The University of Abuja has become the centre of a growing fight against what many describe as the government’s interference in university affairs. The issue started when the Federal Government removed the school’s leadership and replaced it with a new Pro-Chancellor, Senator Lanre Tejuoso, and an acting Vice-Chancellor from the University of Jos, Professor Patricia Lar, whose six-month tenure is ending this week.
Many staff and education experts have argued that these actions were against the law that guides the university system. They insist that the University of Abuja should have been allowed to manage its affairs without outside interference. This view has drawn strong support from academics within and outside the institution, who say university education is too important to be controlled by political appointees.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tahir Mamman Alausa, has been at the centre of the controversy. Critics accuse him of overstepping his authority by introducing guidelines that have no legal backing, such as the rule that only professors with 10 years’ experience can become Vice-Chancellors. A court recently struck down this rule in the University of Calabar case, describing it as unlawful.
The matter became more heated when the Minister reinstated the Vice-Chancellor of Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education, but failed to do the same for Professor Aisha Maikudi of the University of Abuja, despite both cases being similar. Observers see this as unfair and possibly influenced by ethnic or regional bias. They have insisted that Professor Maikudi, who is a young and vibrant academic with strong credentials, should not be sidelined.
The National Assembly has since stepped in. The House of Representatives Committee on University Education, led by Hon. Abubakar Fulata, has held hearings with the Minister, Pro-Chancellors, and Vice-Chancellors. The committee is now under pressure to ensure that due process is respected and that the crisis is resolved fairly.
Recently, President Bola Tinubu reappointed Air Vice Marshal Saddiq Kaita, the former Pro-Chancellor of UniAbuja’s dissolved Governing Council, to head Bayero University, Kano. Many see this as proof that the earlier Council’s decision to appoint Professor Maikudi as Vice-Chancellor was valid.
As the acting Vice-Chancellor’s tenure expires, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned that it will not accept any leadership imposed from outside the law. Stakeholders now believe the only fair solution is to reinstate Professor Maikudi and restore the university’s autonomy. Anything less, they say, will deepen the crisis and weaken trust in Nigeria’s higher education system.
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