The crisis of confidence surrounding the ineligibility of the current Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja to remain in office due to the lack of a required doctorate is the latest dimension of the institution’s acute leadership crisis over the past year. The appointment of Professor Hakeem Babatunde Fawehinmi, who holds a medical fellowship, as the 8th substantive Vice-Chancellor marked the culmination of the University’s takeover by government-backed external forces, which deepened the leadership quagmire at the institution. Rather than resolving the predicament, Professor Fawehinmi’s appointment complicated matters and exposed the futility of undue external interference in an era of university autonomy.
The unlawful removal of the 7th substantive Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi, and the dissolution of the 10th Governing Council that appointed her to office in early February 2025 set in motion a leadership roller coaster anchored in the wilful desecration of existing rules, from which the institution has yet to recover. Notwithstanding the clear provisions of the governing laws of the university, and intervention by critical stakeholders, especially the National Assembly, which exercised its oversight mandate in an attempt to redress the untoward development, the government-linked forces bent on truncating the university’s leadership trajectory led by the Minister of Education, Dr Moruf Tunji Alausa, proceeded apace with their heinous agenda. Consequently, the ongoing leadership saga at the University of Abuja has already cast a big stain on the otherwise much-hyped civil-democratic credentials of the Tinubu administration.
The undue political interference in the institution’s affairs engendered both governance conflicts and an unprecedentedly high turnover of four vice-chancellors within one year. Two of the so-called vice-chancellors, Professors Patricia Manko Lar and Mathew Adamu, were directly appointed by the government in an acting capacity, in contravention of the existing rules that vested such powers in the university’s Senate and Governing Council. Similarly, the institution’s overall operations during the period under review have been affected by, inter alia, leadership chaos, micromanagement by the Minister and his acolytes, loss of institutional memory, increasing distrust among staff, low faculty morale and academic performance, as well as generalised instability.
It is still shocking that the spirited attempts, especially by the National Assembly, to stem the institution’s descent into further leadership abyss were thwarted by Dr Alausa, who leveraged government machinery to sustain the unfolding scenario. Not only did the House of Representatives Committee on University Education direct the University’s Governing Council to suspend the selection and appointment of a new substantive vice-chancellor until the completion of its oversight of the matter. The Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund also directed Minister Alausa to halt the selection process for appointing a new substantive vice-chancellor at the University. All of which fell on deaf ears and were whimsically ignored by both the Minister and the university authorities.
Determined to pursue a predetermined agenda, against wise counsel and even contrary to the approach adopted at Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education, Owerri, the Minister encouraged the selection and appointment of a new substantive vice-chancellor. It would be recalled that the two female vice-chancellors, namely, Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi of Abuja and Professor Stella Ngozi Lemchi of Owerri, were removed at the same time under similar circumstances. However, while the government reinstated the latter after an investigation authorised by Dr Alausa, the University of Abuja was inexplicably not afforded due process, leaving the institution with a leadership crisis. It has become difficult not to deduce primordial persecution of the young, beautiful Fulani academic from the ‘core North’ on the altar of ethnic supremacy. Or, even not to ask the question as to why the Minister of Education is taking the matter so personally, against the youngest ever appointed female vice-chancellor of any Nigerian university?
Tragically, the subsequent appointment of the new Vice-Chancellor has raised significant questions regarding due process, eligibility and political interference. Professor Fawehinmi not only lacks a required PhD, but the process of his appointment was also midwifed by an incongruity not known to the existing rules: an illegally acting vice-chancellor operating with a Governing Council that defied valid directives of the National Assembly. All stakeholders- the faculty, other staff, and students, parents/guardians, and even the government- should be worried because the whole process and its outcome lack legality. As a matter of fact, as the lawyers would say, the new vice-chancellor has no locus standi to remain in the office. The Medical Fellowship he possesses is not equivalent to a PhD, which the federal government recently reaffirmed.
The national conversation over the centrality of a PhD to career progression and leadership position in the Nigerian university system preceded the leadership brouhaha at the University of Abuja. The possession of a PhD has always been a non-negotiable requirement for appointing vice-chancellors. This has been reinforced by a judicial pronouncement by the National Industrial Court of Nigeria in a case filed by the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA). In a landmark ruling, the court declared emphatically that: “A Fellowship certificate does not and cannot constitute an equivalent of a PhD for academic or administrative appointments in Nigerian universities”. The court ruling further cemented the National Universities Commission’s earlier directives, making a PhD mandatory for medical professionals to the rank of professor in universities.
It is in the foregoing context that the appointment of Professor Fawehinmi becomes a nullity and indefensible. It has become a double tragedy for the University of Abuja when it is considered that a properly appointed substantive vice-Chancellor was unlawfully removed, only to be replaced by someone ineligible to occupy the position. That he still retains the position only epitomises the reign of impunity and erosion of university autonomy by the government under a presumed democratic dispensation.
It is further disheartening that the key stakeholders who should be at the vanguard of protecting the hard won autonomy of universities, particularly members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), have themselves become increasingly disenchanted and frustrated by the government’s persistent antics. Although efforts have been made to resist these developments, little has come of them, even in the face of continued encroachments, particularly the recent imposition of acting vice chancellors in several universities.
In conclusion, it is evident from events of the past year that the leadership of the education sector, led by Dr Alausa for reasons other than the promotion of good governance and development of the University of Abuja, has engineered the executive overreach and unilateral interference by the government, which have continued to afflict and dwarf the institution. The inelegant attempt to overcome the ensuing leadership chaos through a fresh selection process has only resulted in the foisting of an ineligible candidate at the helm. The current leadership at the University of Abuja is not sustainable. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Hakeem Babatunde Fawehinmi, is not only surrounded and held hostage, but he is also haunted and diminished by both the forces behind and the circumstances of his ineligible appointment. It is not too late in the day to restore the rule of law and due process at the University of Abuja. We are tired of being the laughing stock in the comity of Nigerian universities!
John N. Audu, PhD wrote in from the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Abuja.
Leave a Comment