There are serious crises in Nigerian universities. I don’t know how long the crises would last. But I know they will not be resolved overnight. How do I know? I know because there seems to be no much difference between the administration of Nigerian universities by many vice chancellors/governing councils and the administration of Nigerian government by politicians. Nowadays, one needs to fight dirty to become vice-chancellor in many Nigerian universities. To become vice-chancellor, the first victim is integrity. If you still have a scintilla of integrity in you, the position of vice chancellor is not for you in some Nigerian universities.
The fraud, the illegality, and the unprincipled politicking that now characterize the process of electing vice-chancellors leave one in deep bewilderment. Unless something is urgently done to reverse the ugly trend, we may begin to shut down our universities and send students to stay off campus because new VCs are about to be elected.
What is even more surprising is that these universities are said to be starved of funds. Yet every baby professor and the old ones want to become VC. Not only that, there are those who could not wait to become professors to be elected as VCs. In that case, they give it all what it takes to become professors.
About three months ago, it was a breaking news of one fraudulent professor who became the Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) in Anambra State. The “fraudfessor,” Mr Bernard Odoh, claimed to have been promoted to professorial rank since 2015 in the Federal University Gusau (FUGUS). Many were shocked when FUGUS countered the claim that Mr Odoh’s professorship and the supportive documents he referenced were all “products of administrative fraud”.
The FUGUS management informed the public that Mr Odoh was never a staff member of the university and his claims are “tissues of lies and misinformation.” This is the highest academic fraud which is too cringy even for our politicians to tolerate. That is to say, Nigerian rulers, as corrupt as the corrupt ones among them are, are yet to master a large scale act of criminality of Odoh’s proportion.
Yes! There have been allegations of forgery of WAEC and university degree results against some of our rulers; not professorship. President Tinubu did not waste time. He sacked Mr Odoh and dissolved the governing council that approved his elevation to the position of vice-chancellor. He also sacked the university registrar.
While the leadership crisis in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, which started around June last year is not about professorial academic fraud, it can be described as a hot political contest that leaves much to be desired. The university, since June last year, did not have a substantive vice-chancellor. It has been one VC, in acting capacity, after the other.
We read, yesterday (Thursday), that Professor Polycarp Emeka Chigbu the acting VC of UNN and Aisha Maikudi the VC of University of Abuja, were sacked. While Maikudi was said to be illegally appointed as VC, that was not the case with Chigbu. Professor Chigbu was removed because his six-month acting tenure ends by February 14, not because he was illegally appointed as VC like Maikudi. The sad news in UNN is that another acting VC, not substantive VC, was appointed for another six months. The UNN crisis started when Professor Charles Igwe, the then outgoing VC, allegedly tried to foist his stooge on the University like what played out in University of Abuja.
If the eggheads in our ivory towers could not get something as basic as VC selection process right, can we excuse our politicians for rigging their ways into the various elective offices in the country? It is either an outgoing VC wants to plant a stooge while he leaves or someone wants to rig their way to become VC. At times, the crisis is about a clamour for the son of the land to become VC like the recent case of University of Ibadan; though we celebrate Nigerians who became university vice-chancellors in far away UK and other countries across the globe. Are we not too awkward and backward? I mean, is our thinking straight?
I have read quite a number of opinion articles by supposedly educated people who should understand the inner workings of university, defending that glaring illegality that characterized the appointment of Maikudi as UniAbuja VC. They may need to write articles (in protest) now that she has been sacked. No wonder the government has no regards for intellectuals in the country’s higher institutions of learning.
What is even more amusing is the allegation by some that are pained by Maikudi’s dismissal, claiming that Tinubu is dealing with the North. If Tinubu is actually dealing with the North, is this reference not too thoughtless. Professor Lar Patricia Manko who was appointed in Maikudi’s place—in acting capacity—is from the North. I struggle to make sense of the allegation of “Tinubu dealing with the North” if a woman from Katsina State was sacked and was replaced with another woman from Plateau State. She is from the same state as Yaqubu Gowon after which the University has now been named (Yaqubu Gowon University). Shouldn’t we applaud Tinubu for making a great match?
Maikudi, like Odoh, has the right to kick back. Together, they may jointly fight back through the Court to have their position back. I personally won’t be shocked if they won their case. This is Nigeria where things that are unbelievable in dream happen in real life. And when they happen, one must believe they actually happen.
May I use this medium to draw the attention of President Bola Tinubu to the plight of Nigerian lecturers. Now that some VCs are sacked (followed by some reshuffling in the leadership of governing councils of some universities), would the President give order to those in charge that they should pay Nigerian lecturers their peanuts (salaries) so that they can manage to put something into their empty and shrinking bellies and also feed their families? Today is 8th of February. Some calenders are reading 39th of January. Our rulers in Nigeria should forgive lecturers their sin—the sin of choosing teaching as career. They wouldn’t have embarked on that career path if they had known that it is a sin.
Dear President Tinubu, please forgive us. Our children are crying of hunger. I pray they will not die of hunger. May you not witness the pang of hunger as you globetrot and junket. Extend my regards to the French people and your colleague over there, Emmanuel Macron, as you enjoy your private visit. I pray when you plan to come back, you will not meet us in pieces. Amen.
