Reps lampoon FG over sacked VCs

The controversy sorrounding the sacking of 13 vice chancellors continued on Tuesday, as the Minister of Education Alhaji Adamu Adamu had it rough with the House of Representatives Committee on Education.

The committee had urged the minister to reverse the controversial sack of five Vice Chancellors (VCs) of the 13 newly established federal universities.

Chairman of the committee, Hon. Aminu Suleiman, at a meeting Tuesday, said that education stakeholders are concerned with the manner the 5 VCs were removed by the Minister.

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

Members of the committee, were of the opinion that the ministry should have waited for the tenure of the affected VCs to expire before their removal.

However, the Minister defended the action, insisting that 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 also added that the education ministry followed the law in sacking them.

Read also: Vice Chancellors kick against sack of colleagues

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, as he insisted 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”

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

Professor Mojeed Alabi a member of the committee and former university lecturer, condemned the sack and described it as an act of impunity.

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

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