UniAbuja: How not to select a Vice-Chancellor
Reports the other day, stating that a former deputy vice-chancellor and acting vice-chancellor who has only two years of professorial experience is among those to be screened by a Governing Council to be the vice chancellor of the University of Abuja should be concerning to the authorities in the nation’s capital and indeed those who have been raising voices against a growing culture of mediocrity nurtured by impunity in management of tertiary education system in Nigeria.
It should be more disturbing that this sad story emanates from the only federal university that has grown and is remarkably associated with the growth of the 47-year-old capital of Nigeria. What can be more mind-boggling than a situation where some managers and administrators of tertiary institutions who haven’t asked for organic facts about the qualifications of the candidates are already disparaging opposition to the curious lowering of standards for the choice of the University of Abuja’s vice-chancellor. What is happening at the University of Abuja, founded 36 years ago?
There have been reports of a “succession crisis” at the University. The report’s highlight revolves around the appointment of the next substantive vice-chancellor. The report contains a claim that there is a strange desperation to impose the acting vice-chancellor, Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi, as the substantive vice-chancellor. Ordinarily, an acting vice-chancellor can be a candidate for the substantive post, if he or she is otherwise qualified.
According to reports, three principal actors have been dragged into the controversy that has somewhat halted the selection procedure by the Governing Council. The actors are reportedly connected with the immediate past administration of the university and the federal ministry of education, namely former Vice Chancellor, Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, the former Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, who was dropped in a recent cabinet shake-up and the chairman of the Governing Council, AVM Saddiq Ismaila Kaita.
The controversy started with the recent advertisement for the vice-chancellor position which omitted the requirement of a minimum post-professorial experience, allegedly to allow a certain Professor to apply. The report also claimed that the acting vice chancellor is unqualified, citing her promotion to professorial chair only in 2022.
Meanwhile, allegations of nepotism and cronyism have sadly surfaced in the exercise. Consequently, the screening process has stalled when it was also alleged that the acting vice chancellor who is a candidate is also a member of the selection committee of the Council. Following objections by some members of the Council, the Pro-Chancellor was said to have claimed that the then minister sanctioned the exercise, which led to some uproar at the last Council meeting.
Fuelling the tension is a contention that the acting Vice Chancellor, Professor Maikudi is the daughter of the immediate past Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the university’s Governing Council. There are indications that five years ago, the university lowered standards for a Professor, who was not the best of the contenders. And that was the genesis of alleged manipulations leading to the current disputed exercise, which sidelined other professors of more than 20 years.
Another curiosity in the recruitment saga is that the current Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the University’s Council is a retired air-force officer from Katsina State, where the immediate past Pro-Chancellor and the acting vice chancellor hail from. That too has been another elephant in the room that most promoters of Professor Maikudi’s candidature have downplayed. Curiously, none of the commentators supporting the acting VC have asked about the qualifications of other candidates in comparison with Professor Maikudi’s.
Universities are generally believed to be the citadels of learning, the ivory towers where citizens and professionals are being trained to be law-abiding, ethical and innovative for development. This is why advocacy for quality education and meritocracy is pivotal to critical factors of human progress. Various circulars of the National Universities Commission, the regulatory body of the universities in Nigeria that have shaped appointment policies of the university administrators have always stipulated about ten years of professorial experience. The University of Abuja had always adhered to this until five years ago when it lowered the standard to only five years – to allegedly favour a particular candidate. By omitting the number of years for professorial experience, is the current Council Chairman, AVM Kaita not lowering the standard further – and for what purpose? Since the chairman of the Governing Council hails from Katsina State, must the vice chancellor hail from Katsina State in a federal University of Abuja?
Promoters of mediocrity and poor standards in the university ought to reflect on the classic saying that it doesn’t require any atomic bomb to destroy a country these days; all that is required to destroy a country is the destruction of its education by lowering standards. Yes, lowering standards will lead to the production of mediocre engineers who will supervise the construction of bridges that will eventually collapse, of medical practitioners who can’t handle medical challenges, among other complications arising from a culture of lowering standards and cheating. If the standard of choice of a university vice-chancellor is compromised, the process of admission of students into that university can’t be trusted. This may rub off negatively on recruitment into the faculties. Lowering standards begets more lowering of more standards until a culture of mediocrity becomes the norm. That should not be in any university in a nation that the black race has been waiting for as a source of pride and confidence. That shouldn’t be at the University of Abuja, the capital of the federation that should classically be a reference city university.
There is no need to dissolve the new Council. The Council should scrutinise the credentials of all the candidates, grill them and select the best of them in the public interest. Notably, a new Bursar was last week, selected after a rigorous process that produced the best candidate from outside the university. That is the only way the University of Abuja can regain its lost ‘universe’ in this new world that knowledge development rules.
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