As a University, we have always viewed rejoinders and media wars as unnecessary cheap merchandise that we find distasteful either on retail or wholesale basis. This stance is borne out of our long-¬held view that media wars are usually orchestrated to serve the pecuniary interest of those who initiate and promote them in the public space.

Journalistic blackmail is a very cheap commodity that excites the imagination of only hack writers and sundry media spin doctors, who really abuse the tenets of the hallowed journalism profession that hold facts in very high esteem.

When C. P. Scott declared that "comments are free, facts are sacred," he probably may have had the likes of Chux Ohai of The Punch newspaper in mind. In an unguarded moment of journalistic bias, Mr. Ohai quite inexplicably armed himself with a poisoned pen and mounted a demolition truck that characteristically failed to draw a clear distinction between facts and fiction in his haste to soil the reputation. of the University of Port Harcourt on a contemptible scale.

How else would any discerning reader comprehend the hatchet job that was gleefully executed by Mr. Ohai in his one-sided two-page article entitled, Theo Vincent: From Ivory Tower to Lagos slums? If Mr. Ohai had any modicum of respect for facts which are held sacred in the journalism profession, he would have, at least, made even a passing effort to contact the authorities of the University of Port Harcourt for their own aide of the story before willfully blackmailing them through a distasteful media trial that evidently served his pecuniary interest under the circumstance.

The article which was published at pages 26 and 27 of The Punch edition of Thursday, September 3, 2015, was a piece of cheap blackmail that was deliberately concocted as a devious scheme of mass deception aimed at grabbing the attention of those not conversant with the facts of the matter. But, as we all know, the reason lies do not walk long distances is simply because they are usually fitted with very short legs that are not suited for a marathon race.

In the article under reference, Mr. Ohai readily admitted that Professor Theo Vincent had expressly set up barricades for the interview---insisting that it be strictly limited to literature--specifically poetry, and NOT about his personal existential condition which he was obviously quite reluctant to advertise to the public. Every serious-minded journalist would understand and promptly respect the hallowed ground rule set out by the interviewee widely known in media practice as 'off record' or 'no-go areas'. Not surprisingly, however, Mr. Ohai decided to take the generosity of his vulnerable host for granted which Is in utter violation of the unwritten eleventh commandment.

In a -thinly-veiled accusatory tone, Mr. Ohai appeared to blame the University of Port Harcourt for Professor Vincent's accommodation in "dilapidated two-storey residential building" where he located the eminent scholar to administer the killer punch. Even the detailed and unsparing description of the decrepit physical outlook of Professor Vincent was a very distasteful invasion of privacy that is totally out of synch with accepted media ethics. What is even more annoying is that in his attempt to drum up public sympathy for Professor Vincent, Mr. Ohai quite inadvertently succeeded in carving the venerable Professor as an odious carcass fit for the hounds! Was that really his intention in writing such a virulent piece that soiled individual and institutional images?

Pray, which journalism school taught Mr. Ohai such gratuitous disrespect for individual privacy? This is just media terrorism at its, worst manifestation, especially weighed against Mr. Ohai's own grudging admission that Professor Vincent had forewarned him of his circumspection about speaking to journalists'. Mr. Ohai did not disappoint Professor Vincent's apprehension. How tellingly true the gentleman's deeply-held suspicion of the killer instinct of some journalists turned out to be in this case!

Even more puzzling was the lachrymose input of a certain Dr. Chris Anyokwu of the Department of English in the University of Lagos, who was gleefully quoted by Mr. Ohai as lamenting that "a former Vice-Chancellor of a Federal University should end up the way Professor Theo Vincent has done..." It is rather instructive that in waxing so sanctimonious about the predicament of his erstwhile senior colleague in the English Department, Dr. Anyoku failed to first acknowledge the irrefutable fact that the same Professor Vincent who served the University of Lagos for 37 years was thrown out of his official accommodation where he resided for over 40 years! Not even Professor Vincent's visual impairment could confer a special status on him in difference to the extant rules governing accommodation on the Campus of the University of Lagos. Doesn't that, in the self-righteous words of Dr. Anyokwu, "beg the question and confound the imagination" even more than he and Mr. Ohai would want the general public to believe?

How could Mr. Ohai in one breath describe Professor Vincent in his story kicker as "a celebrated scholar and writer", only to turn round to patronise him as 'rambling about John Milton's famous sonnet"... (Obviously referring to Paradise Lost)? Professor Vincent 'rambling' about literature in which he is an acknowledged master? Doesn't that give Mr. Ohai away as a vengeful writer who was out to further sully the personality of the venerable academic he claimed to be defending, and by extension the reputation of the University of Port Harcourt, where Professor Vincent was Vice-Chancellor for only three and half years?

It defies conventional logic for Mr. Ohai to announce that he paid a visit to the Chapel of Christ Our Light to speak to the Management of the Church where Professor Vincent's wife currently worships, but could not remember to contact the authorities of the University of Port Harcourt which received the short end of his poisonous pen for its own version of events. Where is the balance and objectivity in this genre of guerrilla journalism that did not distinguish between military and civilian targets in its indiscriminate attack?

If Mr. Ohai or any reader of The Punch newspaper may wish to know the truth, here it is:
 Yes, Professor Vincent was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt between 1997and2000.
 At the end of his tenure, he did not transfer his services from the University of Lagos to the University of Port Harcourt.
 It is on record that Professor Vincent received all his statutory entitlements as a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt before returning to the University of Lagos.
 At no point in the stage-managed interview did Professor Vincent even indirectly complain against the authorities of the University of Port Harcourt for short-changing him as Mr. Ohai appeared to insinuate.
 Nobody notified the authorities of the University of Port Harcourt of the unfortunate plight of Professor Vincent until Mr. Ohai emerged from the blues to throw mud at the University, and quite unjustifiably so.

In the final analysis, the University of Port Harcourt wishes to express deep empathy with our former Vice-Chancellor over the unacceptable condition he is currently in and hopes that there would be concerted effort on all fronts to promptly reverse the trend for good. Portraying the University as insensitive to the plight of Professor Vincent is a piece of cheap blackmail that cannot fly in the light of the explanations outlined above.

What is obvious is that couching the expression of concern for Professor Vincent's current predicament in undisguised blackmail of the University of Port Harcourt defies logical reasoning on all fronts and is certainly NOT the best way to draw attention to his current predicament. Mr. Ohai conceded that the situation did not call for finger-pointing; yet, he pointed much more than fingers at the University of Port Harcourt.
It is our hope that Mr. Ohai would refrain from further attacks on the hard-¬earned reputation of the University of Port Harcourt and think of more noble ways of deploying his pen, especially when the subject is either individual privacy or institutional profile. As a University, we find this form of gutter journalism as utterly distasteful, contemptuous and libelous, but we will refrain from pressing charges at this point.
A word should be good enough for the wise.

WILLIAMS WODI
Deputy Registrar (Information)
ipqr@uniport.edu.ng/www.uniport.edu.ng

Hmmmm f

Hmmmm ftc

This is total hogwash.The idiot that wrote this trash was busy attacking the reporter instead of the issue at hand

Well...