The Odds Against Maikudi as Race for UNIABUJA’s VC Seat Heats up

Having served as deputy vice-chancellor, academics, and now acting vice-chancellor of the University of Abuja, with a good understanding of the workings of the 36-year-old university, Aisha Maikudi, a professor of International Law, stands a good chance of emerging the substantial vice-chancellor of the university, but not without some hurdles. Raheem Akingbolu reports

Since July this year, when the tenure of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Prof. Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, ended, the university has consistently remained in the news. By the time he left office, the former vice-chancellor had succeeded in raising the bar for the institution and positioned it to become a university of first choice with beautiful infrastructure, uninterrupted academic calendar and laudable tech-driven programmes.

Few weeks before his exit, the rumour of Na’Alla’s likely successor in an acting capacity rented the air, leading to the emergence of Prof. Aisha Maikudi, the erstwhile Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics). Perhaps because she was appointed from within and understood the university inside-out. Maikudi resumed immediately and has since functioned seamlessly for over two months, building on Na’Allah’s legacies, promoting academic excellence and consequently winning the hearts of stakeholders, including academic and non-academic staff of the university.

Expectedly, UNIABUJA has suddenly transformed into a beautiful spinster with many suitors. At the last count, six professors are warming up to enter the boxing ring with Maikudi. Prior to Na’Allah’s reign, the university was nothing more than a glorified secondary school, with many departments fighting for space at the mini-campus and the entire institution struggling to be freed from the tightening claws of sentiment, unstable academic calendar, admission and certificate racketeering, and infrastructural deficit. Despite all odds, Na’Allah, a VC at the Kwara State University for 10 years before assuming the same role at UniAbuja, leveraged the experience gathered over the years to tackle the challenges.  

As the race for the seat of the VC begins, politics, blackmail, and intrigues also resurface. In line with the traditions of the university system, the governing council has reeled out the eligibility criteria, such as teaching, international exposure, publication, fund attraction, supervision and references.

Even when nothing has suggested that the council or any agent of government was gravitating towards a particular candidate, some individuals and faceless groups appeared to have started foreseeing doom for an exercise that had not begun. For instance, a certain group, ‘Concerned Citizens Forum’, had sometimes raised an alarm that there was a plan to install a candidate without the prerequisite qualification to occupy the position.

However, from the beginning, the 10th Governing Council, led by Air Vice-Marshal Saddiq Ismaila Kaita (retd), has not minced words on its determination to ensure that the appointment of the next substantive vice-chancellor of the university is based on merit.

Meanwhile, the candidature of Maikudi, the acting vice-chancellor, has generated positive debate for obvious reasons. It’s believed that in many quarters, the professor of International Law has a good chance of being appointed as the substantive VC because of her experience and antecedents.

Born 41 years ago, Maikudi attended Queens College, Lagos, where she obtained her West African Senior School Certificate. She earned her LLB Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Reading in 2004, her LLM Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2005, and her PhD in International Law from the University of Abuja in 2015.

She was the first female Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Law in 2018 and was the pioneer Director of the University of Abuja International Centre in 2019. Maikudi has participated in numerous national and international conferences in first-world countries such as the UK, the US, Germany, and Italy. As well as in South Africa and Egypt, to mention but a few. She has conducted extensive research on United Nations International Humanitarian Laws and has published extensively in this area.

Her professional memberships include the Nigerian Bar Association, Nigerian Law Teachers Association, and International Federation of Women Lawyers.

Before assuming office as acting VC, Maikudi served the university in different positions of responsibility. She has good insight and experience in best business practices that could contribute to development, having served in various capacities in different committees and assisting tremendously in promoting academic and research programmes in her department, faculty, and the university.

As part of the retinue of prospects predictive of her as the much-awaited heir apparent, Maikudi has an encyclopaedic understanding of the terrains, having served the university in many capacities. Also, she has good working relationships with critical stakeholders, including the students. Moreover, having worked with Na’Allah, she can easily fit in and continue with various ongoing projects and programmes at the time the former VC left. Her humble disposition and accessibility are also advantages.

All these notwithstanding, Maikudi undoubtedly, has some hurdles to cross. One, her young and dynamic vibrant brain with capacity for understanding current developmental trends and global best practices requisite of 21st-century universities, which ought to be advantageous to the university, as rightly held by many observers as one of her strengths, is being used against her by some individuals, who have coined a strange slogan ‘too young to lead’.

Of course, many stakeholders, especially among students, have dismissed this as nothing but a weightless argument. One of the students, Lawal Farouq Ayobami, the immediate past President of the Law Students’ Association of Nigeria (LAWSAN), told THISDAY that those campaigning against Maikudi are not campaigning based on merit but on pettiness.

“I was shocked that in the 21st century, when countries are being led by young men and women in their 30s, some Nigerians in the academic environment are echoing a retrogressive slogan of ‘too young to lead’ to frustrate a 41-year-old fertile mind, with excellent record and certificates from leading global institutions. One thing I’m sure of is that under Tinubu’s Renewed Agenda, Maikudi’s robust profile will work for her and not against her,” Lawal stated.