The Appointment Of Ahmadu Bello University

The Appointment Of Ahmadu Bello University’ Vice Chancellor: The Verdict

Usman, Sule Machika

Ahmadu Bello University Council is scheduled to meet tomorrow, 4^th August 2009. A lot of expectations again are on the air within and outside the university. There are however different expectations as there are different interest groups. But central to all would be bringing this ‘trial’ to its logical conclusion. A verdict that would capture all the interest groups within and outside the university, a verdict that all would embrace as impartial, transparent and accountable as the rule of law dictates, a verdict that all must abide with.

In my last contribution on the appointment of Ahmadu Bello University’s Vice – Chancellor, I presented two cardinal issues upon which I based my discourse – the conduct of the Selection Committee and the inappropriate dabbling of interest. In that piece, I projected my point of view based on a number of releases and a few documents, which I reviewed. This attempt is however centred on my interactions with key contenders for the appointment and a number of respected authorities, (persons) that I had the privilege to meet on the matter. The verdict is thus on the proceedings of the interactions. I might also consider one or two government circulars as important witness materials in arriving at the verdict.

Indeed the Vice – Chancellor Succession produced some of the most riveting dramas in the university, culminating into a stunning climax with the appointment of the Acting Vice Chancellor. No doubt that is the most important verdict – divine verdict – by Allah (S.W.A.), as He decreed in Qur’an ch 3:27, “O Allah, Lord of sovereignty, Thou givest sovereignty to whomsoever Thou pleasest; and Thou takest away sovereignty from whomsoever Thou pleasest and Thou abasest whomsoever Thou pleasest. In Thy hand is all good, Thou surely hast power to do all things.” Despite all schemes, manoeuvres and intense campaigning, Prof Umo emerged as the Acting Vice-Chancellor for the university that is divine.

Within our human consciousness, x-raying the scene of the ‘crime’ revealed a number of Interest Groups. The interest groups and their role(s) in the debacle would be considered first. Not less than five (5) interest groups were indentified scheming and counter scheming to tilt the succession bid to their favour. Two of these interest groups are officially recognized by the university authority while the others operating within the ambit of the law are very visible, though not officially acknowledged. Since they are yet to contravene any law, their whims and caprices are tolerated. The officially recognized interest groups are the Christian and Muslim Fora. In the present scenario, specifically the Vice – Chancellor Succession bid in ABU, two ethnic interest groups have been restless. Coincidently, the two opposing ethnic interest groups are indigenes of Kaduna State – one in the northern and the other in the southern hemisphere of the state. The fifth identified interest group in the present debacle, also not official; I rather tag the group ‘the supporters of Prof S.U. Abdullahi’. Incidentally, in the course of my interaction within the university and immediate environs, a sixth group emerged though very passive, but there exist the interest group of the southern Nigerians in regards to the appointment of the university’s Vice – Chancellor in A.B.U, Zaria.

However, before delving into the activities of each of the groups, a brief background of interest groups would be a good appetizer. The term interest group is often used interchangeably with pressure group, which simply means voluntary associations of individuals who band together for the defence of a particular interest. Interest groups or individuals are as old as from the pressure of Eve to Adam. Interest groups abound in modern societies. These groups to a very large extent are necessary and healthy for a thriving of societal moral fabric and democratic culture to evolve. However, their relevance by and large depends on the functions which they perform. One of their cardinal positive achievements is the ability to present a mirror image of the authority’s policies, the reaction of the target populace and concerns of the society in which they operate. They sometimes succeed in destroying an existing consensus as well as prepare a new one as well as not comprising the provision of a balance between stability and change within a system remains important. Interest groups energise their potential or actual membership by succinctly articulating their demands. In substantiating their demands, great effort is made to provoke decisions in their favour by properly addressing conflicting claims of government or their opposition.

Broadly speaking they operate either as defensive or promotional pressure group. In calling a spade a spade, defensive pressure groups is simply self centred, because they are mainly concerned with the protection of their members’ interests and often with a defined membership. The promotional pressure groups on the other hand are concerned with promoting some general public interest as opposed to their own self-interest. This defined my utter shock and dismay over the underground scheming of the two officially recognized religious interest groups in the university.

From my last review, there is no iota of doubt that the Christian Forum’s agitation is to have a Christian as the next VC for the university. Their catchment area is simply a Christian; however, due to intense politicking they would prefer a suitable northern Christian. This informed their positive support for the Prof. Nok candidature. My query had been for a body of that standing not to distance self from the irregularities associated with the scoring of candidates by the Selection Committee, which by no means was their fault. By their spiritual and moral standing, one expects that the Christian Forum would insist on a transparent selection process and nothing short. But most members of the forum are aggrieved and bitter over the issue. They simply associated the resistance that stalemated the appointment of Prof. Nok as a discrimination against their religion. Unfortunately, they seem not to view it in the light of an ethical and moral issue. The Chaplain’s position paper never helped the matter. This explains why they and all the supporters of Prof Nok are insisting on the purported 81% scored by him. The Christian Forum’s VERDICT is to pronounce the Professor as the Vice – Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University without any delay.

If truly, Nok had scored 81% I see no need for eyebrows to rise when a transparent process is asked for. The Professor, as one of the strongest contenders for the seat knows better than most of us that an examinee in case of doubting his examiner, as a matter of right can ask for an external remarking of his script. Similarly, members of academic staff can raise alarm on a student’s over or under scoring, which would again be properly looked into. In the same vein, the Prof. knows what it means to have less than ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ in the scoring of his students. It was in this light that I considered that instead of being promotional in their interest, the Christian Forum, specifically on this issue is indeed defensive in nature.

Towing the same line, the Muslim Forum’s case is even worse. This is the umbrella in which all Muslims operate under. This crisis of the Muslim contenders emanates from the Muslim Forum who questioned the religious credentials of some of the applicants. To them, all ‘Muslims are equal but some are more equal than others’. The candidature of both Profs Nasidi and Funtua were on the wrong side of the Muslim Forum. Prof Funtua was dubbed a Rotarian and Nasidi’s moral character was put to question by the Forum. As such, the opposition of the two Muslim candidates is an open secret. Yet at no time has the Forum challenged the people in question. The Muslim Forum, in her wisdom, would rather have one or two of their candidates sponsored for the seat, whether they would be generally accepted by the university community in the game of number is entirely a different ball game. The poise of the Muslim Forum over supporting or opposing Muslim appointees is not in any way promotional in nature. In the case of the VC’s Succession, the Forum’s initial stand was not on the shoddy scoring process of the Selection Board or the agitation of the Chaplain, but the realization that their self righteous scheming had produced a ‘Christian as the next VC’. Their VERDICT as contained in their letter to the Council Chairman published in the Daily Trust of 17^th July 2009, page 55 is to start all the process, to re-advertise the vacant post.

Unfortunately, there was no cogent reason for that stand other than the ‘rightful’ Muslim candidate is not in the race, what a dilemma. And to this moment, their agitation against Prof Nok is not based on his qualification or competence, the rightful campaign against Nok is yet to see the day light. The general expectation of the Muslim Forum base on the ethical and moral standard is to be impartial not only to the Muslims but indeed to even non-Muslims. They know better that the Muslim owes ‘Ahalal Kitab’ three (3) important things, good neighbourliness, fairness and accountability in all dealings, and upholding anything bequeathed to the Muslim by the people of the Book in absolute trust. It is therefore based on the Islamic standpoint on fairness and impartiality that the larger society, the world over, expects any of their opposition to be squarely on merit, where character and conduct is concerned; it should be publicly stated without fear or favour. Thus, by the means of promotional interest, their stand against any candidate should be on moral, academic credentials, conduct and competence. If they had done their home work well, they would have supported the emergence of an unbeatable candidate that the world would have wholeheartedly supported based on nothing but merit. The case of Prof S.U. Abdullahi, one time Chairman of the Forum, when he emerged as the VC is an exemplary pointer. During that contest, no matter one’s interest, his transparent standing with his fellow contenders was glaring and unquestionable.

The issue of sentiments must be eschewed by all moral propagating Fora, particularly in a circular state with multiethnic and multi-religious country like Nigeria. From the above analogy, the two religious Interest groups unfortunately, fell short of that. They are more of defensive pressure groups rather than the promotional interest groups specifically on the VC’s succession crisis. This can easily be understood basically because of their preoccupation of protecting their members’ interests at all cost.

As inside Interest groups officially recognized, religious interest groups are legitimate. They therefore, have strong links with decision makers and are often consulted during policy-making process. Their legitimacy gives them access to members of authority. As inside interest groups and part of the consultation process; it enables them to use direct methods in order to exert influence. They are a force to be reckoned with in the university and they have a long term effect in terms of influence. However, they must generally abide by the ‘rules of the game’. For example, they must respect confidences and not to make public attacks on leaders on normal circumstances. Their advantage rests on spiritual and specialized knowledge, which often give them access to information that is highly valued by decision makers.

As the officially registered Interest groups, the Christian and Muslim Fora should be a true vanguard of consciously propagating a sound public policy. It is expected of them to authoritatively allocate ethical and moral values on issues without allowing sentiment to becloud their judgement. Their focus must extend beyond the realization of the parochial interests of their members. Religious Interest groups by their spiritual and divine nature as well as crusaders and propagators, should be promotional interest groups. They should be more preoccupied with promoting some general public interest as opposed to their own self-interest. Their activities should be vocal and determined in pursuing policies and goals that have relevance to the university community in particular and the society in general. There is nothing amiss if they criticize unpopular or unfavourable university policies, or to express their displeasure and, in some cases, to suggest alternatives to programmes or policies which they consider unfavourable. The central goal is to channel their activities towards sensitizing and mobilizing members of the university to positive behavioural changes. Unfortunately, on this succession crisis, none of the two interest groups based their demand on the pedestal of societal morality and ethics.

Now, let me face the two ethnic interest groups. It is no longer a hidden issue that relations between ethnic groups remain a major problem in Nigeria with such a large and pluralistic society. Interethnic relations were often mistrustful, or discriminatory, and sometimes violent. As always ethnic conflicts are deep rooted. These conflicts over religion, language and identity have become so complex that they are difficult to resolve or manage. The dire consequences of the matter have made it one of the most important considerations of national security. In the case of the northern and southern Kaduna, it’s beyond the coming of colonial masters to the period of raids and pillage among non-Muslim villages. This has lived on over centuries with reoccurring mistrust and conflict. Competition for control over one another outlived all peaceful overtures. This ethnic conflict is therefore often caused by an attempt to secure more power or to access more resources. Another major cause of the conflict is psychological –fear and insecurity, whether real or imagined. Unfortunately, this conflict is often camouflaged as religion, thus ‘ethno-religion’. But the truth of the matter is sincerely ethnic nothing but ethnic. The religious dimension is only added in order to gain more sympathy nothing else.

In Kaduna State, the entire southern Kaduna is defined as an ethnic interest group in this piece because of their common community, share cultural, tradition and history. The generalization is made despite their different linguistic characteristics as well as acknowledging that within their geographical location they do have their brawling. Similarly, the Hausa/Fulani of northern Kaduna is lumped together, despite varied communities and settlement. Their common identity is confined to one Emirate, with the larger population as Muslims. These two ethnic interest groups though are affiliate members of the two religious interest groups, on the issue of VC’s succession crisis, like in most cases; they call their shots by their activities.

Let me again start with the southern Kaduna interest group. As a matter of emphasis, let me repeat that despite being members of the Christian Forum, the southern Kaduna interest group is purely ethnic. In their agitation for Prof Nok, they have clearly ‘disassociated themselves from the Christian Forum. They are truly embittered that sometimes in the past; the Christian Forum took up their VC slot. They are yet to forgive the Christian Forum for standing in for Prof Saror in place of Prof Joseph Yusufu Yayock and/or Shekarau Yakubu Aku.

The trauma of southern Kaduna interest group can better be understood based on their historic wrangling with their northern cousins of Kaduna state. It is sad, indeed pathetic that they are nourished by generation of broken promises, bargaining, denial, and despair, their impatience and bitterness eminent from this. Their accumulation of anger over their unhealed wounds unfortunately was dragged in the present debacle. Or else how can one reconcile the present situation with their ethnic squabbles of 1930s or their emirate problems as well as Governorship of the state?

Many were shock when His Royal Highness, the Emir of Zazzau’s name was dragged into this issue. This is more true for those who are aware of His Highness’ sympathy for Prof Nok. His people openly accused him of taking sides, but he remains steadfast in seeking for peaceful and transparent contest. His position was made clear on number of instance when he sited his case as the Chancellor of University of Nigeria Nsuka and how their appointment of the VC was conducted. The same person is labelled as anti – Nok. Similarly, His Excellency, Governor Namadi was noted to have made a public statement to the effect to have an indigene of Kaduna state as the next VC, but beclouded by historic accumulation of anger; unprintable jargons were associated to the Governor.

In one of my privileged meeting with Prof Nok, I ventured to inform him that the ethnic campaign indeed was more against his candidature than for him. Some of his supporters are actually blinded by the fury of their relationship with their northern cousins in the political landscape of Kaduna state, which has a multi-effect of campaigning against him rather than being promotional. What they needed was to read Barack Obama’s ‘The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream’. The southern Kaduna interest groups need to take a leaf from the epic story of how African-Americans, in the six decades following slavery, transformed themselves into a political people, eventually producing the first African-American President. Another pointer this interest group need, is the recent unanimous vote by the U.S. Senate that passed a resolution formally apologizing for the enslavement and segregation of African-Americas. The strongly-worded resolution, which comes 144 years after the civil war and 45 years after the Civil Rights Act, describes “the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors”.

Despite that the African-Americans are fully aware that it is not yet uhuru. White power remains dominate even in the 21st century in America. Except something is done fast, there may be no African-American sitting in the Senate gallery in Washington to give blacks some small sense of identification after 2011. President Barack had the very Senate seat Roland Burris occupies today. Roland Burris would retire on January 1, 2011, after which there would be another fierce battle for the seat. No excuses would be accepted should a white man win. It would only mean that there would be no Black U.S. Senators just as there were none before 1870. The southern Kaduna interest group need to take this memory lane in order to know how to overcome their northern cousins in their various political engagements.

While I can accept excuses for southern Kaduna, I cannot understand the reasons for the agitations of their northern brothers. One might wrongly assume that this interest group have the same yearnings like that of the Muslim Forum – wrong! In disassociating themselves from the umbrella Muslim Forum, the northern Kaduna interest group was categorical that tribal Muslims are not with them. Off course in terms of convenience, they lean on religion to ward off non Muslim contenders, as they simply cashed-in in condemning Prof Nok.

Their primary goal is to see that only indigenes of Zaria emirate are eligible to become VC’s in A.B.U. Funny, indeed!! I would be quick to remind these fortune seekers that should the Sardauna of Sokoto was as self centred as they are, the university would have been sited either in Rabah or Wurno, not even in Sokoto. One wonders where their thoughts got muddled up for them to nurture such an unhealthy myopic thought that a member of the Sultanate, their kin and kith would never aspire to be the VC of A.B.U., Zaria. Similarly, that descends of Sir Kashim Ibrahim and the sons and daughters Borno should not aspire to hold the apex office of the university one of their illustrate sons selflessly contributed in founding.

Nobody would deny ‘home advantage’. Any candidate of Zaria extraction would have an added advantage. It would therefore be generally accepted that should an indigene of Zaria and one from Sokoto slug it out and are almost at par on merit, the chips would go down towards the Zaria man, to get a bone fide offer. But the impossibility is to legitimize their ascendancy to that position base on indigenization. Their agitation is nothing but the rambling of lazybones. Having the opportunity of being members of the academic staff of the university is enough for them to bend down and work. They should go all out in the academic pursuit to standout in the midst of giants. They have brighter and better chances than the non indigenes but they can never have it at a platter of gold. In fact, they should expect tougher challenges from ‘outside’. They need to roll off their sleeves and bend down to work. Their case is tasteless, baseless and outrageous, indeed useless! By their antics, they are leaning towards opportunists, to cash in on others peoples toiling and successes. When this VC ‘war’ started, they hadn’t the wherewithal and the courage to venture out; they waited for the ‘spoiler group’ to do their dirty bidding before they shamelessly launched their narrow-minded ‘ethnic’ campaign. ‘Ethnic’, because should they be truly ethnic, a Hausa man from Niger Republic should have been accepted to them, but no. Only Hausa Muslims of Zaria extraction, what a laugh.

Before going to the S U Abdullahi’s supporter interest group, let me quickly brush the wishes of the passive southern Nigerian interest group in the university and the immediate environs. This interest group though dominant are Christian; their desire is quite different from the wishes of the Christian Forum, to them, Christian or Muslim, a Northerner is a Northerner. In their naive thinking and generalization, a Northerner is not competent enough to head an ivory tower; this should be left for the gurus properly cultured in western standards. One of such proponent, possibly had a slip of tongue before me when he pronounced one of their wishes, for Prof Umo ‘to use the power of incumbency to transmute into a substantive VC. How people can think is really often amazing.

Fortunately, possibly unfortunately for those with such school of thought, Prof Umo is one of the few that are as near perfect as possible, associated to this debacle. As I stated earlier, even the Prof is yet to recover from the shock of how Allah Does His things. A man on the move, in the exeat, was forced by providence to hold the most exalted office in the university. True to type, many have vouched for the Ag. VC. So many staff with their mundane requests, were jolted by the Ag. VC’s modest response, ‘I can’t do this, please, wait for the substantive VC’. The man knows the consequences of betraying God’s trust. Many are daily taking stock of the activities of the Ag. VC, particularly, on matters relating to appointments and they are eager to see how the man would conduct the up coming admission process. The Ag. VC is more preoccupied by how to main his stainless profile while at the exit’s doorstep of a glorious career, than to be dragged into petty politics of ‘tazarche’. So far, none of the interest groups is yet to come up with any criticism on how the man is conducting the affairs of the university. Off course, not because he is well cultured by the western standard as the southern Nigerian interest group would want us to believe. The Prof knows too well his seasoned mentors, from who he learnt his ropes, those who saw to his development to this stage.

Let me now focus on the next interest group – the supporters of S U Abdullahi. This group are a microcosm of the university or even the larger Nigerian society. They are a blend of all interest groups. They are a very powerful cohesive network. They are capable of solving the succession fiasco by throwing their weight to support one candidate. But they are embittered with certain activities and certain people. I have a mix feeling for this interest group. On one note, I commend their composition, as well as loyalty in defending the system. But I disagree with them on the count of ‘forgiveness’. If the system is to move forward, there is the need to truly bury the machete. Their composition should be the driving force of normalizing and sanitizing the bottlenecks the succession crisis bred. They need to know that the system is larger than a single or group of individuals. Their antecedence was the last student uprising, where they believed that some unscrupulous elements engineered the whole episode. The aim of the student’s unrest, as far as they are concern, was to destabilize the administration of S U Abdullahi that is their grudge. Their inability to ‘forgive’ their foes is a strong contributory factor in the succession bid. My snooping indicated that this group are anti Profs Nasidi and Nok, to them any other person can be VC with the exception of those ‘identified’ sponsors of the student riot or those on the fence during the crisis.

My sympathy truly lies with this group to a distance. It was their poise that I stood to demand the resignation of the Pro Chancellor and all the Council Members. This I sooner discarded not because of a change of mind but because on some issue I am a realist. There is no resignation culture in Africa as a whole and Nigeria in particular. Therefore, expecting Malam Adamu Ciroma to resign is to ask Obama to become a Nigerian. On similar tow, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has already legitimized gluing to their seats until otherwise. However, membership of the council needs to be appointed. Some of the member’s legitimacy has expired. Some have conveniently gone into sabbatical leave. Other than this, the only way to unseat the Council is to get a court injunction. What is the problem? In the ivory tower, a query was raised over some script markings and missing scripts. It was true that out of the expected forty scripts, only one is in circulation. Is this enough to go to court? No! What is required is to ensure that following the guidelines as spelt out by the university laws and statuses, the scripts should be remark appropriately, simple. Where the script is missing, another prescribed examination should be conducted and mark as well.

At this juncture, it would be right to ask this interest group to throw-in the towel to move the university forward. The guidelines and the marking scheme concerning the VC’s appointment should be made public. Again, because of the flawed scoring of the former Selection Committee, there are two guidelines in circulation in the university – the Federal Ministry of Education Guidelines and the University Council’s Guidelines. They Council must have adopted the a modified guidelines in order to pave way for young Professor who lacked the prescribed ten (10) post Professorial qualification by the Federal Ministry of Education’s Guidelines. Agreed that the Council can modify guidelines to suit the peculiar situation at hand, also agreed is that even a Senior Lecture can aspire to be a VC, but where there are a sizeable number with ten year post Professorial qualification, why the modification then? There is no intention here to pre-empt the Council scoring process even though the scoring sheet as the marking scheme is self explanatory. Apart from the Interview pointes, placing every candidates CV would give you his precise marks, it is that scientific.

I need to however, illuminate one important point. One of the criterion on the guidelines no: 5, is societal linkages, which the Council specified as ‘Community Service’. On this point, to the best of my knowledge and to all those who are conversant with the Samaru village, none of the candidates should score more than two (2) out of the maximum of five (5) points. In fact, one of the saving graces of the succession crisis was that Samaru Community lived up to their role as the custodians of the university as the host community. A simple walk into that settlement would always evoke sad and painful memories of community exploitation by the establishment of such organization and institutes. The Samaru Community organization has now waken up from their slumber, they are now one of the most formidable force in ensuring a speedy, peaceful, transparent and impartial conclusion of the selecting process for appointing a substantial VC for the university. They have a lot at stake, but none of the candidates to this point could categorically point at one thing he has done to alleviate the plight of that community. Two marks is even much, they should all score zero on this criterion.

In the present circumstance, the Council would have two option, to either stiffen the requirement by adopting the National Standard or to adopt ‘Raba Gaddama’, in which case the agitation of the Muslim Forum would have to stand. To start all over, raise the stakes and shop outside. This also has its price. The so call divisive forces might eventually unit to sabotage the ‘outside candidate’ that might emerge as the VC. This has happens a number of times in other institutions. This should be the last option indeed. Personal and professional experiences of the members of the Council should be call into play. By no means should one allow ethno-religious factors to sway their sense of judgement. Prejudice of any kind, either as empathy or sympathy must not becloud the fact that the law was not judiciously interpreted. The rule of thumb is to be fully be committed to fairness and impartiality toward every candidate who appears before them.

The Council should be explicit in informing the general public on their verdict, importantly, on how they arrived at their verdict. The task of the Council at this stage is to simply apply the law. Their goal should be a strong commitment towards interpreting the Federal Governments guidelines according to the facts at hand, interpreting university statutes according to their terms and Congress's intent and hewing faithfully to precedents established by their predecessors. That is why I generally structure my opinions by setting out what the law requires and then explaining why a contrary position, sympathetic or not, is accepted or rejected. That is my expectations of all the interest groups, particularly the religious interest groups, whose primary concern should be to seek to strengthen both the rule of law and faith in the impartiality of our systems.

The sacred interest groups must be vanguard of political equality, mutual reciprocity, trust, tolerance, compromise, concern for public policies and the willingness to co-ordinate activities behind shared public goals. There is need to emphasis the import of trust, cooperation and common good in peace-building. And uncompromising standard must be reset for the university – trust as the binding fabric socially engineered towards an important shared set of values, virtues and expectations within the university system as a whole. For instance, in regards to the succession crisis in the university, no matter how impressive the credentials of applicants for the post are, all interest groups have the right to air their views on whether or not the candidate so chosen is the best choice to fill the vacancy left by S U Abdullahi, albeit through a fierce ideological debate. However, in an ideal situation, such views would rather be more of promotional instead of defensive. This succession fiasco would go along way in not only increasing the involvement and assertiveness of these official interest groups but would pave a way to accommodate the emergence and growth of new ones.

Let me simply conclude with Allah’s verdict, as enjoined in the Holy Qur’an, ch 7:130, “Your Lord is about to destroy your enemy and make you rulers in the land, that He may then see how you act.” The ivory tower has a strong tradition and we have a strong faith on that tradition. What we have at stake in one another (contribution to the body of knowledge) is what binds us together, which is far greater than what drives us apart. Should we then all act on this, there is no iota of doubt that we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done and we would NOT BE STUCK ON SOLVING ONE PROBLEM – APPOINTING A SUBSTANTIVE VICE-CHANCELLOR.

This is the verdict! I sincerely hope that the verdict bespeaks justice.

Usman, Sule Machika, wrote from Zaria.