By Chukwuemerie Uduchukwu
The authorities of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka
(UNIZIK) Thursday, responded to the allegations
made by the president of Students' Union
Government (SUG) Noble Eyisi against the university
Vice Chancellor Prof. Joseph Eberendu Ahaneku.
Mr Eyisi had through a letter dated 4th May 2015,
accused the Vice Chancellor of maladministration
and exploitation of the students. In the letter, Mr
Eyisi demanded answers from Mr. Ahaneku to some
questions he raised. He asked the vice chancellor to
disclose the status of the students' account and
alleged that the SUG lacks access to it despite the
fact that the students contribute annually to that
through their school fees. He also demanded the
reason why the Post UTME fees were increased from
N1000 to N2000. Mr. Eyisi also asked the reason
why newly admitted candidates were asked to pay
N7500 as biometric capturing fees alleging that a
total sum of N45,000 000 was generated from that
since 6000 candidates were admitted in the
2014/2015 academic session.
In reaction to the issues raised by the president, the
Director, Directorate of Information and Public
Relations of the university Dr. Emmanuel Ojukwu in
a long telephone chat with me Thursday night,
apologised to the public especially the university
community for the university's delayed response to
the issues raised by the SUG president, he
attributed that to a very busy week due to ongoing
meeting of the university's governing council, and
accused the SUG president Mr. Noble Eyisi of been
over desperate to gain fame with the aid of some
greedy persons. According to Mr. Ojukwu, Mr. Eyisi
wrote the Vice Chancellor and instead of waiting for
a response, he rushed to the press to publish same
letter and also started publicising it in the
university.
In reaction to the alleged increment in Post UTME
fees and introduction biometric fees charges to
newly admitted candidates, Mr. Ojukwu said that the
students' leader lacks powers to demand answers to
such from the Vice chancellor because Post-UTME
candidates and newly admitted candidates that are
yet to receive their registration numbers from the
university are not undergraduates of the university
who Mr. Eyisi represents. Mr. Ojukwu however, said
that in order to promote transparency, the university
decided to respond to that. According to him, Post-
UTME organisation is usually an expensive task and
in order to promote its standard, the university had
no option than to increase its costs on candidates.
He further maintained that due to the reforms by Mr.
Ahaneku's led administration, for the first time in the
university's history Post-UTME results were
released 3hours after its conduct thereby preventing
fraudsters from gaining opportunity to sabotage the
process.
Mr. Ojukwu also disclosed that the N7,500 biometric
charges on the newly admitted candidates were
adequately utilised in the biometric screening of
candidates during the Post-UTME which highly
reduced impersonation. According to him, about 88
impostors were arrested during the exercise.
On the alleged prohibition of the SUG from students'
account, Mr. Ojukwu said that the Vice Chancellor is
never a signatory to the account. He said that
signatories to SUG account include the Dean of
Students and the SUG Financial Secretary. Mr.
Ojukwu explained that the delay in the payment of
the allowances of the SUG officials is due to the
nonavailability of SUG budget as the President Mr.
Eyisi is yet to present the union's budget.
On the alleged frustration of the union's efforts to
compel food vendors within the university to reduce
their charges to N150 per plate and other alleged
harassments of the union officials, Mr. Ojukwu said
the president acted without the approval of the
students' representative council and the university
had no option than to prohibit such which can lead
to anarchy.
On the alleged late night invitation of the SUG
president by the vice chancellor to sign some
documents, the university's information and public
relations director disclosed that such never
happened and that the vice chancellor never invited
him to sign any document as he alleged. Mr.
Ojukwu disclosed that the vice chancellor called a
meeting to address students in order to promote
peace and justice in the university but the SUG
president refused to attend. Mr. Ojukwu further said
that Mr. Eyisi has failed to unite his fellow union
officials as all of them are against him. He said that
Mr. Eyisi has been having problem with other
executives of the union including his vice but the
university sees such as an internal affair of the
students and therefore has always avoided to
intervene in line with the policy of non interference
in students' matters championed by the vice
chancellor. He however advised Mr. Eyisi to
reconcile with his fellow elected officials and face
his obligations to the students instead of seeking for
cheap popularity. He further advised the students'
leader to avoid been influenced further by some
aggrieved greedy persons who never want the
progress of the university.
Mr. Ojukwu finally said that accusing the person of
Prof. Joseph Ahaneku of corruption is ridiculous
because he is a highly disciplined and principled
man. "Can you imagine that when I made a request
for the replacement of the toner of my printer, the
vice chancellor ordered an investigation to certify
the last time such replacement was made, I have
worked with two vice chancellors before Prof.
Ahaneku and to be honest with you, he Ahaneku is
the most disciplined" he said.

Source http://www.unizikonlinemedia.com/2015/05/university-management-clears-air-on.html?m=1