Professor of law tackles ASUU, says Pantami’s professorial rank legal

Joe Abugu, professor of industrial & commercial law and senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has tackled the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over its stance on the conferment of professorial status on Isa Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy by the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO). 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. In a position paper titled: “Of University Autonomy, Meddlesomeness of ASUU and its War Against Prof. Ibrahim Isa Pantami,” Abugu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, 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 said 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 silk said 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.