President Buhari has apologised for the dissolution of the Boards of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and the 12 new Federal universities that were created by the government of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
President Buhari had announced on February 13, that he had approved the appointment of new vice chancellors for the affected universities and NOUN.
It was also revealed that Buhari had approved the dissolution of the governing boards of the new 12 Federal Universities immediately.
Speaking at the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja on Thursday, President Buhari said he gave the order for the dissolution of the Universities Boards after he realised that according to the extant laws of the Universities, the Vice Chancellors cannot be appointed unless the Boards convene and grill the prospective candidates.
He said: “When we came in after 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, each government had 42 ministries. We reduced them to 24, removed 21 Permanent Secretaries. We sat down and reflected seriously. We were all in the process of taking over at a time of national budget. So, imagine the volume of work and with what happened in the National Assembly, the padding, it would appear that below the Permanent Secretaries, there are still a lot of bureaucracies that are still with them. So, you have to appreciate the position we are in. Having cut 42 to 24, correspondingly, the parastatals will be cut down to some size and realigned and the boards reconstituted.
“We gave a blanket order which we had to rescind when we said all boards are suspended or dissolved. We had to go back and lick our vomit in terms of university boards because we found out that according to their laws, they cannot choose Vice Chancellors unless the Boards sit down, interview prospective candidates who wants to be VCs. So, there is nothing wrong in saying sorry and going back on your decision. So, we said sorry and allow all the universities to continue with their boards. But for the rest, eventually, we will make it. So, please, try to bear with us as we reflect on where we found ourselves.”
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