University of Abuja and the era of impunity

In recent times, the University of Abuja has been in the news albeit for the wrong reasons. Just last month, the University’s Governing Council and the newly elected Vice Chancellor were sacked by the Federal Government leading to the appointment of Prof Patricia Manko Lar from the University of Jos as acting Vice Chancellor.

The recent catastrophic events that took place in the University did not just suddenly happen. They could be traced to the unfortunate and disastrous tenure of the immediate past Vice Chancellor Prof Abdulrasheed Olayinka Na’Allah which lasted from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2024.

It didn’t take long after his emergence as the Vice Chancellor for the immediate past Vice Chancellor to start showcasing what he had in store in terms of his leadership style and all that. Shortly after assuming office, Prof Na’Allah started suspending both academic and non-academic staff on flimsy and unprovable charges. Some of these suspensions which came with placing such staff on half salary were against all known civil service and University rules of engagement.

However the underlying reason or reasons for such massive suspensions in the University during Prof Na’Allah’s reign of terror were not entirely related to committal of infractions as the unsuspecting public were made to believe. A lot of staff who were suspended during his regime were as a result of their open criticism of his wicked and oppressive style of leadership. Prof Abdulrasheed Na’Allah used all kinds of oppressive tactics to victimize people who he saw as his arch-enemies and those who opposed his draconian style of leadership.

I can remember the case of one academic staff who he set up one disciplinary panel for and when the panel did not find him guilty, he discarded their report and set up a second panel. The second panel declared him not guilty, the Vice Chancellor yet set up a Staff Disciplinary Committee against him and when the Committee declared him not guilty, he purposely kept their report aside for six months before partially implementing it. If this is not impunity in the ivory tower, I just wonder what it would be called.

One of the numerous illegalities perpetrated by the immediate past Vice Chancellor which is threatening to tear the University apart is the issue of illegal employment in the University, majority of which was done in the twilight of his administration. It is on record that Prof Na’Allah employed over six hundred staff majority of them being academic staff during his tenure without due process. The University did not advertise for these positions and there were no interviews conducted for those employed. People were just handed over appointment letters and were asked to resume work. This is impunity that has no place in any University tradition as there was no input from the departments and faculties before these people were employed.

To add to the already bad situation, the majority of these hurriedly recruited staff were from one particular locality in Kwara state, Prof Na’Allah’s home state. I am yet to understand if there is any law within the University that expressly empowers a sitting Vice Chancellor to employ people from his locality without recourse to the much touted federal character principle. This is perhaps undue favoritism and cronyism which must not be swept under the carpet. To allow such a brazen impunity to stand is to say goodbye to due process and meritocracy in the University system which would not augur well for the country.

Another thorny issue under the past administration was the issue of the University portal. For the avoidance of doubt, University of Abuja has a Computer Science department with tested and trusted academics as academic staff. Apart from that, the University has an IT unit that is well staffed. However these two factors did not deter the immediate past Vice Chancellor from contracting the management of the University portal to a firm outside the domain of the University with a lot of negative implications. As a result of this brazen anomaly, staff and students who had issues with the portal were left in the dark.

The chaotic manner in which the tenure of the immediate past Vice Chancellor ended speaks volumes. It only shows a man who came to pursue an egoistic and narrow agenda. First it was a strike by the University of Abuja branch of Academic Staff Union of Universities to protest against the illegalities perpetuated by the outgoing Vice Chancellor. This strike was not called off until Prof Na’Allah exited from office. While leaving office, Prof Na’Allah was supposed to hand over to the most senior Professor who was to act as Vice Chancellor pending the appointment of a substantive Vice Chancellor by the Governing Council. In his characteristic manner of not obeying statutory rules and laws, he chose to hand over to one of his Deputy Vice Chancellors and that marked the beginning of another round of crisis in the University.

Prof Aisha Maikudi acted as Vice Chancellor for six months and upon the completion of the six months tenure, the Governing Council in their wisdom appointed her as the substantive Vice Chancellor. It is instructive to note that this Council was made up of six internal Council members who were handpicked by Prof Na’Allah against all known ethos and rules of engagement in the University.

The resilience and selfless struggles and agitations of some senior Professors from the University led to the dissolution of the Governing Council of the University and the dismissal of the Vice Chancellor, Prof Aisha Maikudi by the federal government on the 6th of February 2025 and the appointment of Prof Patricia Manko Lar from the University of Jos as acting Vice Chancellor. This timely intervention by the federal government no doubt has restored peace and serenity to our beleaguered institution. The overwhelming reception and acceptance of the Acting Vice Chancellor by both academic and non-academic staff of the University shows the joy of a people who have been caged, traumatized, brutalized and harassed for the past five years by a tyrannical and despotic Vice Chancellor.

While we commend the federal government for responding to the genuine agitations of altruistic academics of our University by dissolving the Governing Council and sacking the controversially elected Vice Chancellor, the federal government should do well to get to the root of the matter by probing the tenure of the immediate past Vice Chancellor, Prof Na’Allah especially as it concerns the illegal employment of staff during his tenure as well as other illegalities that were the hallmark of his administration.

Not probing the past administration here may embolden future Vice Chancellors here to believe that they can perpetrate glaring infractions and illegalities and get away with them. A University should be the highest custodian of the rule of law and running the University for five years without recourse to the rule of law was indeed a very dangerous precedent that should not be allowed to go without being probed. Enough is enough.

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Dr Godwin Okaneme
Department of Philosophy
University of Abuja
godack776@gmail.com
08036775774