Education Minister, Adamu Adamu
John Ameh
Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education on Tuesday tackled the Minister of Education, Mr. Adamu Adamu, over the sack of five of the 13 vice-chancellors of federal universities by the Federal Government about three weeks ago.
The lawmakers and the minister had a heated argument over the legality of the removal of the VCs, which the former said was done while the VCs’ tenures had yet to expire.
The sack of the vice-chancellors being contested involved those of the federal universities in Oye Ekiti, Binin Kebbi, Gusau, Gashua and the National Open University of Nigeria.

For the former NOUN vice-chancellor, Prof. Vincent Tenebe, Adamu claimed that the Governing Council of the university illegally extended his tenure.The minister pointedly 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.
However, lawmakers were enraged by his comments, as they argued that Buhari, as the visitor to the universities, could only sack VCs on the recommendations of the governing councils in liaison with the Senate.
For NOUN, members noted that it had a council in place, which tenure had not expired at the time of the sack of the VC.
A member of the committee, Prof. Mojeed Alabi, described the removal of the VCs as an act of “impunity.”
Reacting to Adamu’s claim that four of the universities were not properly established, another member of the committee, Mr. Timothy Golu, said the minister should have advised the President to close them down.
On his part, the chairman of the committee, Alhaji Aminu Suleiman, asked why the government did not constitute the councils for the universities so that the proper procedure for sacking the VCs could be followed.
The minister said the President got different nominations from “the party, states and other sources” for positions in the councils.
Suleiman added, “The section of the law you read to us didn’t show that you can proceed without the council. There are still contentious issues which you need to come and show us clearly.
“So you need to come with proofs to show us. We sit to protect the law and so, when we are confronted with the provisions of the law, we surrender.”
The lawmakers were not satisfied with the minister’s responses, directing him to return again on Tuesday next week.
The House in plenary also opposed a move by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Muhammed Bello, to close down 556 private schools in the territory.
The schools are said to be operating illegally.
The resolution came after a member from Osun State, Mr. Albert Adeogun, moved a motion that up to 100,000 children could be out of school should the FCTA proceeded with the plan.
He said, “This will impact negatively on the future of the children and destroy the need to improve on the literacy rate of Nigerians.
“The closure of the schools without alternative arrangements for the placement of the children in schools that can absorb the large population will expose the children to crime and abuse.”