The House of Representatives Committee on University Education has directed that the appointment process of a new Vice-Chancellor for the University of Abuja be halted pending the outcome of an ongoing investigation into the leadership tussle rocking the institution.
Chairman of the committee, Rep. Abubakar Fulata (APC-Jigawa), made this known in a statement on Friday, after a roundtable with the acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Patricia Lar.
Fulata appealed to the various parties to embrace dialogue in order to ensure stable academic activities in the university.
“We urged relevant stakeholders to put on hold all processes that will lead to emergence of the new VC until controversies resulting in the leadership tussle are addressed.
“The committee, under my leadership, is completely against anything that will affect the calendar and smooth running of the university system,” he said.
Fulata appealed to the various parties involved in the leadership tussle to embrace dialogue in order to ensure stable academic activities in the university.
He emphasised that the committee would not want anything to affect the calendar and smooth running of the university system.
The lawmaker noted that the committee had taken steps to investigate allegations of irregularities in the sacking of some Vice-Chancellors and the dissolution of governing councils.
The committee is also intervening in a dispute over the revocation of 11,000 hectares of land belonging to the University of Abuja by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Nyesom Wike.
The intervention followed a petition submitted by the university’s Alumni Association, which alleged that the minister was seizing a significant portion of the university’s land, leaving it with only 4,000 hectares.
Professor Patricia Lar, the Acting Vice-Chancellor, said that she had less than one month to complete her six-month mandate, which was to manage the institution’s affairs ahead of the appointment of a substantive Vice-Chancellor.
The committee’s decision to halt the appointment process is aimed at ensuring that the controversies surrounding the leadership tussle are addressed before a new Vice-Chancellor is appointed.
The House Committee on University Education’s intervention in the matter is a welcome development, as it seeks to address the challenges facing the University of Abuja and ensure that the institution is run smoothly.
