ASUU Faults Removal of Governing Council Chairmen

The recent sack of the chairmen of the council of federal governmentowned universities has drawn the ire of academic staff at the University of Ibadan as they vehemently opposed the development with a call on the government to reverse the decision, so as not to turn the schools to object of ridicule in the face of extant laws and laid down principles.

To this end, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ibadan branch, described the sack of council chairmen as illegal and flagrant abuse on the autonomy of universities.

The body therefore called on the federal government to rescind its pronouncement and recall the Chairman of the council, General Adeyinka Adebayo (rtd), if only to absolve itself from the tag of brazenly flouting the rule of law towards the end of its tenure.

A statement signed by the UI ASUU Chairman, Professor Segun Ajiboye, said the union viewed the sack of chairmen of governing councils as unwarranted, ill-conceived and totally unacceptable to it.

Ajiboye pointedly said: “It was done in bad fate and against the hallowed tradition and sanctity of the principle of university autonomy/academic freedom and agreement reached with the union to respect same.”

He continued: “The Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act 1993 as amended by the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act 2003, 2007, Act No 1 Section 2A clearly states the tenure of Council thus: “The council so constituted shall have a tenure of four years from the date of its inauguration, provided that where a council is found to be incompetent and corrupt, it shall be dissolved by the Visitor and a new council shall be immediately constituted for the effective functioning of the university.”

Ajiboye declared that the council chairmanship, as well as the entire council are a creation of statute and, to that extent, cannot be tampered with except in the event of a proven case of maladministration, physical impairment or recorded case of loss of life.

“The only condition upon which the Chairman could be removed according to Ajiboye was incompetence and corruption which had not been alleged nor established in this case and even in such cases, there are procedures and channels to follow.

According to the ASUU boss, the current pronouncement of the federal government, wantonly removing the Chairman of Council, University of Ibadan, there is need for worry that even under a supposed civilian administration, the rule of law, ethics and good conscience can be so easily assaulted.

ASUU said it would continue to fight for the repositioning of Nigeria public universities, and ensuring that no gains of its previous struggles were undermined by any government.

“ASUU has taken up the duty of intellectuals, throughout the world, to promote the development of education in Nigeria. ASUU has defended the right of the Nigerian people to live in a society free of hunger, poverty, illiteracy, tribalism, and economic and social backwardness. Since the 1980s, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been engaging the federal and state governments on the need to reposition the Nigerian universities system to effectively deliver on its mandate. This became imperative in the face of massive exodus of seasoned academics, particularly to European and American universities; the deplorable state of facilities for research, teaching and learning; gross underfunding; and steady erosion of university autonomy and academic freedom by successive governments.

“The principle of such statutes were enshrined universally in realisation of the need to absolve the university of the detraction of partisanship, and empower the system with the ability to venture in quest of developing both the human and natural environment through groundbreaking research. The federal government pronouncement on this has, indeed, violated those lofty universal objectives and government’s own agreement to honour the rule of law on university autonomy/academic freedom. The agreements of 1992, 1999, 2001 and 2009, which government reached with ASUU, were expected to bring about significant improvements, among other things, in the area of university autonomy/academic freedom in the Nigerian universities. The federal government’s current posture, again, violates this self-declared expectations from its own promise.”