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The appointment of Professor Patricia Manko Lar as the Acting Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja following the sacking of the Governing Council and the Vice Chancellor by the Federal Government on the 6th of February 2025 was no doubt a courageous and laudable decision.
Resuming office on the 10th of February 2025, Professor Lar immediately swung into action and worked hard with the active support of the Chairman of the Governing Council, Senator Olanrewaju Tejuoso to bring peace, unity and tranquility to a University that was hitherto deeply fragmented and sharply divided along ethnic and religious lines.
Professor Patricia Manko Lar's tenure as Acting Vice Chancellor lasted for 6 months but despite the shortness of her tenure, she brought academic and administrative stability to the University. She was a visionary leader whose short reign brought peace and progress to our beleaguered institution. She attracted a lot of projects to the University. Indeed her numerous achievements is a testament to the fact that through creative and transparent leadership, people can achieve verifiable progress within so short a time.
Through her selfless and transparent leadership, Professor Lar brought unity and cohesion to a once deeply divided institution. She addressed a lot of injustice and punitive oppression meted out to a lot of staff of the University through unjust and callous suspensions by the past administration without due process, withholding of staff salaries under spurious and unproven allegations, withholding of staff promotions under shady circumstances.
One of such cases of victimization which Professor Lar successfully unraveled few weeks before the expiration of her tenure was the case of an academic staff who presented himself for Professorial assessment in the year 2020. His promotion assessment came back positive and his letter of promotion was written in 2022 but was hidden and not released to him until few weeks ago when after the staff had complained to Professor Lar about the unfortunate saga he was passing through. She immediately gave marching orders to the Registry department that they should produce the letter. Following frantic and frenetic search, the letter of promotion for this staff written since 2022 and hidden since then was discovered and handed over to him. A lot of other similar promotion cases were unraveled through the proactive actions of the out gone Acting Vice Chancellor.
The University Community will not forget in a hurry that Professor Lar operated for majority of her 6 months tenure without the full compliment of a duly constituted Governing Council. Only the Chairman of the Governing Council was on ground. Being a good team player, she worked excellently and harmoniously with the Chairman of the Governing Council, Senator Olanrewaju Tejuoso to ensure that the University had a smooth sail administratively.
Following the appointment of the External Council members of the University Governing Council early June, Professor Lar set machinery in motion for the conduct of election to elect the internal Council members who will represent the University Community in the Council.
On the 26th of June 2025, she supritended over the conduct of the Council election in the University, an election that hugely met high expectations of the entire University Community. It was an election where contestants emerged through a transparent and open process and where voters freely voted for the candidates of their choice and of course the eventual outcome was freely accepted by both winners and losers without bitterness and rancor.
In her humanistic and peaceful disposition, the out gone Acting Vice Chancellor initiated a peace and reconciliation meeting with the leadership of NASU University of Abuja branch few days to the end of her tenure and resolved the lingering crisis that had engulfed the union since 2022. She was able to broker peace among the warring parties and went further and directed the Bursar to release the outstanding dues of the union to them.
To sum it up, it will be right and of course verifiable to state that Professor Lar gave her all to this University. She unequivocally provided clear, transparent and purpose-driven leadership to the University which helped to foster academic and administrative stability in the institution. In concert with the relevant organs of the University especially the Governing Council, she successfully initiated the selection process for the appointment of a substantive Vice Chancellor which her successor is expected to bring to a successful conclusion in the coming weeks.
The farewell march on Monday, 11th of August 2025 to mark the successful end of the 6 months tenure of the out gone Acting Vice Chancellor Professor Patricia Manko Lar speaks a lot about the heroics and successes of this great woman. Over 3000 people made up of teaching and non-teaching staff and students gathered to sing her praises. They took time to recount her numerous achievements within the short period she served as Acting Vice Chancellor here. Tears of joy flowed freely as all the speakers at the impromptu event recounted her glorious achievements within her 6 months tenure.
We warmly congratulate Professor Matthew Adamu, FCVSN, KSM, on his well deserved appointment as the new Acting Vice Chancellor by the Federal Government for a tenure of 3 months. Our newly appointed Acting Vice Chancellor has held various leadership positions before his recent appointment. Indeed he has a limited time within which to conclude the process of electing a substantive Vice Chancellor for the institution. We therefore patriotically advise him to hit the ground running immediately as time is of essence. Thankfully the out gone Acting Vice Chancellor did a substantial part of the groundwork needed to successfully midwife the process and bring it to a logical and successful conclusion.
A background check on Professor Adamu, FCVSN, KSM, indicate very poignantly that he is a hardworking and honest academic with a strong zeal and sheer willingness to succeed. We are therefore deeply convinced that he will succeed in this herculean task. We therefore call on the University Community to rally round our new Acting Vice Chancellor and give him all the necessary and contingent support he needs for him to succeed knowing fully well that any failure on his part will drag the University backwards. Our amiable Acting Vice Chancellor should concentrate fully on the task ahead and should not be distracted by reactionary elements in the institution who are hell bent on holding this institution down perpetually for their own selfish and narrow interests. Such self-serving individuals who at best should be described as irritants should be ignored. The task ahead is too critical and it needs maximum concentration in its implementation.
Dr Godwin Okaneme,
Department of Philosophy,
Faculty of Arts,
University of Abuja.
Dr. Iheanyichukwu Hilary Ukpabi,
Department of Policy & Strategic Studies,
Abuja Leadership Centre,
University of Abuja, Abuja.
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