Reps, Minister in face-off over sacked VCs

Reps, Minister in face-off over  sacked VCs

The Minister of Education Alhaji Adamu Adamu had it rough with the House of Representatives Committee on Education Tuesday as the committee urged him to reverse the controversial sack of five Vice Chancellors (VCs) of the 13 newly established federal universities.

Hon.Aminu Suleiman, Chairman of the House Committee, at a meeting Tuesday, said that education stakeholders are concerned with the manner the five VCs were removed by the Minister.

According to the lawmaker, “pockets of mass protests on the issue prompted the House to adopt a motion mandating this Committee to investigate the matter.”

Other members of the committee, Hon. Sam Onuigbo (Abia, PDP),Hon Ezenwa Onyebuchi (Imo,PDP),Hon Mojeed Alabi (Osun, APC) were if the opinion that the ministry should have waited for the tenure of the affected VCs to expire before their removal.

But the Minister defended the action saying President Goodluck Jonathan established these universities indiscriminately and that the removal of the five VCs was based on the illegality of their appointments, adding that the institutions they headed were also illegal.

He said his ministry follows the provision of the law on the issue.

Adamu told the committee that President Muhammadu Buhari rightfully exercised his powers under Section 3 sub-sections 6 and 7 of the Universities Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1999 to remove the VCs.

This explanation however did not go down well with the Chairman of the House Committee.

Suleiman told the Minister that the law is clear by the provision of the Act that a Vice-Chancellor can only be removed based on misconduct or inability to perform the functions of his/her office.

“For you to tell me that there are no laws governing these 12 universities is wrong. The only thing you can tell me is that the law is not gazetted. To that extent it is wrong to have acted on that basis”

A former Minister of State for Education Hon Aishatu Dukku who is a Committee member expressed concerns about the minister action, saying it was indefensible.

Another member, Mojeed Alabi a professor and former university lecturer said the sack of the Vice Chancellors was an act of impunity.

Eventually, the Minister was asked re-appear before the Committee on Tuesday, March 8th, 2016 with “facts and more convincing reasons for the sack.”