University of Benin (UNIBEN) Governing
Council recently sacked 44 staff of the
institution allegedly involved in
allegations that bordered on gross misconduct. But since the decision was
taken, the Vice-Chancellor of the
university, Professor Osayuki Oshodin,
says he has not had peace.
Recuperating from alleged food
poisoning, he raised the alarm that some of those sacked by the university
Council were after his life. In this
interview, Oshodin alleges that some of
the sacked staff were involved in sexual
harassment, extortion and fake
admissions which resulted in the rustication of 142 students. He also
speaks on the current ASUU strike.
Excerpts: 44 staff of the University of Benin
including senior lecturers were sacked
recently, triggering petitions accusing
you of being behind their ordeal. What
is your take on that? I am not behind their sack. Some of
them collected money from students
and the students have since been
dismissed and they named them. The
procedure for sacking people, the Vice
Chancellor does not have a hand in it. First of all, the Intelligence Unit of the
university sometimes dictates some of
these things or, when they are reported
to by students, they are now sent to
the Disciplinary Committee. The Vice
Chancellor is not a member of the Disciplinary Committee. The Committee
will meet and make recommendation
to Council. The Council take the ultimate
decision and nobody can influence the
Council. Council is made up of over fifteen
members, so how can one person
influence them? We have four sound
lawyers in the Council, one of them is a
Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). A
former senator is the Chairman of the Council and other respectable Nigerians.
So, I don’t know what they are talking
about. I can show you the rules and
regulations, they are all spelt out there.
You can recommend somebody to the
Council and say the person should be freed due to one reason or the other,
but the Council can say no , the person
must be punished. So it has nothing to do with the VC. It is
sad that these people talking and
calling the name of the VC do not even
talk about the crime they committed.
What most of them did can be
described as crime against humanity. Many of them collected money from
students; engaged in sexual
harassment, extortion, fake admission.
People who did not take JAMB, who did
not pass post-UME, who did not have
tSSSCE were cleared by these people. So what has their crimes got to do with
the VC? It was purely a Council decision
and they were dismissed after
investigations.
Ungodly act
A situation where you sexually harass a
student and you are now disciplined,
you look for who to blame and say you
are being victimized. How can you
collect N50,000 from a student and you say you are doing the right thing?
Some of them were even caught red
handed. There was a case whereby
security agents were pursuing the
person inside the campus. Is it not
ridiculous? A big man running round the campus after he collected the
money but he did not know security
men were watching him. It is wicked to
collect money from a poor student who
can hardly feed. Parents are even
suffering to get school fees and you are collecting N50,000 from them. What
shocked me most is that even female
lecturers were involved. I did not know that female lecturers can
be involved in extorting money from
students. I thought that women are
mothers and they are motherly, that
was the shocker I got. It is a shame.
And I heard that some of them had taught in other universities before and
they were thrown out. And this was
why the Council insisted that their
names must be published in
newspapers so that they will not go to
another university and continue to perpetrate their evil. Majority of them
had been in the business for twenty
years. As a result, some people have
gone to the internet to publish more
names that we should look as they are
also extorting students. Yet they are abusing the management of the
university for the action but they forgot
that 142 students that were to
graduate could not graduate because
these corrupt staff admitted them
without basic requirements. You know that at the point of entry,
they are screened, at the point of
departure, they are also screened; it
was at the point of departure ‘that we
discovered these 142. Some have spent
five years, six years, four years but unfortunately, those years were
wasted. So those ones were punished
and you that admitted them that was
supposed to advise them rightly, you
expect to stay, no way. It will be
ungodly to allow only the students and parents to suffer it. Those who
perpetrated the act deserve
punishment and that was the decision
of Council. They ruined the life of those
students because they have to go and
start afresh. One of the staff that was dismissed was
selling biometric data, and he was not
supposed to. I have children and I will
not allow some body do that to them,
what they did was wicked and evil.I
was shocked with the revelations because I never believed some of them
were involved in some of these crimes.
When I got to Council, where I was
trying to plead for somebody because
the person is a first offender, it was the
first time something has been reported against him, it was then that the
Chairman of Council brought out a
petition he wrote against me. I was
shocked. When you go on the internet,
you will see the remarks of former
students who said it was good they were caught. When did you notice this level of
corrupt practices in the university? We never had a Governing Council for
almost two years, so the Security Unit
of the university had been gathering
this information. So when they say I am
the one that took the decision, why did
I not take the decision before the Council came. I don’t have that kind of
power, it is the Governing Council that
has the power to appoint and to
dismiss, not the VC. I did not even see
the report until it got to the Governing
Council. Challenges
We have been promoting
infrastructural development and
academic development. We have new
programmes which are putting us
ahead of other universities, not only in Nigeria but worldwide. We are relating
to international institutions, that is
what academic is all about, not these
frivolous petitions people are writing
because they don’t like the truth and
they are enemies of progress. I want to take UNIBEN to the upper most height
before the end of my tenure. We are
the best in Nigeria. We are the most
sought after university in Nigeria, JAMB
can confirm to you that more people
apply to go to UNIBEN than any other university in Nigeria. That is not just a
coincidence, it is a result of the kind of
things we are doing there academically. There was this report some time ago
that the Inspector General of Police
ordered the investigation of your
activities? I am not aware of that. It is all
propaganda that is being carried out by
one of those people who lost their jobs.
One of them has written various
frivolous petitions, he does not even
know the regulations on the appointment of Heads of Department, it
is the prerogative of the VC to appoint
anybody as long as the person is a
senior lecturer and above. That is the
bone of contention of one particular
person who felt he should be a Director. And this is the person who stayed in
one position for eleven years and was
never promoted until I became Vice
Chancellor. I promoted him and
employed his wife in the university, he
is the one writing frivolous petitions. Investigate me over what? These are
lies and propaganda being peddled to
rubbish my administration but they
have failed because we are moving on
whether they like it or not. We learnt your life is being threatened
and that you were even poisoned
recently? Yes I have been passing through hell
but I am not afraid God is my protector.
It is these people that lost their jobs
that are threatening my life and, as we
are speaking, they have not given up.
So if anything happens to me, all of them should be held responsible,
especially one particular man who is
fond of writing frivolous petitions. He is
being used, others are hiding under him
to perpetrate the crime but we know
all of them. The problem is that there was so much corruption in the
university before I took over as VC and
they wanted me to do it the way they
ran the place before and I said no. I
want this place to develop, I have more
at stake in this university than any one of them. I know how the land was
given to the Federal Government for
the university to be sited there, part of
it is my family land. There was no compensation paid to us,
but we did not make noise about it, yet
some persons think they can colonize
the place with their corrupt practices. I
was even poisoned by these people but
I survived. When God is with you, you are fully protected. I believe that God
sent me to the university for a purpose
and He will not want me to die on the
job. I believe they are wasting their
time. Nobody believed that I will be
Vice-Chancellor; if you know all the wrangling then, you will know what I
am talking about. I did not join any
group to fight for it, it was the hand
work of God, God gave me the position
and God is protecting me and He will
protect me to the end of my tenure. And those who want to fight God will
face his wrath. Are you not worried about the
prolonged ASUU strike?
We all are worried. But I believe that
through dialogue and understanding,
the issues will be resolved soon. There
is nothing that cannot be solved through dialogue. The thing is that if
we have good communication with the
unions, we won’t have problems. This is
my fourth year as VC, I have not had
any problem with the unions and that
is because of my open door policy. I told them if there are things you don’t
like that I do, please call me to order. I
have an open-door policy and the
union members are human beings, they
are understanding too. It is usually
better to dialogue and find solutions to problems. Are you saying dialogue is the secret of
you success so far?
My doors are wide open for everybody.
If there are problems, we discuss them;
the ones I can solve immediately, I will
solve, the ones I cannot, I will appeal to them to give me some time. For
example, when I took over, I met a
backlog of promotion arrears up to ten,
twelve years and I paid it gradually.
Those are their entitlements. You know
in the university system, we run it like a community; it is not a one man show.
So you involve them so they actually
see what is going on, you won’t have
any problem. It is only when you
exclude them in the running of the
university that you have a problem. Like this issue of termination of
appointment of some staff, the Vice-
Chancellor has nothing to do with it. My dream for UNIBEN
I want to see UNIBEN on top; in Nigeria,
they are already on top but, before the
end of my tenure, I want to see them
among the first one hundred
universities in the world. That is my dream. There is this rumour that youre nursing
governorship ambition?
I am not a politician. This rumour is
being peddled by the same people who
do not mean well for the university.
They have said all sorts of things. I am an academician so I wonder where they
are getting their information from – it is
still part of the mischief and I have
decided to ignore it. God will judge.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/09/uniben-vcs-alleged-poisoning-lecturers-punished-for-crimes-against-humanity-are-fighting-back/

Gone on sir finish them,we no we can do much as students and ex-students of uniben but be rest assured that we re backing you in prayers. They committed all the offence and are guilty. On no account should they be forgiven becos we don't want our younger ones to suffer What we suffered in their hands

Food Poisoning whoa has it gotten to that

hmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!