…say action illegal, defies FG’s circular
Pandemonium broke out on Thursday at the Governing Council meeting of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike ( MOUAU), when the internal members resisted an attempt by the Pro Chancellor and Chairman, Comrade Fidelis Edeh to sack them.
The altercation, which almost turned into a physical combat, with members shouting on top of their voices, brought the sitting to an abrupt end.
Trouble started when Edeh who has been having a running battle with almost all stakeholders in the university tried to walk out the internal Council members under the guise that their tenure has ended and that they should be replaced with new ones.
The seven elected Council members are Prof C O Offor, Prof I Okoro, Prof A Nlewadim,Prof I Obasi, Prof Ononuju, Mrs I O K Onuma and Prof Igbokwe who has retired.
The tumultuous session began when Edeh informed the internal members that their tenure had ended and that there was a massive pressure from those outside to be appointed.
One by one, the affected council members confronted him ,saying that their tenure runs to October 2027.
Despite their protestations, Edeh directed the Vice Chancellor, Prof Ursula Ngozi Akanwa, to bring up the matter for resolution on the floors of the Senate, Congregation and Convocation. He further directed that the newly elected MOUAU alumni president should replace the current one in the Council.
However, the internal Council members faulted his decisions, insisting that their tenure subsists until October 2027.
They argued that although they were inaugurated on September 8th, 2022, for a four year tenure, the federal government dissolved the council on April 4th, 2023, and didn’t reconstitute it until July 1st, 2024.
Their argument is as follows
- If Council had run uninterrupted, the four years tenure of internal members would have ended September 2026.
- However, the circular from the federal ministry of education clarified the position of the law on tenure of internal members who are normally elected
- The circular is titled “Reviewed Guidelines for the Ministry’s Representative on the Government Councils of Federal Tertiary Institutions.”
- The circular provides in section 1.6 that “Accordingly, where they are yet to complete their tenure before the dissolution of the Council, the said elected members would automatically become members of the re-constituted Council, pending the completion of their tenure as prescribed in the University statute”.
- However, in a Council meeting held on Thursday 17th September, the Pro-chancellor unilaterally dissolved the internal members of Council and brought the meeting to a sudden end.
This dissolution runs contrary to the law as tenure of elected internal members only runs in an active as opposed to an aborted Council.Tenure of Internal Council is additive and not continuous”
“The Pro-chancellor had complained that the current internal members are friends of the immediate past Vice-chancellor,Prof Maduebibisi Iwe, and do not allow him do as he pleases.”
Our correspondent, who sighted a copy of the circular, reports that the unilateral action of Comrade Fidelis Edeh is an open defiance to the guidelines released by the federal ministry of education on the tenure of internal Council members.
