Election: Afe Babalola Speaks On Closure of Universities

The Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, ABUAD, Chief Afe Babalola, says neither the Minister of Education , Mallam Adamu Adamu nor the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Professor Abubakar Rasheed, has the right to order closure of schools for election purpose.

Chief Babalola stated this  on Monday while reacting to the closure of all Universities in Nigeria for elections by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, on the orders of the Minister of Education.

Babalola said that the minister and the NUC boss do not have such statutory powers to close down universities for election purposes

He lamented that “the forced closure of Nigeria’s universities by the Minister of Education and NUC has done irreparable damage to students of Nigerian universities”.

The NUC had on February 3, following the directive of the minister, ordered Nigerian universities to shut down between February 22 and March 14 for the general elections.

But the ABUAD founder(https://punchng.com/afe-babalola-faults-fg-on-closure-of-varsities/), who spoke in Ado Ekiti during the induction of 123 medical doctors from ABUAD into the medical profession by the Registrar, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, Dr Tajudeen Sanusi, said the damage to the students was further compounded by the present situation in the country.

The ABUAD Chancellor added, “To me, the problem that is causing apprehension among transactional politicians is the 1999 Constitution. It is the constitution that has made politics the only lucrative business in Nigeria today. This is responsible for the orgy of ‘do or die’ politics”.