A few weeks ago, the management of Rev. Fr. Moses Orshio Adasu University Makurdi (MOAUM) (formerly Benue State University) announced a vacancy for the office of the Vice-Chancellor (VC).
According to a statement by the university Registrar and Secretary to Council, Mr. Barnabas Terfa Hemba, the suitable candidate is an academic with a PhD in a relevant discipline and a minimum of five years of experience as a professor at any recognised university. The candidate is expected to lead MOAUM’s “transformative journey in the next five years” effective November this year.
Established in 1992 by the Fr. Moses Orshio Adasu administration, MOAUM is the first state-owned university in Northern Nigeria. The incumbent visitor is Fr. Hyacinth Alia, Executive Governor of Benue State.
The term of the outgoing Vice-Chancellor, Prof Joe Tor Iorapuu, whose appointment was confirmed in November 2020 by the then Visitor, Mr. Samuel Ortom, is due to come to a close. He proceeded on his last annual leave in the second quarter of this year, which was expected to end on August 20, 2025. Prof. Simon Terver Ubwa, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic, is acting in his stead.
By October, the university search team should have presented the Visitor with three names, one of which will be the Vice-Chancellor, MOAUM.
The last selection of a Vice Chancellor for the university was unique in more than one way. But the pioneer VC, Prof. Charles Vajime, Prof. Iorapuu MOAUM’s sixth VC, broke the jinx of only internal professors, making it to the highest office in administration at the university. Observers are, therefore, keen to see what happens this time around under a new Visitor—a priest, like the university’s founder.
According to insider sources, the chair of the Congregation and the University Senate—two of the university’s three critical organs in selecting a vice chancellor—are of concern in the events leading to the appointment of Prof. Iorapuu’s successor.
To select a Vice-Chancellor, it is understood that the Council of the University usually constitutes a search team that comprises members of the Congregation, Senate, and University Council. The chairman of both the Congregation and the Senate is the Vice-Chancellor. What this means is that an acting Vice-Chancellor, who applies for appointment as a substantive Vice-Chancellor, will chair the meeting of Congregation and the Senate for the purpose of selecting members who will join the Council to constitute the search team.
Perhaps that is why the Federal Ministry of Education, in its wisdom, stipulates that any officer serving in an acting capacity as Vice-Chancellor, Rector, or Provost shall not be eligible to apply for the substantive position while still holding the acting appointment.
This policy, it is understood, speaks beyond the guidelines for selection; it seeks to address the mischief due to morality. How can one sit in judgment over his own case? But because a law is made to cure mischief, the policy went on to say that, in the interest of fairness, such officers acting may choose to recuse themselves from their acting positions before the expiration of their non-renewable six-month tenure. This way, they become eligible to apply for the substantive roles.
If such acting officers do not resign, they are likely to gain an undue advantage by leveraging their positions to influence appointment outcomes, compromising the selection process’s fairness and transparency.
Therefore, acting officers, in this case, the office of the Vice-Chancellor, who chairs the congregation and the senate, should first recuse themselves to ensure a level playing field for all qualified candidates and strengthen institutional governance.
As a citadel of learning, MOAUM is expected to operate according to global best practices. No compromise and only adherence to core values.
MOAUM must not be allowed to relapse to the days of blackouts, the days of delayed release of semester examinations and transcripts, or be shrouded in acts that portray the council and the school’s administrative head as planting landmines. These are issues of concern that were hitherto addressed by the outgoing Vice-Chancellor, and the university should be seeing to building on the positives that have been achieved so far.
The integrity of the university must not be compromised. Scientia liberatio populorum.
