The Vice Chancellors of National
Open University of Nigeria, Prof.
Vincent Tenebe and his counterparts
in the 12 Federal Universities that
were established by the
administration of former President, Goodluck Jonathan have been
sacked by the Federal Government. A terse statement signed by the
Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu
Adamu, obtained by journalists on
Saturday in Abuja simply said
President Muahammadu Buhari, has
approved the appointment of new Vice Chancellors for the
Universities. Already, the sack has started
generating controversies, with some
pundits arguing that for NOUN, it is
only the Governing Council of which
Tenebe is a members, that could
remove the VC. While the NOUN VC was replaced
with Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu of the
Department of Mass Communication,
Bayero University, Kano,
the substantive Vice Chancellor of
the Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State, Prof. Mohammed Kundiri, was
transferred to the Federal University,
Wukari, Taraba State, Incidentally, our correspondent had
an exclusive interview with Tenebe
on Friday during a press briefing on a
movie entitled: “I Believe”, which had
Chika Okpala (aka Zebrudaya Okoro-
Igwe Nwa Ugo alias 430); Desmond Elliot, Patience Ozokwo as casts. A human rights organisation,
Coalition of Civil Society Groups has
protested against the sack in a letter
to Buhari, demanding the reversal. In a petition to President Buhari
signed by its President, Etuk Bassey
Williams and Secretary-General,
Ibrahim Abubakar, the CCSG said
pursuant to the provisions of the
Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act No.11 of 1993 (as
amended) by decree No.25, 1996 and
further amended in 2003 and 2012
respectively and other agreements
as contained in the 2009 FGN staff
union agreement, it was in total disagreement with the recent sacking
of 13 Vice-Chancellors by the
Minister of Education, Adamu
Adamu. The petitioners said that four out of
the twelve appointed VCs are from
Kano University, an action they said,
was a clear violation of the federal
character principle. “While this does not come as a
surprise owing to the influence of one
of the Special Advisers to the
Minister of Education in orchestrating
the appointments of his friends and
cronies without following due process, we are however concerned
about the constitutional breach and
the resultant litigation battle this
action may cause, which in turn may
generate unnecessary distractions to
your focused administration,” the coalition said. According to the public statement
conveying the sack of the VCs, a
former Head, Department of
International Relations at the Obafemi
Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Prof.
Kayode Soremekun, who was said to be on Sabbatical in NOUN is the new
Vice Chancellor of the Federal
University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State. While the Federal University, Birnin
Kebbi, Kebbi State has Prof. Auwal
Yadudu of the Faculty of Law,
Bayero University, Kano as its new
VC, Prof. Fatima Batoul Muktar of
the Department of Biology, North West University, Kano is the VC of
Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa
State. A lecturer in the Department of
Pharmacy, Ahmadu Bello University,
Zaria, Prof. Haruna Abdu Kaita is the
new VC of Federal University, Dutsin
Ma, Katsina State, while Prof.
Andrew Haruna of the Department of Linguistics, University of Jos will now
function as VC, Federal University,
Gashua, Yobe State. While another lecturer in the
Department of Pharmacy, ABU,
Zaria, Prof. Magaji Garba, will now
be VC in Federal University, Gusau,
Zamfara State, Prof. Alhassan
Mohammed Gani of the Institute of Maritime Studies, Federal University,
Kashere in Gombe State has been
elevated to the position of VC in
same University. A lecturer in the Department of
Physics, Federal University, Lafia,
Prof. Muhammad Sanusi Liman will
henceforth be VC of same institution. For Prof. Angela Freeman Miri of the
Linguistics Department, UNIJOS, her
new portfolio is the Federal
University, Lokoja where she will
now be VC. The Federal University, Ndifu-Alike,
Ebonyi State now has Prof.
Chinedum Nwajiuba of the Post-
Graduate School, Imo State
University, Owerri as its VC, while
Prof. Seth Accra Jaja of the Department of Management,
University of Port Harcourt is now
the VC of Federal University, Otuoke,
Bayelsa State.