Andrew Agbese
5 October 2008
Jos — By the official proclamation of the Plateau state government, the Plateau State University, Bokkos, officially granted license to run fully as a university by the National Universities Commission, NUC, in April 2005, is supposed to have wound down academic activities, spill out its staff and student population, and closed its gate, to any visitor, since September 2007.
But since the order by the Plateau state government to pause academic sessions at the university, other activities in the university have refused to cease.
The ghost town that the state government was set to reduce the institution to has backfired, and rather than a return to a terra incognita, the institution has leaped with life from sheer efforts to see that it defies the state government's order as both the student and staff of the university are challenging the attempt to flush them out and place the citadel of learning under lock and key.
Last week alone, the matter concerning the university came up in two different courts in the state, with one being a case instituted by the students of the university to challenge the closure of the school and the other, more pungent, by the vice chancellor of the institution, Prof. John Wade.
All these indicate that the last not been heard about attempt by the present administration to seal the institution.
Other revelations concerning the manner the university was closed down, and subsequent arrangements made to keep it that way has also exhumed the issues that accompanied the closure when it was fresh.
Initially, when the state government closed down the university, it said it was relying on a recommendation of an administrative panel it had set up to look into the affairs of the university.
The panel was headed by Prof. Dakum Shown who is now the PDP chairman in the state.
But fresh facts emanating from the report has indicated that the panel did not recommend the suspension of academic activities at the university, as claimed by officials of the state government.
What the panel recommended, our correspondent confirmed, was a moratorium on new admissions into the university, which meant the freezing of admission into the university for now, but allowing the students already admitted into the various disciplines to continue their courses till graduation.
After that administrative panel, the state government set up another committee, called a technical committee and headed by Prof. Nenfort Gomwalk, which, on its part, made more categorical statements about where it stands about the closure of the university, advising the state government to reverse that decision.
Incidentally, when the state governor, Jonah Jang set up the Gomwalk committee, he said publicly that he would abide by whatever recommendations they made as he stated then that the had no ulterior motive for closing down the university.
A copy of the report made available to our correspondent indicate that the governor did not honour his words as the committee recommended in very clear language that the decision to shut the gates of the institution was wrong and even went ahead to call on the state governor to reopen the university, spelling out measures it could take to ensure the smooth running of academic activities.
"Government should inaugurate a process of reopening the university, not later than the beginning of the 2008/2009 academic session in September 2008. The university is a development agenda that fits into the state of emergency declared on education by the government and the state of emergency will further boost primary and secondary education, leading to the production of a large number of qualified university entrants," the committee wrote as its number one recommendation after investigating the relevance and viability of the university.
The committee, in its other recommendations, also called on the state government to reconstitute the governing council of the institution to include experienced academics while the management of the university be reconstituted immediately.
Even the inspection team of the National Universities Commission, NUC, which visited the university on fact finding mission on some of the claims made by the state government to put the university on hold, stated plainly in its recommendation that "government should rescind the suspension order and allow the university to continue with its academic activities, so that it could be ready to absorb products of the reinvigorated primary and secondary schools in the state."
But the state government has ignored all this suggestions, insisting, that it was right in taking the action it took concerning the university.
The Secretary to the State Government, Samson Dimka, told our correspondent that the school has no visible means of funding itself, and was relying on funds being deducted from local government allocations when there are much to be done at that level of government.
Adding that this offends the principle of rural development, as primary and secondary schools in the local governments are in a sorry state.
This differs from the view of many stakeholders in the state who believed that the institution could have pulled through given the many sources of revenue available to it. Many have reduced the insistence of the present administration in the state to close the university to a mere political vendetta and an attempt to wipe out the legacies of the past administration in the state, and as a crude attempt to prove the point the present administration has been making that, the last administration in the state had done nothing.
Former commissioner in the last administration, James said government is a continuum, and that there is no way an administration could be said to have done nothing. He advised the present administration in the state to set aside politics and take actions in the interest of the state.
Perhaps, it is all this contradictions that have reinforced the bid by those concerned to get the university up on its feet again.
The legal tussle between the students and the state government over the closure of the university, has been on since the beginning of the year, as hearing on the matter has since resumed, with arguments on both sides being taken.
Our correspondent learnt that at the last hearing, both the students and the state government have been advised to put their houses in order for a quick resolution of the crisis.
The separate suit instituted by the vice chancellor of the university, challenging the right of the state governor, to sack him or close down the university by fiat, a year after the hammer of government fell on the university, has also added verve to the struggle, making the site of the university, hitherto turned into a ghost town to reverberate with hope.
The Vice Chancellor of the University is not only challenging his purported sack, but is claiming N100 million for the continued closure of the university and for his illegal removal as a vice chancellor
In a writ of summons filed on his behalf and PLASU, Bokkos, Mr. Pius Akubo, SAN, the vice chancellor averred that, the continued suspension of academic activities in the institution despite the advice by the National Universities Commission, NUC, and the technical committee set up by the state governor were "ultra vires, illegal, null and void and of no effect."
Wade said that with the benefit of hindsight, unless ordered by the court, the governor will not allow the university to be or allow him to continue to be the vice chancellor of the university saying the university is an institution established by law with a valid authorization from the NUC and laws of Plateau State .
He contended, that he was lawfully employed as the VC for a five-year term, but that the governor through the Secretary to the State government had written several letters asking him to vacate his position, the last being a letter dated August 16,entitled 'Cessation of appointment as vice chancellor of Plateau State University, Bokkos'.
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