President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointments of at least 555 persons to serve as Pro-chancellors/Chairmen and members of Governing Boards of 111 federal universities, polytechnics and Colleges of Education.
This followed Tinubu’s assent to a list of nominees selected by the Ministry of Education.
An advertorial by the Education Ministry sighted by PUNCH Online showed the appointment of a chairperson and four members for each of the institutions.
It was signed by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack.
“The inauguration and retreat for the Governing Councils will take place on Thursday, May 30 and Friday, May 31, 2024, at the National Universities Commission, 26 Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja. Both events will commence at 9:00am daily,” said Walson-Jack.
When contacted for confirmation, the Presidency said the list emanated from the Ministry of Education.
“This is from the Federal Ministry of Education…they make the nominations and forward them to the President to sign. But they are at liberty to release it from their end,” the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, told our correspondent on Saturday.
The appointments come days after the Academic Staff Union of Universities had threatened to embark on another strike, potentially disrupting the academic calendar and causing further setbacks in the country’s higher education sector.
The union, on Tuesday, decried the failure of the Federal Government to appoint Governing Councils for federal universities.
The union also faulted what it described as the nonchalant attitude of the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government to matters about academics in federal universities.
The body of academics, during a briefing at the University of Abuja, also faulted the 35 per cent salary increment for professors and the 25 per cent salary increment for other academics in the university system.