Professor Adamu Abubakar Rasheed, mni, MFR, on Wednesday, 3 August, 2016, took over as the new Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) from the Acting Executive Secretary, Professor Chiedu Felix Mafiana. This followed the approval of his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, as the substantive Chief Executive of the Commission.
In a brief ceremony, the new Executive Secretary, who received the handover notes from Professor Mafiana, said that it was a rare privilege for him to lead the NUC, the sole regulatory body for Nigerian universities at such a time. He promised to do his best to improve on the mandate of the Commission to ensure that it retained its place as an apex regulatory agency in the country. According to him, ‘having just received the handover notes I will study it and hit the ground running thereafter. He solicited the cooperation of the Management and expressed the hope to have a good working relationship with them.” While remarking that everyone had their roles to play, he added: “I will respect everybody as long as we respect each other and do our work.”
In his speech, the former Acting Executive Secretary acknowledged that the new Executive Secretary had been at the helm of affairs in many other capacities before his new appointment and had garnered a wealth of experience which was needed to move the Commission forward. He noted that NUC was a big organisation within the confines of the Nigerian University System (NUS), supervising 144 universities today. He urged the Executive Secretary to see how he could work with the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to improve the entire system. He observed that some of the challenges that the NUC had been confronted with, which required urgent attention included the review of the NUC Laws, the FGN/ASUU negotiations with the University-based unions and ‘degree mills’ (illegal universities). He prayed for God’s wisdom and strength on Professor Rasheed to enable him discharge his duties creditably well during his tenure.