President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, apologised over last month’s sack of the Boards of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and the 12 Federal universities that were established by the administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the opening of a 2-day National Economic Council Retreat at the Statehouse Conference Centre on 21st March 2016.
President Buhari, who spoke at the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja, said he had to rescind the blanket order for the suspension or dissolving of the Universities Boards, after discovering that according to extant laws of the universities, Vice Chancellors can’t be chosen unless the Boards sit down, interview prospective candidates who want to be VCs.
Buhari said: “When we came in after 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, each government had 42 ministries. We reduced them to 24, removed 21 Permanent Secretaries. We sat down and reflected seriously. We were all in the process of taking over at a time of national budget. So, imagine the volume of work and with what happened in the National Assembly, the padding, it would appear that below the Permanent Secretaries, there are still a lot of bureaucracies that are still with them. So, you have to appreciate the position we are in. Having cut 42 to 24, correspondingly, the parastatals will be cut down to some size and realigned and the boards reconstituted.
“We gave a blanket order which we had to rescind when we said all boards are suspended or dissolved. We had to go back and lick our vomit in terms of university boards because we found out that according to their laws, they cannot choose Vice Chancellors unless the Boards sit down, interview prospective candidates who wants to be VCs. So, there is nothing wrong in saying sorry and going back on your decision. So, we said sorry and allow all the universities to continue with their boards. But for the rest, eventually, we will make it. So, please, try to bear with us as we reflect on where we found ourselves.”
Recall that on February 13, 2016, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu had in a terse statement declared that the President, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and Visitor to all federal universities, President Muhammadu Buhari, approved the appointment of new vice chancellors for the 12 under-listed Federal Universities and the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) with effect from Friday, February 12, 2016.
The Education Ministry in a separate notice had said that the President also approved the reconstitution of the governing councils of the new 12 Federal Universities with immediate effect. (Vanguard Ngr)
With all the intellectuals he put together to format the cabinet they still can afford to make grievous mistakes that even a fool or a dummy will not make. It is almost one year into his administration and not even one thing has been done apart from just busy chasing POP politicians all over the place. He is also very busy travelling every week all over the world and collecting $2 million for travelling esta codes while millions of Nigerians are losing their jobs and languishing in poverty. The prices of goods and services have skyrocketed, the price of the dollar in just 9 months have greatly doubled like it has never happened before. Armed robbery and kidnapping have restarted all over again, boko haram activities that he boasted about still looms like wild fire. Fulani herdsmen armed with assorted weapons rampaging, killing, raping, kidnapping and destroying farms of innocent people in the south. I can’t continue to list his failures but I will only pray to the Almighty God to give Nigerians the strength and will power to be able to survive the next 3 years of this administration. This is definitely not the change Nigerians voted for.
Sai Baba!! More kudos to you in person and your administration in general. It is not an everyday thing for a HEAD in BLACK AFRICA to openly admit making a MISTAKE and CORRECTING it OPENLY.
It is the hallmark of great leaders to be magnanimous in situations like this.You just proved to me you are only HUMAN and the HEAVENS WILL BEAR WITH YOU IN YOUR QUEST TO PUT NIGERIA ON SOUND FOOTING.
To your critics, I have little to say to them so far the Iconic W.S. saying..”corruption will fight back” and it is fighting back..politically, economically, socially and RELIGIOUSLY yet you must succeed and you shall.Remember you once rightly said..’our enemies are within’, yes they are, they are…
Are you serious…? Are you “f…..g” serious? For the president and his administration not to have thought about all those circumstances before removing those vice chancellors from office…that is unbelievable!
I know they are incompetent but this and the budget issue are really exposing them.
I certainly hope they get better…our hopes are riding on them.
Cash Ezimako