The Federal Government has sacked all the vice chancellors of 12 federal
universities that were established by the administration of ex-President
Goodluck Jonathan.
Also affected by the sack is the Vice Chancellor of National Open
University of Nigeria (NOUN), Prof. Vincent Tenebe.
Their dismissal which was contained in a short statement signed by the
Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu and obtained by journalists on
Saturday in Abuja, simply said President Muahammadu Buhari, has approved
the appointment of new vice chancellors for the universities.
But the decision is already generating ripples, with some members of the
academic community claiming that it is only the Governing Council of NOUN
of which Tenebe is a member, that could remove him.
A human rights organisation, Coalition of Civil Society Groups has
protested against the sack in a letter to Buhari, demanding the reversal
of the decision in which the NOUN VC was replaced with Prof. Abdalla Uba
Adamu of the Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano.
The substantive Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa
State, Prof. Mohammed Kundiri, was transferred to the Federal University,
Wukari, Taraba State.
The CCSG in its protest letter to Buhari signed by its president, Etuk
Bassey Williams and secretary-general, Ibrahim Abubakar, said the action
contravenes the provisions of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions)
Act No.11 of 1993 (as amended) by decree No.25, 1996 and further amended
in 2003 and 2012 respectively and other agreements as contained in the
2009 FGN staff union agreement.
The petitioners said that four out of the 12 newly appointed vice
chancellors are from Kano University, an action they said, was a clear
violation of the federal character principle.