Protest Over Sacked VCs Goes Violent as Police Fires Tear Gas at Students

What began as a peaceful protest by Nigerian students in Abuja against the sack of the 13 Vice Chancellors of Federal Universities, turned awry yesterday with the arrest of the National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) Comrade Tijani Usman, and some other protesting students by the police.

Tijani Usman, who led the protesters to barricade the entrance gate to the Federal Ministry of Education, Federal Secretariat, Abuja, was teargassed and taken into a waiting van alongside other students, while other students were scared away by the police.

The students had carried placards with various inscriptions such as: “Sack Adamu now and reinstate the sacked VCs”, “NANS says no imposition VCs” “Nigerian students say no to wrongful sack of VCs”, “NANS says no to injustice”, among others.

NANS President, Tijani Usman, in his speech before he was arrested, said they were at the Federal Ministry of Education on a peaceful protest against sack of the 13 Vice Chancellors and appointment of new ones without recourse to the Governing Councils of the affected Universities.

He said President Muhammadu Buhari, was misled by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, into taken the rash decision even when it was obvious that the tenure of some of te  Vice Chancellors sacked had not expired as at February 18, 2016.

Secretary General of the Committee of Vice Chancellors, Professor Michael Faborede, had explained that eight of the affected Vice Chancellors had successfully completed their tenures.

NANS, therefore, insisted that the sack of the Vice Chancellors of NOUN, Prof. Vincent Ado-Tenebe; Federal Universities of Birnin Kebbi, Prof. Lawal Suleiman Bilbis; Gashua, Yobe, Prof. Shehu Abdulrahman; Gusau, Prof. Ben Chuks Okeke; and Oye-Ekiti, Prof. Isaac Azuzu, was illegal and an abuse of due process.

Usman said: “President Buhari, without due recourse to the Governing Councils of the 12 Federal Universities and the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), removed their Vice Chancellors without any clear statement as to what their offences may have been.

“The Federal Government should in the interest of due process reverse its decision and reinstate the illegally sacked Vice Chancellors mentioned above. The Minister of Education should stop usurping the powers of the Governing Councils.

“The sack and appointment of replacements without going through the established rigours of participatory emergence is tantamount to destroying excellence and meritocracy in the university system,” he said.

However, trouble started when appeal by some top officers of the Nigerian police deployed to monitor the protest,  for the students delegate their leader to meet with the Minister of Education in his Office failed.

The students who were angry that the Minister or none of the officers from the Ministry Ministry of Education had come out to address them, insisted that they would not leave the environment until the close of work.

The directive by the NANS President that all the protesting students should sit down under the scorching sun blocking the way while waiting for the Minister to come out and address them infuriated the police and began to fire teargas to disperse the protesters.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, has said that there was no going back on the removing of the Vice Chancellors and their replacement with new appointees.

He spoke while fielding questions from newsmen after the flag-off of the 2015/2016 Annual School Census held at Federal Government Secondary School, Garki, Abuja.

Adamu, however, confirmed that he has received written petition from some of sacked Vice Chancellors who are yet to complete their tenure and that government would look into their demands.