Vice Chancellors Fault Adamu’s Suspension of FUTA, FUNAAB VCs

The VCs, under the aegis of Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, AVCNU, said the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, proceeded to suspend FUTA and FANAAB VCs just when new governing councils were inaugurated for the universities.

A statement released on Sunday by the Association’s Secretary-General, Prof. Michael Faborode, maintained that the resolution of all lingering issues in the universities should have been left in the hands of the new councils.

It would be recalled that on May 5, 2017, Adamu ordered the suspension of Prof Olusola Oyewole and Prof Adebiyi Daramola as VCs of FUNAAB and FUTA respectively, in a letter signed by the Acting Permanent Secretary, Dr. Husseini Adamu.

The Minister’s directive was however overturned by the governing councils of the two universities as they recently lifted the suspension and recalled the Vice Chancellors in line with their mandates.

AVCNU in the statement, commended councils of FUNAAB and FUTA for upholding the sacred tenets of the university system, warning that for Nigerian universities to emerge from their current level of obscurity in the global peer ranking, the institutions and their proprietors must ponder on the imperatives of attaining the lofty attributes of world-class universities.

“When suspension orders were clamped down on the Vice Chancellors of FUNAAB and FUTA, shock waves reverberated through the entire Nigerian university system and indeed the land. We observed that, relatively, there had been palpable quiet in the system with ASUU having not caused any major tremor in the last few months.

“The federal ministry of education, under the Minister, seemed to have struck a chord of understanding with university stakeholders, except of course the senior staff association (SSANU) that had strenuously been trying to re-invent the university in some strange ways that would keep Bolognia wondering if universities would survive in Nigeria, nay Africa.

“The Minister and his team deserve credit and applause for the way they have responded to these onslaughts. Not that our universities are totally above board of inquest, but the challenge of “letting who amongst you is pure of blemish cast/throw the first stone” would continue to hunt the hecklers of SSANU,” they association said.

The VCs also stressed the importance of autonomy in the university system, adding that autonomy entails the ability of a proprietor not to stultify the governance structures and procedures of a university.

“When Councils are constituted, they must be allowed to do their jobs. Councils that know their job, their mandate and their essence will get the job done with applause, and the institutions would perform and ultimately excel.”

“What the Councils of FUNAAB and FUTA have done is to, without any iota of hesitation, halt the descent of the institutions to unbelievable anarchy, signal a new order of proactive engagement, built on deep understanding of what a university should be and hence laid the basis for sustainable peace in contrast to the theater of the absurd and confusion that had engulfed the institutions in the recent past, that seemed to last eternity.

“By their prompt and decisive intervention, they have restored the glory of the Nigerian university system in the comity of global universities. AVCNU salutes their courage in the face of heinous intimidation and primitive blackmail, clothed in the garb of critical radicalism.

“It is the contention of AVCNU that the time has come for us to get Nigerian universities back on track, and we plead with the university unions not to unwittingly destroy the fabric of our universities, which indeed is their means of livelihood,” they stated.