By Stephen V. Lansana
The Ministry of Technical and Higher Education (MTHE) has on Tuesday, January 30, 2024, dissolved the Court of University of Sierra Leone (USL) following the University’s rejection of the Minister’s appointee, Prof. Lawrence Kamara to serve as the acting Vice Chancellor and Principal (VC&P) of the USL.
It could be recalled that in a bid to remove political interference in the administration of public universities, President Dr Julius Maada Bio on November 30, 2021, depoliticized all public Universities in the country, and installed Chancellors for four public universities. The President assured Public Universities of autonomy in governance and urged them to project the integrity of their respective institutions. This led to the enacted of a new Universities Act of 2021 which removes the President from being the Chancellor of public universities and reduces the Powers of the Minister to an advisory role.
The Ministry said in a letter addressed to the Chancellor of USL that after the enactment of the Universities Act, 2021, the Court of the University failed to appoint a Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University as stipulated in section 9(1) of the said Act.
According to the Ministry, after the appointment of Prof. Foday Sahr as Executive Director of the National Public Health Agency, there was no Pro-Vice Chancellor to act in his stead, noting that the Minister consulted the University about the implications of the absence of a Pro-Vice Chancellor and the urgent need to replace the erstwhile VC&P.
“You reached a consensus with the minister for the latter to take appropriate action and keep you posted,” the Ministry said. “Based on the aforementioned consultation, the ministry appointed Prof. Lawrence Kamara to fill the void and initiate action to recruit and cause the appointment of a substantive VC&P for USL in accordance with section 8 (1)(2) and (3) of the Universities Act, 2021.”
The Ministry added, “We are concerned that the Court did not allow the appointed acting VC&P to function. Instead, you presided over the appointment of parallel acting VC&P contrary to the agreement you had with the Minister.”
According to the Ministry, the University also rescheduled the congregation ceremony for the 2022/2023 academic year on the grounds that the Academic Staff Associations of the various public higher education institutions had issued an industrial strike action notice in respect of their conditions of service.
“In view of the foregoing, the catalogue of other unmentioned issues and in consultation with the TEC, the Government of Sierra Leone through the MTHE has deemed it expedient to dissolve the Court of the University of Sierra Leone with immediate effect,” the Ministry disclosed.
The Director of Public Relations, Alumni and International Affairs of the University of Sierra Leone (USL), James Tamba Lebbie said that the Ministry has no legal basis to dissolve the University Court.
He said that the ministry has stick to the old University Act of 2005 where the President was the Chancellor of public universities, noting that at that time, the ministry was exercising those powers on behalf of the President since he was the Chancellor.
Mr Lebbie said that the argument that there was no Pro-Vice Chancellor is completely untrue because there was already a sitting Pro-Vice Chancellor though it was not appointed by writing a letter, but through an administrative arrangement, noting that the said position is rotational among the three constituent colleges.
“Under the new law, the president is the visitor and not a chancellor. Meaning, the Powers of the President as Chancellor has been transferred to the Chancellor of the various public universities including USL pursuant to section 8(2),” he said. “Also, sextion 9(1) says that the university shall appoint the pro vice chancellor and not the minister”.
He disclosed that for one to qualify to be Pro-Vice Chancellor, you have to be a sitting Deputy Vice Chancellor and you become an acting VC&P in the absent of the VC&P.
He maintained that the Prof. Lawrence Kamara, whom the Ministry has appointed, is not a sitting DVC as provided for in law, and also he has past retirement age which was in fact the reason why his appointment as DVC of Fourah Bay College was not renewed for a second term.
Interestingly, Mr Lebbie disclosed that Prof. Kamara had benefited from this administrative arrangement where he serves as Pro-Vice Chancellor when he was the DVC of FBC, noting that such decision from the Court was not questioned, but the issue was only raised when it comes to Prof. Samai just to prevent him from serving as the Pro-Vice Chancellor.
“So, even when the Ministry said there’s a delay in appointing the VC&P, that doesn’t give the minister or the Ministry to appoint same,” he emphasized.
“The Minister do not have executive authority under the new universities Act of 2021 because both the Minister and the Chancellor are appointed by the President. Therefore, the university court cannot be subservient to the Ministry.”
He said that the Ministry only plays a supervisory role, pointing out that the Ministry had always wanted to micromanage the university, and the court had resisted such.
He said the suggestion of the Parliamentary Committee to allow Prof. KAMARA to act for six months until a substantive VC&P is appointed was rejected because it was based on sentiment which doesn’t has any bases in law. “Basically, parliament was pressuring the University to violate its own laws. If there was a legal basis for that, the authorities will not have condemned it,” he said.
He claimed that the Ministry is merely doing this on sentiment and not by the rules of law. “That is why I keep characterizing this conflict as rules of law versus sentiments because all what the Ministry is doing right now doesn’t have any legal basis,” he added. “The law is very clear. There’s no lacuna in it. There’s a Pro- Vice Chancellor which performs that role.”
The Director emphasized that even if the University failed to appoint him, the law doesn’t give power to the Minister to appoint acting VC&P.
“Your business is to advise the court on the vacancy because you sit in the court. And there is no document to show that the ministry advised the university; if they have it, let them tender it,” he said. “We didn’t recognize the dissolution of the court. When you say you have dissolved the court, it essentially means that you have sacked the Chancellor which impliedly mean that an appointee of the President sacking another appointee.”
He said that the ministry has discarded a whole Act of Parliament and render it not fit for purpose just to stop the legitimate Pro-Vice Chancellor from performing this temporary duty.