The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu and members of the House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education on Tuesday, March 1, clashed over the sacking of five of the 12 university vice-chancellors by the federal government.
According to The Punch, the minister and lawmakers exchanged words over the legality of the sacking of the VCs.
The VCs being contested include the federal universities of Eyo-Ekiti, Binin Kebbi, Gusau, Gashua and the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN)
Adamu told the lawmakers that the former VCs were sacked because there was no law backing their appointments in the first place by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
For Prof. Vincent Tenebe, the former NOUN VC, Adamu said that the governing council of the university illegally extended his tenure.
Lawmakers who were enraged by his comments, argued that Buhari, as the visitor to the universities, could only sack VCs on the recommendation of the governing councils in liaison with the Senate.
Other members of the committee, Hon. Sam Onuigbo (Abia, PDP),Hon Ezenwa Onyebuchi (Imo,PDP),Hon Mojeed Alabi (Osun, APC) were of the opinion that the ministry should have waited for the tenure of the affected VCs to expire before their removal, The Nation reports.
A member of the committee, Prof. Mojeed Alabi, described the removal of the VCs as an act of “impunity.”
Timothy Golu, in reaction to Adamu’s claim that four of the universities were not properly established, another member of the committee, said the minister should have advised the president to close them down instead.
The lawmakers who were not satisfied with the minister’s responses, asked Adamu to re-appear before the ommittee on Tuesday, March 8th, 2016 with “facts and more convincing reasons for the sack.”
Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has condemned the recent removal of 12 vice-chancellors of federal universities by the federal government describing it a violation of the law.
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