The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has appealed for calm following the appointment of Aisha Maikudi as the vice-chancellor of the University of Abuja (UniAbuja).
Maikudi, formerly the acting VC, was confirmed as the substantive on December 31 after being shortlisted from among 10 candidates.
She was interviewed by the joint council and senate selection board (JCSSB) of the university.
The appointment, which took effect on January 1, 2025, is for a nonrenewable tenure of five years.
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It came after a series of months-long controversies surrounding eligibility and the selection process.
In Lagos on Thursday, Ishaq Akintola, MURIC’s executive director, condemned the disagreement leading up to the appointment.
This includes a professor’s walkout from the selection board meeting and an aborted senate meeting.
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Akintola stated that Maikudi was duly appointed according to university regulations.
He urged the academic community at UniAbuja to respect the decision and focus on academic excellence.
“A VC has emerged. Let us squarely face the tangential from now on. Allow peace on the UniAbuja campus,” Akintola concluded.
Born in 1983 in Katsina, Maikudi is a professor of International Law at the institution.
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The academic was at the University of Reading in the UK where she earned an LLB in 2004.
She specialised in Public International Law, obtaining an LLM from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2005.
After leaving the Nigerian Law School (2006–2007), she pursued and had a PhD in International Law from UniAbuja in 2015.
She joined the University of Abuja as a Lecturer II on 4th September 2008 and rose through the ranks to become a professor in 2021.
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Earlier, a group of professors reportedly submitted a protest letter to the education ministry to dissolve UniAbuja’s governing council.
The professors claimed that the chairman rejected over 87 applications and invited only three persons to favour a preferred candidate.
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The protesters claim the council was improperly constituted, with internal members handpicked by the immediate past VC.
According to the petition, key criteria for the VC position, such as a minimum of ten years of professorial experience, were disregarded in the advertisement for the post the VC published in newspapers in August 2024.
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This, they alleged, propped up the acting VC who is said to have had just over two years of experience as a professor.
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