FCET Crisis: Nigerian minister set to meet warring parties, as students write ministry

The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, and other principal officers of the ministry will Thursday (today) meet with the Provost of the Federal College of Education, Technical (FCET), Akoka, Lagos, Wahab Azeez, and some unionists on the campus, over the crisis rocking the tertiary institution.

PREMIUM TIMES is aware that the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Did Watson-Jack, recently authored letters of invitation to a meeting with the minister to not less than 12 college workers, including the provost.

A copy of the letter, exclusively obtained by this newspaper, noted that the meeting is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.

This newspaper earlier reported that some college workers under the aegis of “concerned staff” had locked up the provost’s office since 27 May over the tenure of office following the amendment of the law establishing the colleges of education in Nigeria.

Provost of FCET, Wahab Azeez

This is as the leadership of the institution’s students’ union and the Senate of the National Association of Nigerian Colleges of Education Students (NANCES) have urged the minister not to succumb to the “machinations of those who have taken laws into their hands.”

They accused the protesters of threatening students and workers who refused to join them in “fomenting troubles.”

Backstory

Since 27 May, the workers locked up the office of the provost and also issued him a quit notice from his official residence.

Led by the leadership of the Senior Staff Union of Colleges of Education (SSUCOEN), FCET chapter, the protesters insisted that with the amendment of the Educational Colleges Act 2023, which introduced a five-year single term of office for provosts and other principal officers of the colleges, the tenure of Mr Azeez had ended on 26 May.

However, the provost said he was appointed for the first term of four years in 2019, and that having been duly reappointed by the institution’s governing council in 2023, he already resumed his second term in office on 27 May 2023 before the amended act was signed into law on 12 June 2023.

The quit notice

Following letters by the unions seeking clarification on the tenure of office of the provost based on the amended act, the Minister wrote the unions in May, affirming the legality of Mr Azeez’s second term of four years.

But the protesters ignored the minister’s verdict, continued to stage daily protests on the campus, and denied management members of the college access to their offices.

Minister invites warring factions

In a letter dated 27 June and signed by the permanent secretary, the minister said the meeting with the warring factions was a follow-up to the visit to the college by the delegation earlier sent to the institution.

“Your position on the unrest as reflected in the report forwarded by the ministerial committee that visited the institution for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation on 12th June 2024 is critical and requires your presence to allow the ministry to interface with you, to enable it to take an informed decision on the issue,” part of the letter addressed to one of the invitees, reads in part.

Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman

This newspaper is aware that apart from the 12 officials of the college invited, including the SSUCOEN Chairman and Secretary, Augustin Nwachukwu and Kazeem Qadri, respectively, other national leaders of labour unions such as the Non-Academic Staff Union, Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) and among others were also invited.

Meanwhile, Mr Nwachukwu has consistently denied fomenting trouble on the campus, saying it was fighting for the soul of the college.

Students’ union president writes minister

Meanwhile, the President of the institution’s students’ union, Yusuf Dauda, has written the minister, saying as a major stakeholder in the crisis rocking the institution, the non-invitation of the students’ union should be reconsidered.

In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Dauda said the students had been turned to the proverbial grass that suffers when two elephants fight.

ALSO READ: Nigerian college provost alleges threat to life as protesting workers lock up offices

He accused the “concerned staff” of taking laws into their hands, describing the group as “the new rottweiler of the school brooking no opposition.”

“Upon our refusal to be an appendage to them, the concerned staff hatched a plan to remove the SUG executive from office. To get the alliance at all costs, they threatened us with the potential possibility of failing our semester examinations,” the union’s letter reads in part.

In a similar development, the NANCES’ leadership wrote the minister, accusing the protesters of interfering in the affairs of the students’ union on the campus.

Confirming the development to PREMIUM TIMES, the Senate President of the association, Isaac Ushahimber, said as the umbrella union for all colleges of education students in Nigeria, its fact-finding mission to the college revealed the act of hooliganism on the part of some workers of the college.

“As a student advocate group, NANCES wants to sue for a peaceful and rancour-free environment that will enable our students to continue enjoying the available resources and facilities in the college,” Mr Ushahimber said.

The student of Benue State College of Education, Katsina-Ala, urged the minister to address the matter urgently.