By executive fiat, the Federal Government has reverted to autocracy in the management of our universities by unilaterally appointing vice-chancellors for the recently-established public universities. Out of the blue, the Ministry of Education stated that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the appointment of new VCs for 12 universities and the National Open University, Lagos. Some of the schools affected by the appointments, which have been generating controversies, are the universities in Wukari, Oye-Ekiti, Gusau, Kashere and Lokoja. Once again, the government has usurped the powers of the governing councils of universities. It is a call to chaos.
At the heart of a great university lies autonomy. In a recent write-up, Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong and now Chancellor, University of Oxford, said, “Universities should be bastions of freedom in any society. They should be free from government interference in their primary purposes of research and teaching; and they should control their own academic governance. I do not believe it is possible for a university to become or remain a world-class institution if these conditions do not exist.” We agree.
The essence of university autonomy is to liberate ivory towers from the laborious tyranny of the civil service and encourage them to attain excellence. The latest government action is a negation of this goal. And such interference has led to friction over the years.
During the military era, when university autonomy amounted to nothing, it spawned disastrous consequences, especially a structural collapse. Strikes and crises became the norm. Students could not graduate as and when due because of instability.
In a world beholden to productive knowledge, the government action is driving regression. Arguing that the appointments are a violation of the law, the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities said, “The latest action in these universities has justified our consistent demand for proper governance structure and process in (the) Nigerian university system.” But why would the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, take a decision that would further denigrate the system?
The January 2016 Webometrics rankings, in which no Nigerian university made it to the top 1,200, underline the degradation of our higher institutions of learning. The rot, no doubt, is fuelled by the culture of arbitrariness. Instead of sustaining this impunity, the Muhammadu Buhari government should make a clean break with the past, reviving tertiary education with a policy of non-interference in the affairs of the institutions.
Normally, a VC should be appointed by the governing council of an institution. During the military days, the Head of State appointed a VC based on the final recommendation of the council from a list of candidates. The Universities Amendment Act 2003, in Section 4, vests the power of appointment and removal of a VC in the governing council. It states: “The Council shall select and appoint as the Vice-Chancellor one candidate from among the three candidates recommended to it… and thereafter inform the Visitor.” Period. We are bothered that the latest action has failed this critical test.
The governing councils of universities should be allowed to perform their duties. Importantly, the government should urgently empower all its institutions with a governing council. This will protect the system from being subjected to the whims of a minister or entrenched interests.
It is no coincidence that the top universities around the world are independent. The president of Harvard University, Boston, is answerable to the Harvard Corporation, which supervises the process of his appointment. In Oxford, England, one of the oldest English-speaking universities in the world, the institution’s council is saddled with the task of choosing the VC, although it is state promoted. The system is so open that candidates can now apply online from any part of the world.
In Ghana, the VC of the government-owned Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, is appointed by the governing council. It is a similar tradition in Commonwealth countries like Malaysia and Hong Kong. In the Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, the school’s Board of Trustees, in consultation with its Senate, appoints the VC. In Australia and New Zealand, the university councils approve.
The University of Ibadan, which has just been adjudged as the best in the country by the National Universities Commission, appointed its 12th VC in 2015 through a rigorous process superintended by the governing council, which advertised the job in the media. It was a process well acclaimed by observers.
Recently, Buhari lamented that Nigerian universities had fallen behind in global ratings, after the Webometrics rankings for 2015 placed UI in the 1296th position globally. However, things will not get better if the government hijacks the crucial elements of good governance and autonomy that can engender excellence in our tertiary education system.
In an era with the potential to do things differently, the Federal Government should reverse the appointments and follow the due process and extant law governing the appointment of VCs to universities. A government that came to power through the ballot box should do things by following the laid down rules.
