By Waziri Isa Adam
Even at the twilight of his administration, the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Professor Kabiru Bala, will not allow peace to reign in the Premier University, as he is rumoured to be clandestinely working with some of his loyalists within the Muslim Forum of the Ivory Tower to remove the Chief Imam and spiritual leader of the Muslim Community, Sheikh Salihu Sintalma Abubakar.
The rumoured plot to sack the Chief Imam is not coming as a surprise to all those that know the Vice Chancellor’s agelong and pathological-like disdain and disrespect for not only the Chief Imam but stakeholders and all previous leaders of the university, particularly former Vice Chancellors who contributed immensely in his emergence as Vice Chancellor.
The Vice Chancellor’s rumoured plot to remove the Imam which is already generating serious tension and bad Public Relations for him in the University, especially among the Muslim Ummah, if not halted by senior stakeholders may lead to the creation of serious leadership vacuum in the Muslim Ummah.
The Vice Chancellor who is known for enjoying generating and thriving on needless controversies since he took over mantle of the university’s leadership, had been fighting different scholars, particularly his closest friends and colleagues, over trivial and resolvable issues, a regrettable situation that has made several senior Professors to flee the University.
Education Monitor gathered that the Vice Chancellor is said to have been having grudges with the Chief Imam, partly because of his alleged overbearing influence on the University Muslim Community, even as a retired Staff.
Attempt by Education Monitor to speak to the Vice Chancellor to ascertain his position on the allegation was not successful as a call put through to him was not picked.
Insisting on hearing his response on the allegation, for the purpose of balancing this report, a text that read, “Salamun Alaikum. Prof, I hope you are in a state of good health and ecstasy?. Sir, there is news making the rounds within and outside the University community that you are covertly working with some of your loyalists in the Muslim Forum to ensure that the University’s Chief Imam and Spiritual Leader, Malam S. S. Abubakar, is forced to step aside or relinquish his spiritual role in the University, following his recent retirement from the services of the University. Sir, what is the veracity of this allegation?”; but, upto the time of filing this report, there was no response from the Vice Chancellor