Disturbance in UniAbuja over impasse in constituting committee for VC selection

A disturbance, purported to be a protest of professors, has broken out at the University of Abuja (UniAbuja) campus.

The campus has been in a state of uncertainty in recent months over controversies surrounding the appointment of a vice-chancellor.

A law professor Aisha Maikudi had assumed duties as the acting VC after the expiry of Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah’s tenure in late June.

Na’Allah, in the absence of a governing council at UniAbuja, advertised for the VC position through the minister of education in March.

This sparked an 82-day protest from academic staff who argued that only the council has the authority to issue such an advertisement.

A council was inaugurated; the advert was reviewed in August and extended by a six-week application window to elapse in early October.

A subsequent delay in the commencement of the VC selection process prompted an intervention from the education ministry, under the new minister Tunji Alausa’s oversight, which reportedly directed that the selection be concluded by or before December 31, 2024.

VC selection requires a board of five comprising two university council members, two from the university senate, and the pro-chancellor.

Management sources in UniAbuja told TheCable on Tuesday that there was an election to choose the selection board’s senate representatives but the elected parties refused to validate or take part in the VC selection process.

“According to them, it is their work to shortlist candidates and set criteria. The council objected, saying it is its work to do all that. It said it would give the selection committee the criteria to score the candidates and produce three from a shortlist,” the source said.

“The selection committee wrote a letter to the council three weeks ago to protest. The council invited the legal adviser to the university. He explained that it is the responsibility of the council to do the shortlisting, do the criteria, and then hand over.”

TheCable understands that the university council was meant to hand over 40 VC candidates who were shortlisted out of 87 applicants, but the meeting could not take place on December 23 due to the protesting senate members who refused to participate in the process.

“They forced the academic staff union to have a congress, believing they could get the union to reject the process. But ASUU resolved that the process should continue and that the council should be fair, transparent, and impartial,” the management source explained.

A meeting was to hold at 9am in the presence of the pro-chancellor and the acting VC to replace the senate members of the joint council and senate selection board (JCSSB) but it was shifted until noon following mediation by the UniAbuja academic staff union.

Abubakar Umar Kari, UniAbuja’s dean of student affairs, said the senate members boycotted the meeting and invited journalists.

He said the journalists were accosted by officers of the UniAbuja campus security who deflated their tyres in an ensuing confrontation.

“There was no protest. Our security people were only overzealous. They saw an interview some people granted. They accosted them and deflated their tyres, not knowing the implication of what they were doing,” Umar said.

As of this report, details on the disturbance and the grievances of the senate members boycotting the selection process are still sketchy.

But unsubstantiated claims have it that allegations of the governing council attempting to install Maikudi as the substantive VC, despite her purported ineligibility under the advertised criteria, is at the heart of it.