On Monday, the President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, issued a statement announcing the dissolution of the governing boards of all federal universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education. Additionally, the governing board of all parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) was also dissolved.
The decision to dissolve the boards of all federal government parastatals, agencies, institutions, and government-owned companies was approved by President Tinubu in the interest of the public, as stated by Willie Bassey, the Director of Information at the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
However, there are some exceptions to the president’s directive. The boards, commissions, and councils listed in the Third Schedule, Part 1, Section 153 (i) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, are exempted from this order. These include the Code of Conduct Bureau, Council of State, Federal Character Commission, Federal Civil Service Commission, Federal Judicial Service Commission, and the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Nevertheless, no parastatal under the education ministry is exempted from the dissolution order.
The affected institutions under the education ministry include the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS), National Universities Commission (NUC), Nigerian Educational Research Development Council (NERDC), Nigerian French Language Village (NFV), National Commission for Adult Education Mass Literacy and Non-Formal Education (NMEC), National Examinations Council (NECO), and Librarians’ Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN), among others.
All federal government-owned universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, and inter-university centers, such as the University of Lagos, Ahmadu Bello University, University of Uyo, Yaba College of Technology, Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, and Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, are also affected by this dissolution.
In light of the dissolved boards, the president has instructed the heads of the affected parastatals to direct any matters requiring board attention to his office through the respective permanent secretaries in their ministries. Until new boards are constituted, the chief executive officers of the parastatals, agencies, institutions, and government-owned companies are directed to refer matters requiring board attention to the president through the permanent secretaries of their supervisory ministries and offices.
All ministries, departments, and agencies are required to comply with this directive, which came into effect on Friday, June 16th, as per the statement.
