By Joshua Tosin Ogunsakin 
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has explained why the government should leave the appointment of a new vice-chancellor of a public universities of the governing councils of respective institutions.
The union said the political interference from the government’s side, especially the Ministry of Education and the Presidency on the issue of appointment of a new VC for a federal university in Nigeria has been one of the strong factors causing crisis.
The President of ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, made the remark in an exclusive interview with Nigerian Tribune when asked how to prevent recurrent crisis trailing the appointment of a new VC for a public university in the country.
Explaining the process, he said, “The procedure to appoint a new VC for a public university in Nigeria is very clear and backed by the law.
“It is the governing council that has a sole responsibility to appoint a new vice- chancellor whenever there is a vacancy.
“The council will meet and constitute a committee, which will be made up of the university Senate and Council.
“The selection committee will conduct interviews for shortlisted candidates and the interviews may be in stages to arrive at the best three and recommend them to the larger Council to pick one for the position.
“The Council will then do thorough review of the entire process against each of the recommended candidate with the criteria used for selecting them.
“At this stage, the Council has the rights to pick anyone from the three and the person may not necessarily be the candidate with the highest marks based on their review and findings.
“And if there is an argument on who to pick among them, they will subject the process to voting with candidate that has the highest votes becomes the new VC and that ought to end the process before sending the name to the President, who is the visitor through the minister of education for ratification.
“So, it is not compulsory to pick number one on the list as the other two have equal chance of becoming the VC, but the council must have to put up a clear and convincing reason or reasons for rejecting the number one.”
However, he said, “What we are seeing nowadays like the recent case of Admiralty University of Nigeria is about external interference from the government that somebody cannot be picked or that this or that person is the candidate of Mr. President or the Minister, which is supposed not to be so.”
Osodeke argued further that, “If the system is allowed to work as it should, there won’t be any problem in this matter and that is why I will ask government to hands-off completely in the appointment of a new VC for public university in the country.”
But when asked about the position of merit and fairness if the best candidate produced in the interview is not chosen, Osodeke said to resolve such concern is simple as the law provides for a redress.
According to him, any candidate who feels cheated can approach the court up to the Supreme Court level to seek redress and the court will entertain such a complaint and address the matter.
“At this stage, court has the power to upturn the council’s decision if found to be unfair and the ruling will stand, especially if it is by the Supreme Court.
“So, neither the ministry nor presidency has the constitutional power to force any candidate on the council. It was those old days that the Council would send names of the best three candidates to the President to pick from and that is no longer the practice today.
“And that is why running to the president or minister to resolve appointment crisis instead of court is improper.
“After all, candidates in political elections in the country run to court when they feel cheated and whatever court says stands, especially if the ruling comes from the supreme court.
“That is the same procedure provided for by the in the appointment of a new vice-chancellor for a public university in Nigeria.”