By Maiwada Dammallam
Browsing through the internet I
accidentally bumped into a very shoddy and embarrassing attempt to whitewash athoroughly bad situation by a group that tagged itself “concerned professors ofthe University of Jos.” Published by THISDAY Newspaper and titled “You LackPower to Threaten UNIJOS Mgt, Professors Tell Reps,” the verbiage, obviouslyaimed at extricating the management of the university from the consequences ofa prolonged culture of constitutional abuse that reduced University of Joshitherto, a reputable federal institution, into something less than a“Government Day Secondary School Jos.” The embarrassing outing by the so called“concerned professors” was the shoddiest of hatchet jobs I came across inrecent times. At best, it’s a very loud alarm bell alerting Nigerians of thedeclining quality of characters managing our tertiary institutions — of course,if the clownish gang masquerading as “concerned professors of the university”is a fair representation of what obtains in our tertiary institutions.Here’s the case:
In the course of its oversightfunctions, the House Committee on Federal Character under the able leadershipof MHR, Rt. Hon. Abubakar Yahaya Kusada (Kankia/Ingawa/Kusada Federalconstituency), discovered serious imbalances in the nominal roll of theUniversity of Jos that negates the Federal character provision of theconstitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which the committee is vestedwith powers to enforce and safeguard. The committee wrote the university andrequested for its nominal roll. In addition, it invited the management of theuniversity to appear before the committee to explain the anomalies embedded inthe university’s list of employees.
During the interaction, thecommittee confronted the management of the university with a nominal roll(provided earlier by the university) which proved beyond reasonable doubt theabsolute disrespect to the federal character provision of the Nigerianconstitution in the adopted employment methods of the university. It came out inthe open that of the 3350 employees of the university, 1839 were indigenes ofPlateau State. And where the Nigerian constitution unequivocally demanded fornational spread of employment in an equitable manner by Ministries andagencies, 75% of the university’s employees goes to the North Central out ofwhich 55% went to Plateau State; incidentally, the home state of both the VCand the Registrar of the university.
The first sign of incompetence ofthe university’s management as the meeting began was the inability of the VC toconfirm the number of employees of the university he came to defend before thecommittee. Either out of sincere ignorance, deliberate arrogance or simply as amark of disrespect to the Honorable Committee, the VC couldn’t/wouldn’t confirmthe university’s number of employees and had to be assisted by the Registrarwho answered the Committee Chairman’s question in that regard. When furtherasked if he has done anything to address the imbalance, the VC replied in theaffirmative but when asked how he addressed the situation, he arrogantlyreplied with a nonchalant “I don’t know” making it apparent he was under theimpression he and his team were being hosted for a tea party by the HonourableCommittee of the House rather than to address a prolonged and flagrant abuseperpetrated by the University against the constitution of the Federal Republicof Nigeria.
From the responses of the VC andthe clearly sponsored smear campaign against members of the committee asrepresented by the balderdash released by the so called “concerned professors”,it’s clear, either the VC and his team are not inclined to acknowledge,appreciate and respect the Federal Character Committee as constitutionallyvested with the powers to represent the entire House of Representatives inmatters dealing with employments in federal Government Ministries and agenciesor, the VC and his team were subconsciously determined to remain in theirnarrow cocoon of provincial supremacy and assumed legitimacy completelydetached from the reality and powers of the constitution of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria as vested on the National Assembly and its standingcommittees. This is a punishable aberration which must not be allowed to passunpunished if for nothing, to prevent setting a bad precedence that may stripthe National Assembly of its powers and legitimacy. The committee must doeverything within its powers to punish this disrespect.
Interestingly, this is auniversity, an institution which should be at the forefront of safeguardinginstitutions of leadership beside being the incubation room of noble ideals inthe country. I expect people laying claim to its leadership to behave with moredecorum and respect for constituted authorities. It’s quite a disgrace for areputable university like the one under review to fall in the hands ofunprepared, confused and clearly destructive team like the one I saw makingnonsense of the powers and respectability of the House of Representatives asinspired by God knows what!
And the team was not done tryingto drag the committee in the mud. In the bunkum press release by the so called“concerned professors”, efforts were not spared to paint the committee asprofessionally irresponsible and nepotistic despite the obvious preparedness ofmembers of the committee and the overwhelming consensus among them about theshoddy and clearly biased employment methods of University of Jos. The socalled “concerned professors” first alleged that the University was singled outfor national ridicule which clearly wasn’t the case given the tons of videosviral on the internet of the committee grilling other Federal Governmentinstitutions in similar manner.
The so called “concernedprofessors” then played the nepotism card by alleging, in their words: “we areaware that the Federal University, Dutsinma in Katsina State (coincidentally,where the Chairman of the House Committee on Federal Character comes from), hasthe vice-chancellor, registrar and librarian all from Katsina State.” Howunfortunate that a group of professors could not make sense of the jobdescription of the committee and put its schedule in proper perspective. Iwonder who told these charlatans that University of Jos is the last harborwhere the Federal Character Committee will dock for them to accuse thecommittee of not vetting the activities of the Federal University of Dutsinma?This is a failed childish attempt to hide the flagrant assault they inflictedon the constitution by inviting unnecessary controversy into the works of thecommittee to distract Nigerians.
Most importantly, if theuniversity’s management is yet to appreciate the enormous powers at thedisposal of the committee that allows the committee not only the room to threatbut the teeth to bite offenders, I don’t think they are qualified to bemanaging a political science department unless, the purpose is to be hatchingquack political scientists.
Maiwada Dammallam writes from Abuja.
