A permanent secretary in the Borno state civil service, Mairo Bunu-Lawan, has called for the return of the Convocation Representative in the University of Maiduguri Governing Council.
For the past 10 years, two successive Governing Councils of the university have existed without a seat for the Convocation Rep.
Convocation is the body that represents all the alumni and academic staffers of a university.
The Universities Miscellaneous Provision (Amended) Act 2012 provides that a Governing Council for each university must comprise, amongst others, one member of proven integrity, knowledge be appointed by Convocation.
Mrs Bunu-Kolo, who is an alumna of UNIMAID, made the call for the inclusion of a Convocation representative in the next governing board while presenting a memo to that effect at the provisional secretariat of the Presidential Visitation panel to the university.
Mrs Mairo, a former accountant general of Borno State, in her memo, lamented that the Convocation representative has not been part of the last two Governing Council of the university.
Daily Trust could recall that security reasons were cited as excuses for not conducting the elections that would have produced a Convocation Representative in the last two governing councils.
Mrs Bunu-Lawan said the UNIMAID alumni association has eminent Nigerians, including the current senate president, Ahmed Lawan, as members, and many serving and former governors, whose voices needed to be represented.
“Convocation is expected to elect one representative to represent it on the Governing Council to make meaningful contributions,” she said.
“Regrettably, however, Convocation did not have a representative on the council of the University of Maiduguri during the periods under review. It is against this background that I deemed it pertinent to write and intimate the Presidential Visitation Panel and the Visitor to the University, Mr President, about this unfortunate development and urge the panel to recommend that this vital body is represented on the next governing council.”
“Let the security situation in Maiduguri and its environs not be used as an excuse in summoning Convocation Meetings for electing its representatives.”
The Permanent secretary argued further that “general elections were successfully conducted in the State by INEC within these periods; and recently, the Borno state Independent Electoral Commission (BOSIEC) had also successfully conducted Local Government Election in the state. Therefore, there is no convincing reason not to conduct an election for such enlightened members, who are expected to conduct themselves with a high sense of responsibility.”
She listed some of the eminent alumni to include serving and former governors, about 17 senators, the current minister of agriculture and minister of state works; the former chief of army staff, Tukur Buratai; and former Chief of Air Staff, Sadique Abubakar; the NNPC Group Managing Director, the Acting Inspector General of Police as well as the vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Aliyu Shugaba.
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