The Federal Government has through the Senior Special Assistant to the Minister of Education, Dauda Abdulramid on Wednesday clarified it’s stand as concerning the President’s statement as regards the 13 sacked Vice Chancellors and the dissolution of the governing councils of universities.
Clarifying the Federal Government’s stand, the Minister of Education’s Aide while speaking to news agency, THISDAY, explained that the President in his speech did not outrightly mean reabsorption of the sacked Vice Chancellors adding that his decision to sack the head of universities remained so.
Abdulramid continued that; “He did not say he had reversed the sack, he only apologised. Once the government takes a decision, it stands by it. Maybe, subsequently, they will take caution. But that does not mean he clearly stated that the sacked vice-chancellors should be recalled,”
In support of the stand, the Head of Information and Public Relations, National Universities Commission (NUC), Ibrahim Yakassi, also in an interview with THISDAY corroborated the Minister’s Aide’s stand.
Yakassi said; “The situation is misunderstood; the president was speaking in past tense, go back and read what he said.
“He made reference to the dissolution of all boards in this country. It has nothing to do with the 13 vice chancellors who were recently disengaged. It has no relation to that. The president dissolved all boards in this country including all the councils of federal universities then. But he rescinded that decision as he said because the councils needed to be in place to appoint vice chancellors. There was a process then; most universities’ vice-chancellors were going then.”
He continued that the President’s speech “has no relationship whatsoever with the recently disengaged vice-chancellors or councils. It was in reference to the dissolution of councils of the entire country that he included the councils of universities then. So the councils that he meant, he actually spoke in past tense, were the councils of these universities dissolved. The 13 vice chancellors were done much later; it has no relationship with that. So nobody is going to issue out any policy statement; nobody is going to recall anybody.”
When asked during the interview whether the apology could be examined in isolation of the sacked vice chancellors, Yakassi replied that “there’s no case in point about them. I don’t understand why people don’t want to get the facts straight and right. The case of 13 vice chancellors and councils is different from the rest of the universities. These ones don’t have their laws gazetted.
“The older ones have their laws gazetted, they have their councils running. The law starts the day it was gazetted, so the president committed no offence. It is still the exclusive preserve of the president to appoint those vice-chancellors.”
He also added that the Federal Government had already appointed new Vice Chancellors in replacement of the sacked ones, a move which seals the decision of the President adding that “New vice chancellors have been appointed, of course, it is.”
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