It is crystal clear that the abject blunders committed by the Tinubu Administration in foisting the current leadership contraption at the University of Abuja are at the root of the newly announced drive by the Federal Ministry of Education to add an ‘integrity’ quotient to the selection process of heads of tertiary institutions in the country.
This is despite the existing laws being very clear, especially regarding the statutory bodies responsible for selecting and appointing Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Federal Universities, of which the Ministry is not one. Given that the imposition of sole administration by other means at the University of Abuja was bound to be a political-cum-administrative fiasco for the Presidency that was sold and elected by Nigerians based on Tinubu’s famed sagacity and admirable track record of statecraft, the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has been compelled to embark on damage control to rescue the government’s credibility in the Nigerian university system and the nation as a whole.
The sudden, unwarranted, and unexplained dissolution of the Governing Council and the unlawful removal of the newly appointed substantive Vice-Chancellor, Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi, and their replacement with Senator Lanre Tejuoso as the new Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the one-man Governing Council, and the acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Patricia Manko Lar, from the University of Jos, have remained an albatross on the neck of the Tinubu Administration.
In all material particular, the current governance and management structure at the University of Abuja remains a monumental howler for which Dr. Alausa is singularly responsible for misleading President Tinubu.
Hence, in the attempt to wriggle himself and, by extension, the Presidency out of the regrettable mess with potential for escalation and ruining the leadership recruitment and overall administrative processes in the entire university system if not nip it in the bud, the Minister has now resorted to some flippant and unwelcome measures that may only complicate matters in the universities, nay, the entire tertiary education sector.
Or, else, how does one comprehend and conceive any positive value out of the unsigned press statement of 7th April 2025 issued by the Director of Press and Public Relations of the Federal Ministry of Education, Boriowo Folasade, entitled “Education Minister Approves Policy to Strengthen Integrity in Selection of VCs, Rectors and Provosts”? The statement informs the Nigerian public about the Minister’s approval of a “guiding policy on eligibility” for appointing heads of tertiary institutions, which, henceforth, precludes occupants of such offices in acting capacity from vying to become substantive officers.
This aims to halt the perceived prevailing practice, “where officers serving in acting capacities often leverage their positions to influence appointment outcomes, thereby compromising the fairness and transparency of the selection process”. By implication of this new ministerial policy directive, acting holders of such positions are disqualified from contesting and can only become eligible if they recuse themselves from the positions before the expiration of their acting tenure.
On its face value, the new policy directive by the Minister appears wholesome and capable of adding value to the selection process in tertiary institutions. However, on a second, profound reflection, especially in respect to the universities with which one is more familiar, the contrived policy of the Minister is simply a non-starter. It has no basis in the existing laws of the universities, the Nigerian public service, and global best practices.
Consequently, the Minister’s policy directive should be considered as dead-on-arrival if the thinly veiled intention is to elevate it to a status of law. With sufficient and eloquent legal provisions and procedures made for the selection and appointment of Vice-Chancellors, the Minister ought to have, instead, devoted his energy to ensuring that the Governing Councils always strictly adhere to the rules and due process in performing their duties.
Trying to justify the government’s unwholesome actions at the University of Abuja through the back door of a hastily and clumsily packaged policy is an afterthought by the Minister, devoid of the enabling power or locus standi to do so.
To start with, the eligibility for the position of the Vice-Chancellor, just like any other public service position, is determined and guided by rules. For the universities, the appointment of Vice-Chancellors, whether acting or substantive, is strictly based on the extant laws, namely, the specific University Act and the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Act 2003, No. 1 of 2007.
And there is nothing in the provisions of these two main acts that prevents an acting Vice-Chancellor from aspiring and contesting to assume the substantive role. Again, it is not the responsibility of the Minister of Education, but the exclusive preserve of the Governing Council to determine any other eligibility criteria for the position.
In any case, the Minister’s directive can only serve as an advisory without the force of mandatory compliance, just like the related 2013 main document referred to in the press statement. Accordingly, in the absence of a law anywhere preventing an acting Vice-Chancellor from contesting to assume a substantive role, no Governing Council worth its name should consider the Minister’s strange and provocative innovation beyond what it is: an advisory!
Furthermore, the right of individuals, including acting Vice-Chancellors, to contest for such positions is constitutional and beyond the purview of a Minister to do away with.
For instance, are politicians holding office not allowed to run for the same office? Is there any “undue advantage” higher than in incumbent political office-holders (Presidents and Governors, etc) contesting to continue in the same office, leveraging their position and office to win elections? Can we count and ever establish how many times we have witnessed acting occupants of offices in various sectors of the larger Nigerian public service arena being recognised and accorded the added advantage of ‘heir apparent’, eventually culminating in their being appointed to assume the substantive role? Is it not in recognition of this that the prevailing practice of asking the most senior officer in any service space to occupy a position in acting capacity exists? For the avoidance of doubt, it is a universally acknowledged practice that people occupying positions in acting or temporary capacity are permitted to contest for the substantive and are often perceived and considered as the heir apparent, and in certain circumstances, enjoying the administrative equivalent of right of first refusal.
So, why should it be different for the acting Vice-Chancellors who, going by the Minister of Education’s ill-informed policy directive, are disqualified from vying unless they relinquish the position?
Perhaps Dr. Alausa is, for whatever reason, not happy with the valid outcome of the last selection process that threw up Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi as the 7th substantive Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja. At the same time, he is also likely averse to the prevailing self-governing status of the universities by which the Governing Councils now appoint the Vice-Chancellors, devoid of undue interference, and direct imprimatur of government as obtained in the past.
This is in addition to the several crises that the government has had to deal with in the universities within the short span of his tenure as the Minister of Education. However, it is necessary to note that he cannot remain in charge of the nation’s education sector forever, and he must quickly adapt to appreciate and operate by the rules of engagement.
There is no better way than the Minister to ensure that normalcy is promptly restored to the University of Abuja via the reinstatement of the dissolved Governing Council and the ousted Vice-Chancellor, Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi. This is so that the current reality of sole administration is not only brought to an immediate closure, but it is also not used as a source of inspiration for future similar or other unwelcome developments in the Nigerian university system.
Dr Dan-Marke is of the Abuja Leadership Centre, University of Abuja,
