VCs tackle FG over suspension FUTA, FUNAAB vice chancellors
The vice chancellors under the auspices of the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU), on Sunday criticised the Federal Government over recent suspension of two vice chancellors of Nigerian universities over allegation of corruption levelled against them.
Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, had recently ordered the suspension of the vice chancellors of the Federal University of Technology, Akure and Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Professor Adebiyi Daramola and Professor Olusola Oyewole, respectively.
The duo has been reinstated by the Governing Councils of the two universities recently inaugurated by the Federal Government soon after they (the councils) assumed duties.
Secretary-General of AVCNU, Professor Michael Faborode, in a statement on Sunday in Abuja, hailed the decision of the Governing Councils to promptly reinstate the embattled vice chancellors in line with the powers conferred on them.
He said, “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 ought to know that any country, or a people, who despises or degrades their fountain of knowledge, would remain in perpetual ignorance and bondage.
“It was therefore surprising to AVCNU, that the Honourable Minister would proceed to suspend some VCs just when new councils were being inaugurated for the universities.
“The resolution of all lingering issues should just have been left in the hands of the new councils, who would have been admonished to, as a matter of urgency, assume their mandate, like the new French President, and bring their institutions to pursue that which will edify and endear them to the nation.
“It is against this background that the actions of the councils of FUNAAB and FUTA in upholding the sacred tenets of the university system, nay its autonomy, is commendable and is thus commended and applauded by the AVCNU,” he said.
Faborode, added that the councils have proved that they are equal to the task with which they were saddled, saying “If we and our universities must emerge from our current level of obscurity in the global peer ranking of universities, then we and our proprietors (federal and state governments, private individuals and faith based organizations who own the universities) must ponder on the imperatives of attaining the lofty attributes of world-class universities.”
He said what the Councils of FUNAAB and FUTA have done was 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.
He said this has laid the basis for sustainable peace in contrast to the theatre 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,” he said
