“The implication of this is that ASUU cannot say the tenure of internal members is in isolation or that the external members can stay as long as the Governor wants…”
By Archibong Jeremiah
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Cross River State (UNICROSS) chapter, has resolved to write to relevant authorities, notifying them of the expiration of the tenure of the governing council’s internal members.
At its congress held yesterday at the university’s main campus in Calabar, the union said that although it is within the powers of the Governor and Visitor to the university to appoint external members, it’ll play its part by ensuring elections are held for nomination of new internal members.
Recall that the university alumni association has, in several letters and statements, demanded clarification on the legitimacy and tenure of the governing council who have stayed in office beyond the four-year term allowed by law.
The association has also, in a recent statement, threatened to drag the university before the National Universities Commission (NUC) over the legality of the reappointment of an Acting Vice Chancellor who had previously exceeded the six-month limit allowed by law.
Demanding that the incumbent Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof David Ogar, be either made a substantive VC or another person appointed to bring some stability to the university, the association lamented that the university is at risk of losing N4 billion TETFund allocation over the leadership crisis brewing in the institution.
When contacted to react to the ASUU resolution, the President of the association, Dr Inyali Peter, citing extant laws and standard university practices, said that internal members are elected to represent various interests in a specific council and not just open a four-year term.
“This is great news for the university. Some people have misconstrued our agitations but we’re happy that ASUU has joined us to correct the anomaly. The only thing I want to add is that contrary to some insinuations, the lifespan of all council members except the Alumni President is tied to the lifespan of a specific council. For instance, if internal members are elected to represent either the senate or unions in a particular council like the 10th or 9th council, and the Visitor dissolves and reconstitutes the council before the expiration of the tenure, they’ll all leave even though they’re elected and not appointed.
“The implication of this is that ASUU cannot say the tenure of internal members is in isolation or that the external members can stay as long as the Governor wants. The law says the tenure is four years. Therefore, even though I presume they want to try to please everybody, as they’re writing relevant authorities on this, they’re also saying that this particular council’s tenure has expired because they were elected into this council. However, the Visitor, if satisfied with the achievements of the council can reappoint the external members into the new council. This is the standard practice everywhere including our sister university, the University of Calabar (UNICAL).”
He added that “the key question now is whether the government will reconstitute a new council anytime soon to enable the immediate commencement of the process for appointing a substantive Vice-Chancellor. While only time will tell, as an alumni association, we are once again calling on the Governor and Visitor to act decisively to bring the needed stability to the institution”.