC for achieving his lifelong ambition of dealing with the “Ibadan arrogance” as he often boasts to those who care to listen, especially two appointees of the Federal Government on the Governing Council acting as his hatchet men and lapdogs in Council”.
A former retired Dean of the Postgraduate School of the institution, said that it was unthinkable that the Federal Government is trying its best to destroy the Premier University, which is the glory of the nation.
The scholar urged the Federal Government to be careful about its illegal ways of handling the appointment of VC for the institution, saying that it is sad that the Nigerian government has been so determined to destroy public University in Nigeria.
He said, “If playing by the rules and acting in accordance with the University Act and global best practices are termed arrogance by the Executive Secretary, let him be put on notice that the University of Ibadan will not change her tradition of excellence, which over the years has put her on the global map as the best University in West Africa and seventh on the continent of Africa. I know very well that members of Senate will defend the rule of law, UI tradition of excellence and resist any imposition by the Executive Secretary and Minister of Education. It is an open secret that the plan is perfected to dissolve the Council to get rid of the Chairman and other honest external members of Council, who have been committed to playing by the rules in spite of the goading from the Executive Secretary for them to pervert rules and then populate the new Council with their henchmen for the hatchet job of imposition. The University Community is waiting and the whole world would then see the sheer hypocrisy of the Executive Secretary NUC and the Minister of Education”.
He noted, “It has also become clear that the bigger picture is to take away university autonomy as enshrined in the laws. In this wise, UI is the guinea pig after which other universities will become mincemeats. Those who do not know should now know, the law does not give any role to the NUC Executive Secretary and the Minister in the selection of Vice Chancellor, where do they get this power with which they have been acting as meddlesome interlopers?”
He, however, called on the elders of the school to rise up to the occasion and ensure that the situation is rescued.
He categorically called on the former Vice Chancellors of the Institution, particularly, Professor Ayo Banjo, who is the current Chairman of NUC, to step into the matter and prevent the appointment of VC from turning the University of Ibadan to a theatre of war.
