How politics of VCs’ appointment undermines varsity autonomy

Nigeria’s ivory towers have become tainted by politics as universities are overwhelmed by external influence in choosing a vice-chancellor. Recent activities at Nnamdi Azikiwe University and University of Abuja have reignited the clarion call for an autonomous university system. IYABO LAWAL explores the intrigues that are becoming a national pastime in Nigeria’s ivory towers.

It leaves a sour taste in the mouth how toxic the tussle to be Vice-Chancellor of a government-owned university can be. The tussle bares the fang of political beasts and leaves so much to be desired per the autonomy of state-owned universities.

Until recently, there was a semblance of respite in the ivory tower. That respite was rent with the claims, counter-claims and dissolution that befell the governing council of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, (UNIZIK) in Anambra. The furore went as far as President Bola Tinubu having to intervene, possibly to avert a potential chaos snowballing into a political calamity. On November 20, Tinubu sacked the governing council of UNIZIK and its weeks-old new vice-chancellor.

The sack was announced in a statement by Folashade Boriowo, the Director of Press and Public Relations in the Federal Ministry of Education. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) accused the institution’s governing council of failing to follow due process in the appointment of Prof. Bernard Ifeanyi Odoh. It demanded that the FME dissolve the council over acts of illegality. It took a few days for ASUU’s clarion call to be heeded.

“The Federal Government has announced the dissolution of the Governing Council of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, following grave breaches of the laws governing the university and disregard for lawful directives from the Federal Ministry of Education. The decision came after it was found that the chairman of the Governing Council unilaterally appointed a vice chancellor who did not meet the minimum eligibility criteria for the position. This led to a breakdown of law and order within the university community, causing tension and disharmony,” said the statement.

In a matter of days, Prof. Joseph Ifeanyichukwu Ikechebelu was appointed as the acting vice chancellor of the institution. It was telling that Ikechebelu pledged his commitment to the institution’s peace, unity, and academic excellence.

So, gone were Odoh, the registrar, Rosemary Ifoema Nwokike, and the governing council chairman, Ambassador Greg Mbadiwe. Other council members, Hafiz Oladejo, Augustine Onyedebelu, Amioleran Osahon, and Funsho Oyeneyin, were also booted out.

As a subplot, the UNIZIK ASUU chapter staged a protest to stop the selection of Odoh as the VC. As the protest was ongoing, the selection was being conducted by Mbadiwe. ASUU-UNIZIK branch chairman, Prof. Kinsley Ubaoji, called on the president to urgently intervene to save the university from total collapse.

What was Odoh and the governing council’s offence? In one word, “illegalities”, said the government. The embattled professor was accused of forgery. The council was indicted for bending the rules. Odoh’s alleged forgery leaves a fart in the mouth.

There was no hue and cry regarding his bona fide as a professor until he was selected as UNIZIK’s vice-chancellor. His trouble is compounded as the institution he claimed made him a professor disowned him. Odoh is pursuing his case further via a lawsuit. The Federal University Gusau in Zamfara denied awarding professorship to Odoh.

“The so-called letters of offer of appointment and confirmation of promotion to the post of professor, dated April 30, 2015 and November 12, 2015, were an administrative fraud. The so-called letters and offer of appointments purported to be certified true copies hurriedly endorsed by the former registrar of the university, Ibrahim Bawa-Kaura, dated November 8, 2024, six years after he left the services of the university, were also administrative fraud,” said Muazu Abubakar, the university’s vice-chancellor.

Abubakar said Odoh was neither employed by the university nor appointed as a professor, insisting that there “is no evidence of official documentation with regards to his controversial employment as a staff” of the university.

At the University of Abuja (UniAbuja) a somewhat similar drama was brewing amid the appointment of Prof. Aisha Maikudi as the acting vice-chancellor in June. However, a lawsuit rocking the institution was brought to an end last July when the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court dismissed a suit filed by six senior lecturers against the institution’s vice-chancellor. 

UNIZIK and UniAbuja’s crises are reminiscent of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) imbroglio years back. The Senate of the University of Lagos had rejected the removal of Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe as then vice-chancellor of the institution by the governing council.

At an emergency meeting by 88 members, chaired by a former Dean of the Faculty of Law, Prof. Chioma Agomoh, the Senate considered the removal of Ogundipe as being in contravention of UNILAG’s regulations.

The Babalakin-Ogundipe saga was also a reminder of the Afe Babalola-Jelili Omotola logjam that culminated in the latter’s removal as the vice-chancellor of UNILAG.

In 2020, the University of Ibadan (UI), too, fell into ignominy as some stakeholders insisted on a “son of the soil” to be the vice-chancellor. The Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII) said they wanted then President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint someone who hails from Ibadan as the institution’s vice-chancellor, claiming they were marginalised in previous appointments.

To put it simply, the university, since 1948, had yet to have an Ibadan indigene as the vice-chancellor. The CCII pushed forward four Ibadan indigenes: Remi Raji-Oyelade, Kayode Adebowale, Emiola Olapade-Olaopa, and Kolapo Hamzat. They got Adebowale.

In an address on his first day as the leader of his country in 1939, Sir Robert Menzies, the former prime minister of Australia – who is credited to be the father of university education and reform in Australia, asked: “What are we to look for in a true university? What causes should it serve?”

Though he provided clues, successive Nigerian governments still find the answer elusive as they continue to ignore the benefits of university autonomy. For government-owned universities, the road to autonomy is not paved with gold. According to recent rankings, the best universities in the world are “very autonomous.” The university system in Nigeria was at a point not associated with the problems of autonomy and control. Still, by the 1970s, the calls for autonomy became strident. The search for autonomy became a long-drawn-out concern for government-owned universities.

To date, Nigerian universities have haemorrhaged in the stranglehold of their paymasters. It has been an age-long problem. At one time, ASUU and the Federal Government made a deal to overhaul the university system after a two-month strike that shut down the entire system in 2022, jolting the government to action.

Despite the remarkable growth of the country’s university system, the institutions have continued to groan. According to education experts, Benjamin and Chituru Nyewusira, the lack of autonomy in the universities contributed to their “inability to realise the principal business of the university education, which is the development of academic contents, teaching and research.”

They further argued that university autonomy is a significant substructure integral to the idea of a university. Although some statutes of autonomy are entrenched in the laws setting up the country’s universities, the various governments and their agencies have continued to assume the powers of the universities.

According to some scholars, “this usurpation of the power of universities in Nigeria came into play with the introduction of the National Universities Commission (NUC).”

The re-organisation of the NUC, beginning with Decree 1 of 1974, altered the original intentions for establishing the commission as an advisory body on matters that could prompt the development of the university system to that of a regulatory body.

The decree was further amended as Decree No. 49 of 1988, aimed at the expansion of the board membership– bringing politics and nepotism instead of autonomy.

The implementation of Decree 1 resulted in a complete centralisation of university coordination, funding and control. The implication of this was that the sanctity of the autonomy of the universities was compromised because, beginning with the decree, universities have to work under the strict supervision of the NUC.

Stakeholders noted that by this development also, the government moved power away from the universities towards itself because, in the functions of the NUC, it is observed that universities lost their financial autonomy to the commission, as it has the power to receive grants from the Federal Government and allocate such to universities according to a certain formula often subjected to politics and interests that have no direct benefit to the actual financial needs of the universities.

In 2021, the issue of autonomy in the universities was featured at a conference organised by stakeholders in Abuja, with experts holding the view that granting autonomy to universities and providing effective administration by key stakeholders are sine qua non for education development in the country.

The government’s involvement increased with controls over the constitution and membership of governing councils, direct control over the appointment of key administrative personnel of universities, and financial controls.

In effect, the government became a key university stakeholder and decision-maker. These relics of military rule remain to date. As such, there remains a perpetual demand by university authorities for more autonomy to internally decide, run and execute their own programmes and policies.

Over the years, stakeholders have given Nigerian government the stick for allowing many universities to be weighed down by the bureaucratic demands of political correctness, reporting and regulation that stifle productivity and capacity to innovate. This scenario has led to an unsavoury situation in which the best currently do not thrive within the Nigerian university system.

The 1997 United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) recommendation concerning the status of higher education teaching personnel contained a detailed explanation of the concept of university autonomy.

According to UNESCO, there are three essential components of meaningful university autonomy: self-governance, collegiality and appropriate academic leadership.

While insisting on autonomy of universities, stakeholders maintained that granting this would help each institution determine its standard and manage its resources.

They argued that each university will employ staff based on merit and not by connections.

“The role of the government will just be about monitoring and ensuring accountability within the university system. Competency-based appointment and performance-based management can go a long way to boost university performance,” they noted.