By Waziri Isa Adam
Clamoring for urgent intervention, renowned patriotic and courageous members of the Ahmadu Bello University community, Professor Almustapha A. Liman and Professor Muhammed Muttaka Usman, have issued a clarion call to the institution’s Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed, urging him to harness his vast experience and leadership prowess to rescue his alma mater from the brink of collapse.
The scholars who are Academic Staff Union of Universities’ activists decried that ABU, especially under its current leadership, is teetering on the precipice of systemic atrophy, characterized by crippling infrastructure decay, stagnating academic excellence, and dwindling morale. Professors Liman and Muttaka’s impassioned plea underscores the imperative for swift and decisive action to revitalize the university’s fortunes, restore its former glory, and steer it back from the abyss.
The appeal was contained in a letter, dated 2nd/Sept/2024, signed by the two Professors, entitled “A Letter to the Pro-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, on the Need to Comprehensively Address the Perennial Systemic Atrophy Afflicting the University”.
The scholars told the Pro-Chancellor that “our letter was motivated by our conviction that, given your track record of service to the nation, administrative competence, rich experience as a technocrat, and your good standing as a statesman, you are well-positioned to steer the affairs of Ahmadu Bello University towards the attainment of the goals for which it was established”.
“You are coming to ABU on the footsteps, in a long line, of many eminent and distinguished Nigerians, the list of which includes Shettima Kashim Ibrahim, Oba Akinzua II, Chief Obafemi Awolowa, Etsu Nupe Umar Sanda Ndayako, etc, and your kinsmen – Alhaji Sule Katagum and Malam Adamu Muazzam Fika; thus, making this assignment a great honour, a weighty trust and responsibility”, the dons stated.
They stressed that the need to reposition the university is crucial at this time when the micro and macro contexts in which it operates are full of challenges and competition that the university can fruitfully face through enhanced attractiveness, relevance and viability.
“Revamping ABU is highly possible because of its enviable history of high performance in the past. As one of the first-generation universities in Nigeria, ABU has distinguished itself as a uniquely successful institution based on a productive compliance with the vision and mission of its founding fathers, the high quality of its products, as well as its cosmopolitan outlook”, they stressed.
“Unfortunately, the lofty ideals and the monumental achievements of the university are today threatened by devastating decline, loss of focus, disorientation and neglect. These setbacks are worsened by the inadequacy of facilities of teaching, learning and research, and other structural imbalances and anomalies”, they lamented.
“We thus feel compelled to apprise you, Sir, that the laws of the federation grant that the Council shall be free and independent in the discharge of its functions, and in the exercise of its responsibilities in all aspects of university governance, including financial budgetary and expenditure processes (not exclusive of overhead and personal costs) and the institution of lectureship”, they stated.
They however regretted that, “the Council is, at present, hamstrung by a myriad of federal policy acts and statements, especially such notable ones as the TSA, IPPIS, and staff recruitment policies and procedures; and no least too by the unhealthy meddlesomeness of the National Universities Commission (NUC). This infringement occurs in total contravention of the law (Cap A14 of the Laws of the Federation and University amendments act 2003) which affirms that the ‘Powers of the Council shall be exercised, as in the Law of the Council and Statutes of each University, and to that extent, establishment circulars that are in consistent with the Laws and Statues of the University shall not apply to the Universities’
The Dons further posited that, “At the centre of the problems of the university is acutely myopic leadership style, self serving mien and total disregard of administrative procedures, ethics, priority and refusal to abide by the statutory limits of the powers of the vice chancellors, who always become inclined to manipulate rather than allow their administrative responsibilities to be guided by the provisions of the law, statutes, procedures and due process. This self-serving approach to university management is complicated by a perennially creeping culture of impunity, which has made it possible for vested interests to conspire to produce poor quality leaders in total disregard of set rules, statutory requirements and due process. This creeping negative culture is compounded by attendant manipulative tendencies which in turn breed vice chancellors and administrations whose focus and interests are obviously at variance with the core mandates of the University”.
The scholars regretted that these problems have been highlighted by a number of Visitation Reports and Whitepapers. “Sadly, the prudent recommendations of a couple of Whitepapers have been proudly ignored by successive University administrations. The directives of the Visitor/Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the University to implement the recommendations of the Whitepapers in order to improve the lot of the university have in the main been equally ignored”, they added.
The scholars buttressed that, “ABU today is in a state of unhealthy over-bloated administrative structures and academic programs in the face of diminished funding, dilapidated infrastructures and equipments, all as a result of such neglect”. “In the frenzy to flood the university with administrative structures and academic programs, capacity, relevance, sustainability, currency and quality are never factored into such hasty and ill-thought-out decisions to expand administrative structures and and academic programs beyond the carrying capacity of the university”.
To buttress this claim, the scholars cited that, “with academic staff strength of about 3000, ABU today boasts of more than 1000 academic programs, a figure that translates into an average ratio of about 3 academic staff per program. This computation not only violates NUC’s staff-students ratio and the pyramidal structure of the university, but has also evidently stretched personnel and facilities in the university beyond the limits of its carrying capacity. It has also turned out to be the root of the university’s stagnation and degeneration”.
At the level of financial administrations-Pen future and budgetary processes, the picture is unpleasant to say the least. “Having served on the ABU Budget Monitoring Committee (BMC), we deem ourselves qualified enough to affirm that even a cursory look at the university’s financial dealings and expenditures would reveal that due-process is often flouted and circumvented”, the scholars stated.
“To this end, sir, we wish to state that we wrote this letter with all sense of responsibility. While hoping that your Governing Council will engineer a comprehensive reform of the system before the little that is left of the idea of a university disappears completely if things are allowed to continue as if all is well, we hereby seek audience with you, Sir, so as to put before you issues that we, in all honesty, believe require your utmost consideration”, they submitted.
Summarily, Professors Muttaka’s and Liman’s letter seeks to urge the Yayale-led Governing Council to, among other things: Convene an emergency meeting to address the systemic atrophy and decline of ABU, establish a taskforce to review and implement the recommendations of past Visitation Reports and Whitepapers, take decisive action to revamp the university’s leadership, administrative structures and academic programs, and to ensure transparency and accountability in financial administration and budgetary processes.