By Our Correspondent
Embattled Governing Council of the University of Abuja was yesterday thrown into turmoil over the appointment of an acting registrar.
The tenure of the incumbent Registrar, Yahya Mohammed, will expire on November 11.
On Tuesday, the university announced the appointment of Mrs Islamiyat Fayoke Abdulrahim in acting capacity until a substantive registrar emerges.
However, there have been spirited attempts to reverse the appointment.
First, the Pro-Chancellor, Air Vice Marshal Sadiq Kaita, who chaired the meeting that ratified Abdulrahim’s appointment, hastily summoned another extraordinary meeting yesterday evening and tried to annul the earlier appointment. He was stoutly resisted by members of the Council and the meeting ended in a deadlock.
There are speculations that the chairman is being influenced by two professors and former deans of the law faculty, who are working for one of the candidates for the vacant vice chancellor’s job. This candidate, a former chief executive of a federal agency, and who is believed to enjoy the support of the chairman, is not comfortable with Mrs Abdulrahim as acting registrar, because she is upright and apolitical, hence not likely to do anyone’s bidding.
The council chairman had tried to get the tenure of the outgoing registrar extended, but was rebuffed by the council. The outgoing registrar was allegedly partisan, having pitched his tent with the group that enjoys the support of the chairman.
The appointment of Mrs Abdulrahim was warmly received in the university and according to inside sources, any attempt to change it is likely to plunge the university into crisis.
Already, there is growing dissatisfaction with the style of the council chairman, fueling accusations of incompetence, inconsistency and ethnic and regional bias.
The council itself is gradually becoming embattled and crisis-prone.
