By Felicia Maduka
The disbandment of Ambassador Greg Mbadiwe led Governing council and the sacking of Dr. Bernard Odoh and Mrs Nwokike as the puppet and imposed Vice Chancellor and Registrar respectively of UNIZIK brought a big sigh of relief among major stakeholders in the affairs of UNIZIK and general Nigerian public. No wonder the appointment of Barrister Olugbenga Kukoyi as the new Prochancellor and Chairman of Governing Council of Nnamdi Azikiwe University was greeted with happiness, loud applause and with great and positive excitements. The challenging expectations from this Barrister Olugbenga Kukoyi led Governing Council are enormous and numerous.
Democratic peace as opposed to dictatorial peace
Participants and close keen observers in the affairs of UNIZIK will agree that what exists at the moment in UNIZIK is an imposed tyrannical peace where contrary progressive opinions are intimidated by the newly created sycophantic attack-dogs of UNIZIK to Shut-up anyone that has contrary opinions to the imposition and installation of the present Acting Vice-Chancellor as the substantive VC of UNIZIK. The situation is such that only sharing of social media news (Whether True or False) that eulogizes the imposition and installation of the present Ag. VC as the substantive VC is tolerated and cheered while any dissenting views no matter how truthful is disdainfully treated with insults and abuses. The result of this ugly scenario is that what is now prevalent is the presence of tyrannical imposed graveyard dictatorial peace. The consequence is that most if not all responsible academics in UNIZIK have resorted to keeping silent so as to avoid insults by the created attack dogs of the regime whose population increases with offer of appurtenances of office and access to official documents as a weapon of intimidating UNIZIK community members who dare share posts let alone express their opinions that may be somewhat contrary to imposition and installation of the present Ag-VC as the substantive VC.
But in a sane academic climate, what is expected is the existence of freedom of expression where people agree to disagree and vice versa. But what we have in UNIZIK is different. It is a deviation from the usual practice of writing an honest objective counter rejoinder to publications that one thinks is unfair, incorrect and unjust. Rather, what is prevalent is that these unchained mad attack dogs have resorted to not only insults on the persons and personalities of sharers of posts but threats to the lives and careers of sharers of such posts that they are uncomfortable with. Regrettably these attack dogs only accept the news-posts that favour the views and that of their paymasters that there is peace in UNIZIK, whether correct or not. Any post on the contrast exposes the one who posted it to insults, immediate or deferred victimization by the authority. The prochancellor is therefore implored to make use of instruments available to his office to put UNIZIK on the march to true peace. Sir, you should remember that peace in an Ivory Tower without freedom of expression is certainly a high pressure bottled-up crisis whose release will most likely not be desirable to anyone.
Should the Ag. VC Prof Ikechebelu be allowed to participate in the substantive VC contest or not?
Desperation to forcefully impose the Ag-VC as the substantive VC of UNIZIK is the major reason for the presence of tyrannical and dictatorial peace being pursued by the unchained attack mad dogs to the silent admiration of UNIZIK administration. Even a doubting Thomas will agree that the unwritten law of President Tinubu Administration is that Ag-VCs should NOT be allowed to contest for substantive VC so as to ensure a level playing field. This was corroborated with the reported proclamation of the present Pro-chancellor (Barrister Olugbenga Kukoyi) that Prof Ikechebelu should not contest UNIZIK VC. This is akin to the abidance to what Federal Government has carried out in such Nigerian Federal universities such as University of Abuja, Alvan Ikoku University and University of Nigeria, Nsukka. They all have similar and peculiar situations as UNIZIK.
Improper constitution of the present Governing Council (GC): It has been argued at various informal platforms whether a GC without the external members is properly constituted or not to take legal decisions. The act establishing the GC of Nigerian universities makes provisions for only four (4) active external members and seven (7) internal members. The above is exclusive of Prochancellor that is the chairman representing the Visitor (President) who normally is from outside the university and the Vice Chancellor representing the Visitor (President) in the day to day administration of the university, who is from within the universities. Other external and internal members are nominal without voting power. From above, it is therefore clear that the present UNIZIK GC is not properly constituted if we are to be honest to ourselves. Fortunately, the present Pro-chancellor, Barrister Olugbenga Kukoyi is a lawyer with great exposition and will appreciate the true situation better.
Added to the above is the problem of whether this GC is the 10th or 11th Governing Council of UNIZIK. Analysts believe that if it is the 10th GC, then there is no need for a new election of internal members as was the case when the 10th GC led by Ambassador Greg Mbadiwe came on board. Conversely, if it is the 11th GC, then automatically the present internal members of GC elected for the 10th GC shall be disbanded and fresh election for internal members of GC conducted. Again the wealth of experience of the Prochancellor as a lawyer shall be an added advantage here.
Unpaid staff questions: The Pro-chancellor will be writing his name in gold if he could find a way out of the present problem of employed but unpaid staff for upwards of four to five years. He should listen to both sides of the aisle. What makes the situation worse is not that these UNIZIK workers are not yet paid but the shadiness in the way of capturing workers and other unwholesome and unethical practices of how those employed first (With earlier Staff Numbers) were left out in being captured for payment while the latter employees (With later Staff Numbers) were captured for payments due to primordial negative considerations. There were cases where those close to people in power were secretly taken through the backdoors to Abuja and were captured for regular salary payments. Most pathetic is that some of these unpaid staff abandoned their former jobs only to become stranded at UNIZIK. Sadly, some of these unpaid staff in their normal routine duties do receive letters of newly employed for documentation and such new workers have started receiving their salaries. To sum up, the issue of unpaid staff in UNIZIK is stinking. Note that this happened during the tenure of Prof Esimone as VC, even though Prof. Ikechebelu was the DVC Admin and may not have had much influential roles.
A breath of fresh air needed to move UNIZIK forward: It is an unwritten consensus that UNIZIK to fully unlock the potentials in him needed a guided break from the way things has been done in the past. Most importantly is the way of selection of principal officers of the university. It is advisable that the GC under your leadership should open the democratic space for contestant through strictly adhering to the extant laws of such selection process. The limitation or exclusion of candidate through imposition of targeted big hurdles has been counterproductive. This is because you cannot expect to change a situation by repeating the same steps as in the past. What is rather required is conformity to the laws as codified in the law books of the federation. A case in point of the negative consequences of such bad act is as observed in the requirements under Ambassador Greg Mbadiwe for selection of Registrar and Vice Chancellor positions. It is also observed that your regime has toed the same line in the advert for position of Registrar. It is believed that the GC should open up the democratic space by strictly conforming to the extant laws of the land for such positions. Your administration should be careful with the bogus prescriptions of the Ministry of Education whom the extant laws have made them nominal members of GCs without voting rights for obvious reasons. But smartly and through the backdoors, the Ministry has assumed control of GCs in Nigeria as they have dictated the requirements for offices for principal officers of Nigerian universities through their own guidelines. Many GCs have ignorantly obeyed them while others have stood their grounds and decided their own conditions devoid of over bourgeoning influence of Ministry of Education. It is the thinking of the writer that GC of UNIZIK should focus more on the action plans (Vision and Mission) of contestants to the positions. After all, experiences of the past have shown that strings of certificates and holding of varying positions have not yielded much positive returns. A typical example was in the case of Prof. Ilochi Okafor who without much academic pedigree has been adjudged by most people as the best VC UNIZIK has produced till date.
Being cautious about human characters in the university: Like in every human establishment, we always have the “Good” the “Bad” and the “Ugly.” Your administration should be cautious of people of no character and integrity. Majority of the people including the attack dogs of the present UNIZIK administration lack morals and integrity and only conscious of their stomach infrastructure. Hence, most of the people have switched their supports from Prof. Ikechebelu to Prof. Umeobi to Dr. Bernard Odoh and back to Prof. Ikechebelu. Such characters usually regarded as AGIP (Any Government In Power) are surely ideologically and morally bankrupt. Please be cautious of them because the levels of such precautionary measures will help in determining the success or otherwise of your administration.
While believing in the adage that God helps those who help themselves, it is the thinking of the writer that the success or otherwise of your administration will be predicated on how you handle or do not handle democratic peace as opposed to the existing dictatorial peace; whether the Ag. VC Prof Ikechebelu should be allowed to participate in the substantive VC contest or not and the propriety or otherwise of the constitution of the present UNIZIK GC. Others include the issue of unpaid staff questions; introducing conditions to usher in a Breath of Fresh Air in UNIZIK leadership and being cautious about human characters in the university. Wishing you GOD’s guidance and protection as you execute this historic role God has placed on your shoulders.
Ms. Maduka undertakes educational feasibility consultancy in Awka, Anambra State
