UniAbuja VC, Prof Aisha Maikudi
By Abdullahi Abubakar
The University of Abuja’s Senate members have petitioned the Minister of Education, alleging that the Governing Council manipulated the Vice Chancellor appointment process.
They claim the council breached guidelines set by the Federal Ministry of Education, which outlines a four-step process for appointing a Vice Chancellor.
The petition, signed by 43 professors, lists several infractions, including the council’s failure to adhere to the prescribed steps.
In the petition dated January 20th, they argue that the appointment of Prof Aisha Maikudi as the substantive Vice-Chancellor did not follow the guidelines, which require a candidate to be a Professor with at least 10 years of experience.
The Senate members are calling for the Governing Council’s immediate dissolution and re-constitution to ensure a fresh and fair appointment process.
They also provided additional documentary evidence to support their claims, citing the Federal Ministry of Education’s guideline handbook issued in November 2023.
The Senate members remain adamant that the appointment process was compromised, and they’re seeking corrective action from the Minister of Education.
They said, “In August 2024, a subsequent advertisement was released, calling for additional applicants but without nullifying the criteria set forth in March. However, during the shortlisting process, these advertised requirements were entirely disregarded.
Among the approximately 90 applicants, the selected candidate, Professor Aisha Sani Maikudi, was declared the winner despite having only two years of experience as a professor and a Google Scholar h-index ranking of zero.
“The council did not allow the selection board to handle the tasks assigned to it by law but instead went ahead to constitute another committee unknown to the law that drew up scoring criteria, scored candidates and only requested the Board to accept what was done and just proceed to conduct interview for 10 candidates the council selected.
“The senate representatives outrightly rejected this due to the illegality.”
They added, “It is clear from the above that the University of Abuja has clearly demonstrated total disregard to rules, procedure and processes and by so doing have exhibited incompetence of the highest order.
“We thus restate that we have lost total faith and confidence in the Governing Council and urge you to take immediate corrective action to restore the integrity of the process.”
