Task before the next council of Nnamdi Azikiwe University

On September 12, 2024, the now defunct external members governing Council of Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Awka, Anambra State, published an advertisement for the position of Vice Chancellor of NAU at page 33 of the Vanguard Newspaper. This advertisement generates a lot of controversy from the Unizik Medics Alumni Association (UMAA), and the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN). The grouse of UMAA and MDCAN is that the Council’s advertisement is not only unlawful, but also discriminatory of members of the medical and dental professions.

The advertisement is discriminatory because it has introduced Masters and PhD requirement as conditions precedent for the application for the position of NAU Vice Chancellor, when those are not the medical and dental path to the zeniths of their professions. The MDCAN protests the contents of the advertisement to the Council to no avail. The medical Professors and Consultants escalate their protests to the Senate of the university and to the federal ministry of Education as well. Both the university Senate and the Federal Ministry of Education (FMoE) agree with the MDCAN and ask the council to reverse itself and take cognisance of MDCAN’s request, but the Council, which is arguably independent of the ministry, refuses counsel.

What the law says about advertisement and qualifications for NAU Vice Chancellorship
The advertisement and qualifications to apply and contest for the position of Vice Chancellor of NAU is a legal matter adequately provided for under the various laws governing the operations of NAU. The relevant laws are: the NAU Act 1992, the NAU Statute(s), the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act No. 11, 1993 as amended by the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions)(Amendment) Act No. 55 of 1993; the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions)(Amendment) Act No. 25 of 1996; and the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions)(Amendment) Act 2003 otherwise called the Universities Autonomy Act No. 1, 2007. 

Article 4 of the First Schedule to the NAU Act, provides that: ‘4(2) Where a vacancy occurs in the post of a Vice-Chancellor, the Council shall (a) advertise the vacancy in a reputable journal or a widely read newspaper in Nigeria, specifying (i) the qualities of the persons who may apply for the post’.

The Council does not, in the advertisement it has published in Vanguard newspaper, specify the qualities of the persons who may apply for the post of Vice Chancellor. Instead of specifying the qualities as statutorily required, the Council makes a U-turn and lists minimum skills and personal achievements of prospective candidates.

For the avoidance of doubts, qualities of job seekers are the characteristics, attributes or personality traits that make up and reflect who the person is, and these qualities include: courage, trustworthiness, honesty, reliability, punctuality, loyalty, Integrity, respect and courtesy, responsibility, accountability, diligence, perseverance, self-management skills, and self-control, fairness, justice and freedom from prejudice etc. The 2003 universities amendment Act ordains that universities are to be operated purely based on the universities Law and Statutes. Neither the NAU Act nor any NAU Statute provides for personal achievements as requirements to be included in the advertisement for NAU Vice Chancellorship. 

The state of NAU Act and Statute as at today is that influential achievements, Masters, PhD and Professorship are not required in an advertisement for the post of Vice Chancellor of NAU. Whereas the capacity to attract research grants is a valid evidence of some qualities that may be needed in a Vice Chancellor, the attraction of such grants in past is not in itself a legal requirement for application for the post of Vice Chancellor under the NAU Act.

If anything, such previous attractions of research grants will weigh in as evidence of a particular quality at the selection stage of the Joint Council and Senate Committee. It is also obvious that professorship is not a requirement at the advertisement stage for the Vice Chancellorship.

Even the provision in the guidelines for the appointment of principal officers, in the Reviewed Guidelines/Handbook for the ministry’s representatives on the governing councils of federal tertiary institution of November 2023, requiring that a candidate be a professor to contest for Vice Chancellor, is not binding on NAU, as it is a guideline of the Federal Ministry of Education which is not a university Law or Statute. 

How it pans out in NAU
The NAU and its Council, through one Prof Anthony Chukwudi Okoye, obtain a consent judgment in the National Industrial Court, ordering the Council to use its contentious September 12 advertisement for the selection process of the Vice Chancellor of NAU. The scope of this article shall not cover the appropriateness or otherwise of the consent judgment, or the issue of the acts allegedly done by the now sacked Vice Chancellor of NAU in the course of the now ditched selection processes.

But as a poser: How can a person sue all the lecturers in NAU in their representative capacity for a cause that is individualised! How can a consent judgment issue from a purely statutory matter devoid of parties discretion. The now sacked Pro-Chancellor of NAU, on October 22, 2024, unilaterally appoints Joint Council and Senate Selection Board reference number NAU/REG/41B/Vol VII/50, and a Search Team reference number NAU/REG/41B/Vol VII/50, for the selection of a substantive Vice Chancellor for NAU. On October 29, 2024, in a letter with reference number NAU/PPC/10/2024, a new Vice Chancellor is appointed.

While all these were going on, UMAA, MDCAN and ASUU take out different legal actions against the university, its Pro-Chancellor, governing Council and others, to press home their grievances. Over six Court cases were instituted against the Pro-Chancellor, the Council and others because of the shoddy manner in which the appointment of the Vice Chancellor is conducted.

In a letter with reference number NAU/REG/95B/Vol VII/44 on November 11, 2024, all persons that have instituted an action against the Pro-Chancellor and others were ordered to withdraw the action or face disciplinary proceedings. In a memo with reference number NAU/FMC/01/001, on November 13, 2024, Prof Kingsley Ubaoji becomes the first victim as he is invited to appear before a 5-member committee to explain himself.

Press release from the Federal Ministry of Education on November 20, 2024, comes to the rescue by sacking the newly appointed Vice Chancellor and the university Governing Council that have appointed him. Under the law, the minister of education has no power to sack or reinstate a Vice Chancellor or university governing Council. This irregular announcement of the ministry of Education is however regularised by the Federal Government house press release on November 20, 2024 relaying the President’s approval for the sack of the embattled Vice Chancellor and the governing Council. Letter of reinstatement of the acting Vice Chancellor dated November 20, 2024 reference number FME/HE/CU/82A/T/308, on the authority of Mr President, solidifies the sacks and the reinstatement. A new Council is now to be appointed by the President.

The task before the new Council of Nnamdi Azikiwe University is enormous, and ranges from the quashing of the court order from the National Industrial Court, to the issuance of a new advertisement that specifies qualities of a prospective Vice Chancellor rather than qualifications or achievements of candidates.

The full involvement of the Council in the constitution of Search Team and Joint Council and Senate Selection Board, has to be in accordance with the NAU Act and Statutes rather than in reliance upon the Pro-Chancellor’s personal idiosyncrasies. The new Council should quickly withdraw Council’s threatening letter against litigant university teachers, and call for a reconciliation that may eventually obviate any need for litigations or industrial actions.

Conclusion
The hullabaloo of the last two months in NAU, which has spilled to all the teaching hospitals and universities in Nigeria in the last week, has arisen by the sheer lawlessness and impunity of one man in the leadership of NAU. This next governing Council therefore has its job well cut out for it. It cannot take the university back to infamy of impunity and lawlessness.

The University Act and Statutes have already spelt out how a NAU Vice Chancellor may be appointed, and the strict procedure to be followed. There is nowhere in NAU Act or Statutes where Masters, PhD or Professorship is made a requirement for the contest for Vice Chancellor. The Act and Statutes presuppose that any person with some qualities specified by Council can be the Vice Chancellor. Not even the guidelines of the National Universities Commission (NUC) or circulars of the ministry of Education can change the eligibility criteria for the Vice Chancellor of NAU.

According to section 2AAA of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions)(Amendment) Act 2003, a federal university, inclusive of NAU, is not tied to the apron strings of any other body as to be controlled by the establishment circulars of the body. Any modification of the eligibility or qualification for NAU Vice Chancellorship, must be by way of a university Statute made under sections 11 and 12 of the NAU Act, which shall first be jointly passed by university Council and Senate, and thereafter signed by the President of Nigeria into the university Statute.

Such modifications are not made by the idiosyncrasies of Council or the Pro-Chancellor. According to the MDCAN that has just called off the strike that it embarked upon due to the botched administrative recklessness perpetrated against its members in NAU in the ditched selection process for the NAU Vice Chancellorship, the association is to regroup in December to assess the situation in NAU.
Awkadigwe is a Consultant Obstetrian and Gynaecologist, ESUT Teaching Hospital Parklane Enugu. He can be reached via: [email protected] or 08039555380.