12 VCs, as well as that of the National OpenUniversity of Nigeria, Prof. Vincent Tenebe, were fired by Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, recently. The Governing Councils and Boards ofthe institutions were also dissolved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
But President Buhari, during the National ExecutiveCouncil meeting of the All Progressives Congress, apologized for the action todissolve the governing councils and boards of the institutions.
Following the apology by the president, NANS National President, Tijani Usman Shehu, at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, urged Adamu to do the “needful” by reinstating the sacked VCs.
He said the association would continue to press homeits demands if the Federal Government refused to reinstate the VCs.
Tijani said: “The unjustly sacked Vice Chancellorsshould be reinstated immediately in consonance with Mr. President apology andspelt out universities rules.
“We are dismally dismayed by the fact that the Ministerof Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, has remained hesitant in doing the needful which is the reinstatement of the sacked Vice Chancellors which was wrongfully done.
“Rather the minister has chosen to give diverse counter- interpretations to Mr. President’s apology just to soothe his whims andego whereas the President categorically stated that there are specificallyspelt out roles for which the Governing Councils are meant to perform and whichcannot be usurped such as appointment of Vice Chancellors.
“Clearly, Mallam Adamu’s refusal to take the rightpath has demonstrated his contempt and disregard for our dear president, Muhammadu Buhari. On the heels of this, we herein state our resolve topeacefully press until the right thing is done with respect to the sack of the 13 affected Vice Chancellors of Federal Universities.”
Tijani said that the sacking and subsequent hiring ofnew VCs for the institutions did not follow due process.
According to him, the association has not received any response to the several letters written to the Ministry of Education throughthe Permanent Secretary, Dr. Folashade Yemi – Esan.
He therefore, asked the minister to resign formisleading Buhari into firing the VCs.
Tijani said: “The minister should tender an unreservedapology to Nigerian students and the entire academic community for his misleading actions and statements thus far. Conversely, he
should resign hisappointment. Obviously the Vice Chancellors’ appointment of Adamu did notfollow due procedure since no board sat down to consider and interview prospectivecandidates for the said appointments.
“The National Association of Nigerians Students hasvowed to pursue this just cause for the right thing to be done in our universities.We have peacefully taken our cry to Mr. President who gave his favourbaleattention and followed same with a sincere apology.
“Our demands have also been tabled before the NationalAssembly which has also empathized with us and waded in to resolve the crisis. Theminister of education on the contrary has adopted an adversarial approach toour genuine
demand choosing instead to harass the never intimidated Nigerian Studentsvia arrest by men of the Nigerian Police
Force until the IGP graciously intervened.
“All eyes and attention was thus fixated on theminister of education who in the first instance misdirected the Federal Government.”
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