Barring any last-minute changes, the governing council of the University of Abuja, UniAbuja, will announce the new substantive vice chancellor today (Friday).

Already, the university’s five-member Joint Council and Senate Selection Board,JCSSB,is holding a meeting to select one among the 40 candidates left out of the 80 others that had applied for the job following advertisement to that effect by the council.

Besides, seven other candidates were reportedly searched across the world for the position by the governing council.

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The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa,had last Friday,written the management of the institution to appoint a new substantive vice chancellor on or before December 31,3024.

Ahead of the selection and subsequent announcement of the new substantive vice chancellor, a coalition of 25 civil society organisations has thrown weight behind the candidacy of Prof. Aisha Maikudi, who is the current acting vice chancellor of the school.

The group, operating under the aegis of Civil Society Coalition for Educational Development, addressing the media, Friday, at the university’s permanent site in Abuja, insisted that Prof. Maikudi was qualified enough to be appointed substantive vice chancellor.

The group, in a prepared text read before newsmen, berated some professors protesting against the candidacy of the acting vice chancellor, Prof. Aisha Maikudi, claiming that she is not qualified for the position.

“We observed with incontrovertible evidence that the entire protest is about an orchestrated plan to discredit Prof. Aisha Maikudi, the acting Vice Chancellor who had previously served as Deputy Vice Chancellor without any record of failure or non qualification, the desperation to pull her down because she is a woman, a youth and a northerner is antithetical to the development of education in Nigeria, especially at a time the global attention is on harnessing the numerous potentials of young people, especially women to boost growth, “the group said.

The Concerned Civil Society Coalition for Educational Development, in the text signed by
Dr Wisdom Ohalete Chinedu, made four recommendations:

“We hold very strongly and in unmistakable term that Prof Aisha Mekudi among all the applicants for the job of Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja is the most qualified and the closest person to the job and should be immediately announced as substantive Vice Chancellor having served as Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Institution and currently acting Vice Chancellor of the same school

“We demand that President Bola Tinubu through the honorable Minister of Education wade into the ensuing crisis and give needed protection for the acting Vice Chancellor who is obviously a victim of ethnic gangup, political orchestration and desperate power mongers in the University of Abuja, to stop those who are desperately attempting to ridicule his efforts in getting youths and women involved in leadership, maintaining that women have so much to offer in raising the bar of national development.

“We demand that the Nigeria Police invite trouble makers as espoused in our petition to the force to serve as deterrent to others.

“We demand that the Minister after announcing Prof Aisha Mekudi as recommended by us, should set up a truth and reconciliation panel for post VC tussle era, ” it listed.

“The 25-member Civil Society Coalition for Educational Development after painstaking interrogations, independent investigations and review of the leadership crisis that have engulfed the University of Abuja over the jostle for the position of Vice Chancellor, wishes to present our report and recommendations to the public as already sent to the honorable minister of education for immediate action.

The group expressed its “deepest disappointment that the almost recurrent chaotic selection process of Vice Chancellor in the university of Abuja has roared its ugly presence this time again.”

“It will be recalled that the same scenario played out during the appointment of the erstwhile Vice Chancellor, Prof Adelabu which our recommendation to the then minister of education saved the situation and restored peace to the institution.

” We recall also with nostalgia, our role in the appointment of the immediate past Vice Chancellor, Prof Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, we are therefore bold to state unequivocally that we are familiar with the trend of leadership selection succession in the citadel of learning in also two decades now and have adopted same method for the current crisis being orchestrated by a political vested interest among the ranks of professors in the institution.

“In a long time, Nigerians have not seen professors involving in such a vexatious and demeaning absurdity, just to satisfy certain quarters that believe it is their exclusive right to decide what happens in the educational system.

“This act in academic circle is preposterous and requires to be nipped in the bud by ensuring that punishments are handed on those involved in the dance of shame.

“The antecedents of leadership selection in the university of Abuja suggest that many have been victims of such satanic manipulation which eventually denied them their rights to be at the very top echelon of their careers, hence the need to step in and ensure a competent hand is not denied her opportunity to bring greatness to the institution, “it further said.