Pantami: Does ASUU have legal right to overturn FUTO’s decision

Last week, the  Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) described the promotion of Ali Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, to a professor as “illegal.” The Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) had , last year, named the minister as a Professor in Cybersecurity during its council’s 186th meeting.

Pantami’s appointment had elicited intense debate, with many scholars and activists faulting the rationale behind his professorship. Some critics argued that Pantami should not be a professor since he was not a lecturer in the university while others claimed that his highest academic attainment before delving into politics was a lecturer.

National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Victor Osodeke, said  the minister’s promotion violated established procedure for the appointment of a professor in the varsity system.“From information made available to us, Dr Pantami was not qualified and he violated the established procedure for appointment of professor. We are surprised that the government still allowed him to stand,” he said.

“NEC directs all members and branches of our union throughout the Nigerian federation not to recognise, accord or treat Dr Isah Ali Ibrahim Pantami as a Professor of Cybersecurity under any guise ,”  declared Osodeke.

 FUTO chapter of ASUU  had in its report  said  that the appointment of  Pantami as a professor of Cyber-Security by the university followed due process. Recall that the panel was inaugurated by ASUU chapter of the university at its congress on September 22nd, 2021.

The panel in its report, asked the university management to protect the integrity of FUTO by taking steps to correct some misrepresentations against it. Among other measures, the panel recommended a legal action against those who attempted to stain the reputation of the university. But this report was jettisoned  by the national of ASUU.

 The questions , now,  are:  does ASUU have the legal right to determine who  should be or not appointed  a professor in a university?  Does  ASUU also have the  legal right to stop FUTO or  any other university in the appointment of professorship?

 To answer these questions , a Professor of Industrial and Commercial Law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Joe Abugu said the academic union lacks the legal power to do so . Abugu  faulted ASUU, over its stance , arguing that the National Executive Committee of ASUU had set aside the findings by its FUTO chapter which had endorsed the procedure for the conferment of the professorial rank.

Abugu,, who is  a lecturer at the University of Lagos , in a position paper titled: “Of University Autonomy, Meddlesomeness of ASUU and its War Against Prof. Ibrahim Isa Pantami,” argued that the local chapter of ASUU did an excellent job in reminding the public that FUTO duly advertised the vacant positions in credible national dailies, and when Pantami applied, the relevant bodies vetted his credentials and gave him the appointment on merit.

He argued further that all over the world and in Nigeria as well, there are no strict general rules guiding the procedure for a professorial appointment that all universities in a country must obey, adding that each institution of learning sets its own rules and that the Vice-Chancellor also has certain discretionary powers to use when necessary.

Quoting relevant laws guiding the operations of trade unions like ASUU and universities like FUTO, the learned legal scholar  said further that there is even nowhere in the statute books where ASUU is mentioned as an important decision or opinion making body in the procedure of appointing university professors.

“By Section 3 of the Federal Universities of Technology Act 1993, the University shall have power to inter alia institute professorships, readerships or associate professorships, lecturer-ships, and other posts and offices and to make appointments thereto; and by Section 6, the Council shall be the governing body of the University and shall be charged with the general control and superintendence of the policy, finances and property of the University.

“It is, therefore, clear that ASUU has no power to institute or confer professorship. It is noteworthy that the University Council comprises two representatives of the congregation of teachers. Whilst the Congregation is the body of academics in the University, it is not synonymous with ASUU. It can be taken for granted though that through these representatives of Congregation, ASUU may have a voice in the conferment of Professorships but not ASUU as a union.

“Can ASUU then have the power to declare a Professorship conferred by an institution illegal? The answer may probably be found in the Rule book or Constitution of ASUU. As a registered trade union under the Trade Union Act, its Rule book neither contains any clause conferring powers of certification of academic titles nor the power to declare one, illegal,” he said.

Stating that Pantami’s professorship rank has been legally and legitimately earned, Abugu said ASUU’s take on the integrity of the procedure has no basis in law, precedent, morality and logic.

On the issue of whether Mr Pantami was qualified for the appointment while serving as minister,  Abugu noted that the argument is watery and based on ignorance. According to him, while there is no precedent for ASUU or any trade union at all meddling in the internal affairs of universities, there are a lot of verifiable and reliable precedents in the country for ministers and other government officials who got professorial appointments while on study leave or leave of absence from the respective universities where they were teaching.

He mentioned other prominent Nigerians including late Dora Akunyili, Jerry Gana, Muhammad Ali Pate, etc as having benefited from the same privilege for which he claimed Pantami is now being slaughtered by ASUU.  Some years ago,  Ndi Okereke–Onyiuke , then a  Director-General of  the Nigerian  Stock Exchange was awarded  a professorship by the  University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) . The appointment was contested but nothing happened. 

Stating that Pantami’s professorship rank has been legally and legitimately earned, Abugu said ASUU’s take on the integrity of the procedure has no basis in law, precedent, morality and logic, even as  he advised ASUU to look for another agenda and stop chasing shadows, adding that there are more fundamental issues affecting education in the country that should bother the union.

The Registrar of FUTO,  Mr John Nnabuihe, told  the Tribune that  “The university knows him as Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim based on the documents in his file submitted,” adding that he was assessed alongside other internal members who were also appointed as professors.

Nnabuihe defended the promotion as deserving, saying it was “based on his qualification which he merited through long years of research works.”

The FUTO Registrar  said: “Somebody who is not your staff, you cannot promote him.” Nnabuihe said that after Dr Ibrahim graduated in Computer Science, he started as a lecturer at the Abubakar Tafawa Belewa University. Dr Ibrahim, according to him, later went to another university in Saudi Arabia and was thereafter appointed as an “Associate Professor,” which was where he stayed for some time until he was appointed as the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) which he said was “like a research institute.”

Born on  20 October 1972, Isa Ali Ibrahim commonly known as Isa Ali Pantami, is an Islamic cleric. He holds the degrees of  BTech and M.Sc  from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University , Bauchi, MBA in Technology  Management and  a PhD from  Robert Gordon University  , Aberdeen  in Scotland , United Kingdom.  He also holds certificates in Digital Transformation from Harvard University, Digital Strategy from both Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Institute of Management Development (IMD), Lausanne, Switzerland, Strategic Leadership from Oxford University, and a University of Cambridge Certification in Management.

 Pantami lectured at various universities and other higher institutions for almost two decades, teaching ICT courses. During his early days, Ibrahim was a lecturer at the Federal University of Technology, Bauchi for over a decade, prior to joining other universities.

Rather  than all the noise  , the nation’s academic union should go to court to ascertain  the legality of its position on the appointment of Pantami as a Professor  of Cybersecurity. This noise will not do  the country  any good. After all ,  morality and law are two different things.  It is not ASUU and its members  that will recognise  Pantami’s professorship. It is the law. If ASUU does not go court on this matter, its action will amount to usurpation of FUTO ‘s function.

 In the meanwhile , “Dr. Isa Ibrahim has assumed duties and is currently involved in the teaching of CYB 201 (Fundamentals of Cyber Security), via online and a lead Supervisor of one PhD Student/Staff of Cybersecurity Department.”