Nigerian minister to meet warring parties, students write

The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, and other top officials of the ministry will on Thursday (today) meet with the Rector of the Federal College of Education, Technical (FCET), Akoka, Lagos, Wahab Azeez, and some trade unionists on the campus, over the crisis rocking the tertiary institution.

PREMIUM TIMES understands that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Did Watson-Jack, recently drafted invitation letters to a meeting with the Minister addressed to no fewer than 12 university staff, including the Vice-Chancellor.

A copy of the letter, obtained exclusively by this newspaper, said the meeting is scheduled for 11am at the Ministry’s headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.

This newspaper earlier reported that some university workers under the aegis of “concerned staff” had closed the office of the vice-chancellor since May 27 over tenure following the amendment of the law establishing colleges of education in Nigeria.

FCET Rector Wahab Azeez

This is as leaders of the institution’s students’ union and the Senate of the National Association of Nigerian Colleges of Education Students (NANCES) have urged the minister not to succumb to the “machinations of those who have taken the law into their hands.”

They accused the protesters of threatening students and workers who refused to join them in order to “stir up trouble.”

Background

Since May 27, workers have closed the rector’s office and also served him with an eviction notice from his official residence.

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Led by leaders of the Senior Staff Union of Colleges of Education (SSUCOEN), FCET chapter, the protesters insisted that with the amendment to the Colleges of Education Act 2023, which introduced a single five-year term for principals and other principal officers of colleges, Mr Azeez’s tenure had ended on May 26.

However, the rector said he was appointed for the first four-year term in 2019, and having been duly re-elected by the institution’s governing council in 2023, he already resumed his second term in office on May 27, 2023 before the amended act became law on June 12, 2023.

The abandonment notice

Following letters from unions seeking clarification on the rector’s tenure under the amended law, the Minister wrote to unions in May, affirming the legality of Mr Azeez’s second four-year term.

But the protesters ignored the minister’s verdict, continuing to hold daily protests on campus and denying members of the university’s management access to their offices.

The minister invites the warring factions

In a letter dated June 27 and signed by the permanent secretary, the minister said the meeting with the warring factions was a continuation of the visit to the university by the delegation sent to the institution earlier.

“Your position on the unrest, as reflected in the report submitted by the ministerial committee that visited the institution for an on-site assessment of the situation on June 12, 2024, is critical and requires your presence to enable the ministry to interact with you and make an informed decision on the matter,” reads part of the letter addressed to one of the guests.

Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman

This newspaper learnt that apart from the 12 officials of the university invited, including the President and Secretary of SSUCOEN, Augustin Nwachukwu and Kazeem Qadri respectively, other national leaders of unions such as the Non-Academic Staff Union, Academic Staff Union of Colleges of Education (COEASU), among others, were also invited.

Meanwhile, Mr Nwachukwu has consistently denied fomenting trouble on campus, saying he was fighting for the soul of the university.

The president of the student union writes to the minister

Meanwhile, the president of the institution’s student union, Yusuf Dauda, ​​wrote to the minister saying that as a major player in the crisis rocking the institution, the non-invitation to the student union should be reconsidered.

In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Dauda said the students had been turned into the proverbial grass that suffers when two elephants fight.

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He accused “concerned staff” of taking the law into their own hands and described the group as “the new Rottweilers of the school that brook no opposition.”

“In response to our refusal to be an appendage of theirs, the affected workers hatched a plan to remove the SUG leadership. In order to secure the alliance at all costs, they threatened us with the possibility of failing our semester exams,” reads part of the union’s letter.

Similarly, NANCES management wrote to the minister accusing the protesters of interfering in the affairs of the student union on campus.

Confirming the development to PREMIUM TIMES, the Senate Chairman of the association, Isaac Ushahimber, said that as the umbrella union of all students of colleges of education in Nigeria, their fact-finding mission to the university revealed the act of vandalism by some workers of the university.

“As a student advocacy group, NANCES wants to demand a peaceful and rancour-free environment that will allow our students to continue to enjoy the resources and facilities available at the university,” Mr. Ushahimber said.

The student of Benue State College of Education, Katsina-Ala, urged the minister to address the matter urgently.