Tinubu’s Sense Of Wry Humor: One University, Two Acting VCs With 6 Months Tenure Each And Both Are Female
The Oasis Reporters
February 14, 2025
Unless you are perceptive enough and are a keen watcher of the politics of the entire northern region of Nigeria, there are so many things that happen in that vast region that you would miss out on.
From afar, the north sells itself as one people, one religion who have one God and love expansively sewn long gowns with a conservative lifestyle.
During the second Republic that ended with Shehu Shagari’s presidency which Major General Muhammadu Buhari cut short, it was a nation with a common destiny. It actually sounded more like one north, one destiny. Though they stylishly referred to it as One Nation, one Destiny.
Till date, over forty years after, the food chain of politics has mainly the Fulani at the apex.
All the same, they promote that view and often sell it especially to the South of the country. Hence most Southerners would buy that view and call every northerner they see as Hausa or as ‘aboki’. Most Southerners also believe that every northerner is a Muslim. But this is erroneous.
Even though they seem to bear names that almost seem similar, even a Musa can be a Christian, an atheist or a Muslim and not all of them speak one language.
However, the political language is obviously Hausa, but it’s political engine Oil is Fulani language. Spoken out of reach to outsiders unless you have very sharp ears. And that is for the select few insiders.
It’s a very calm, very sly and very deceptive operation. Only twice has it been broken through. Through the coup of General Ibrahim Babangida (Hausa) and Gen Sani Abacha (Kanuri). But democratically speaking, in it’s politics, the pendulum of operations usually swings to the Fulani.
The northern political establishment operators are shrewd enough to know that to make the enterprise long lasting without bringing the roof crashing, they have to rotate the leadership and make it 8 years at the longest for the South, and it goes back to the Fulani leadership in the north for a further 8 years.
Even while the South is enjoying its own 8 years, it is expected that the Vice president will have to be Fulani as well.
That is not to say that there are no aberrations. Like the unfortunate demise of President Umaru Yar’adua due to ill health. This led to President Goodluck Jonathan being sworn in as president to complete the tenure of Yar’adua (one year) and do only one term of four years. Before he was chased out by the political mafia to make room for Fulani leadership.
When it got to the turn of the South, Ahmed Tinubu bypassed established political protocols by picking a Kanuri as vice president. Hence there are loud grumbles in the north. Obviously from the power merchants only. Others, including the large majority tribe like Hausa and others remain sullen, silent and out of sight.
Even right now, traditional power wielders are up and about strategizing before 2027 or 2031.
A bemused President Tinubu is watching the entire escapades in several dimensions.
Like in his recent appointments as it concerns some Nigerian universities, see what he did to install a successor to take the place of Professor Aisha Maikudi who was forced to step down abruptly. In doing that, President Tinubu appointed Professor Lar Patricia Manko as Acting Vice Chancellor at the Yakubu Gowon University for a six-month term. She will not be eligible to apply for the substantive Vice Chancellor position when it becomes available”.
In other words, she would do just six months the way Fulani born Aisha Maikudi did her own six months and rather than step down, she outmanoeuvred everyone and got in for a further five year term.
The sleek facade presented is that “older people had been Vice Chancellors over and over again up to six times, let the Yakubu Gowon University have a refreshing exhalation by having the not too young to rule this time!
Very smart!
Add to the humor of the refreshing setting, let it be feminine, for crying out loud! Let the young (41 years) lead. That is, a conservative Fulani tribe is putting forward a female in front.
Once more, Tinubu was amused. Since he knows the political terrain as a Lagos political merchant, the hidden facts were laid before him. He could see everything bare in 4D large views. He knew that Aisha Maikudi is the daughter of the former Chairman of the University Governing Council. He knew.
In other words, the father served a full term as chairman under the Buhari presidency, Buhari being Fulani from Katsina State, same state as the Maikudi family, same Fulani tribe and same religion.
The daughter has magically become the next Vice Chancellor as if the Yakubu Gowon University was turning into a one family enterprise. The scent was not sensitive at all.
Tinubu in his inimitable way, moved to redress the insensitive imbalance.
If Yakubu Gowon University in Abuja, a federal government owned and funded university wants a female Vice Chancellor, he will give it one.
He chose for the institution, Professor Lar Patricia Manko. She is also a northerner from the Middle Belt. If the far north has done six months, let the middle Belt of the north also do it’s own six months. Add to that, Professor Manko equally has very intimidating credentials. She is thoroughly well qualified.
Quid pro quo, wouldn’t you rather say. Equation is balanced.
But trust the angry syndrome of entitlement in this opinion piece that was published in a national newspaper.
“Mahmud Jega in his inimitable style has already drawn attention to President Tinubu’s howler of approving the actions not in his capacity as the Visitor to the universities which is the norm, but as the President which is abnormal. What this implied is that acting as the Visitor, the President would have duly complied with the extant rules and due process which are provided for within the purview of his office. That would entail him to at least authorise a special visitation or cause an investigation into the affairs at the University of Abuja the outcome of which could result in a well-informed decision by the government. Sadly, in the case under review, he acted as the President lording over the university system and the attendant actions taken on the University of Abuja reek(s) of impunity with grave implications for the system.
Disbanding the properly constituted 10th Governing Council of the University of Abuja without evidence of incompetence or corruption, removing the Vice-Chancellor properly appointed by the same Council without reason(s), and appointing an acting Vice-Chancellor to replace her contrary to the extant laws and laid down procedure for such an appointment,are needless monumental blunders.
. There is the additional unsavoury dimension of the President appointing a Christian Chairman of the Council and acting Vice-Chancellor to take over from the Muslim Chairman of the Council and substantive (Muslim) Vice-Chancellor. Whoever advised President Tinubu to attack and undermine the autonomy being enjoyed by the University, the sanctity of its extant laws, and its established or prescribed processes, procedures, and practices does not wish the President well”.
Well well, isn’t the write up funny? Is Yakubu Gowon University for Muslim Fulani leadership only?
Can’t the Christian who are from the Middle Belt flex a little bit with a University in their region?
And come to think of it, President Tinubu is not even a Christian! He’s a Muslim (a universal religion that doesn’t belong to only one tribe). He’s a Muslim like the majority of the Fulani in Katsina. But he picked outside of his religion for a female acting Vice Chancellor. Acting only. And only for a mere six months. She’s not even eligible to run as substantive Vice Chancellor.
The north belongs to both Muslims Christians and animists. No one group should feel superior to the other. They all go to school and all eat the same food grown on the same northern soil.
Let them give peace a chance.
Luckily for Nigeria, Aisha Maikudi’s famous last words were “power comes only from God”, according to an online grapevine news.
Greg Abolo
gregabolo@gmail.com
