Juliana Bitrus, Borno commissioner for health and human services, has issued a query to Rukaiya Mustapha, provost of the College of Nursing and Midwifery, for suspending some students who failed to welcome President Muhammadu Buhari to the state on June 17.
The president had visited Maiduguri to assess the security situation in the state, and he also inaugurated the first phase of 10,000 houses approved for the resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs).
In a letter that went viral, the students were suspended for a week for “disobedience of executive order to welcome the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari GCFR, GCON (on the 17th of June 2021)”.
The students’ suspension began on June 21 and ends on June 28.
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But in the query dated June 25, the commissioner described the provost as “being mischievous against the state government”, adding that Mustapha acted on her own and without any directive from her superior at the ministry or anyone in the state government.
The commissioner explained that the news was “unbelievable”, noting that the ministry confirmed the development before issuing the provost a query.
The commissioner noted that he was concerned that the provost “may have simply used the president’s visit to get at some students she may have had issues with”.
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He, therefore, demanded that the provost responds to the query within 48 hours, and gives reasons why disciplinary action should not be taken against her.
He further said while Borno has about eight state-owned tertiary institutions, it was curious that it was only at the college that students were suspended “in an apparent effort to embarrass the state government”.
The commissioner said though it is a normal practice that students join in welcoming visiting presidents all over Nigeria, such acts are voluntary.
He added that the students constitute far less than “a thousand residents who freely trooped out to welcome the president in all parts of Maiduguri“.
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