Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, is in
deep crisis. Right now the University has no
Governing Council, no Vice Chancellor –
substantive or acting – and, at least, no
active Deputy Vice – Chancellor. Only the
registrar still retains his position but he, too,
dare not come near his office. This is
because members of the Senior Staff
Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU)
and Non-Academic Staff Union of
Universities (NASU) have laid siege on the
University administrative building. They have
been doing so since June 7, the day after
the Governing Council, following a meeting
held at a secret location in Abuja, announced
Professor Ayobami Salami as Vice
Chancellor elect for the University. On
Thursday June 23, and in an apparent
attempt at averting tragic confrontations, the
registrar announced the closure of the
University, asking students to immediately
vacate their halls of residence. He never
indicated any date when they could return to
resume their studies.
The crisis has its roots in the process of
appointment of a new Vice Chancellor for
the University. Advertisement for the
position which was to become vacant on
June 23 was put out in two national tabloids
in December, 2015. Applications soon began
to come in, and, by January 26, 2016 being
the deadline set for submission of formal
expression of interets, eleven (11)
candidates had formally applied for the job.
The search team subsequently constituted
to seek out other suitable individuals who,
for one reason or the other, failed to send in
applications returned on March 8 to report
that out of thirty eight (38) people searched,
only three indicated interest but that none of
them applied for the job in the end.
The day the Governing Council took the
report of the search team was March 8, and
it was that same day that it decided to
shortlist the applications. It was during that
exercise that the body took its first wrong
steps: against worldwide practice where the
shortlisting process is considered as a
preliminary procedure where all candidates
who make the list look forward to the day of
the interview with equal hopes, the
Governing Council took the opportunity of
the exercise to give rankings to the
candidates, with one of them scoring, in fact
100%. By carrying out detailed assessment
of the dossier of the candidates, the
Governing Council usurped the role of the
Joint Council and Senate Selection Board
which section 3.3 of the “Universities
Miscellaneous Provisions Amendment Act,
2009” vested with the power of considering
“the candidates and persons on the shortlist
drawn up under subsection (2) of this
section through an examination of their
curriculum vitae and interaction with
them…” (emphasis mine).
Furthermore, out of the eleven candidates,
only six made the shortlist. Four of them
were from Obafemi Awolowo University while
the other two were from the Federal
University of Technology, Akure. The five
candidates who did not make the shortlist
were all from Ife. What makes this
particularly curious is the fact that two of
the candidates whose applications were
considered to be fit only for the trash bin
made the final list in the 2011 exercise
which produced the outgoing Vice
Chancellor. Since the criteria contained in
the advertisement for the position were
exactly the same as those of the
immediately preceding one, people naturally
started asking questions on how the
Governing Council arrived at the shortlist.
Not a few people felt that by shortlisting less
than fifty percent (50%) of the applicants
who applied from OAU, the Governing
Council seemed to be putting a big question
mark on the quality of professors produced
by the institution. This is especially more so
since it shortlisted the two candidates who
applied from FUTA, making it hundred
percent (100%) for that institution. Finally,
since one of the criteria set down in the
advertisement insisted that candidates
applying for the position must “enjoy
excellent physical and mental health”, people
find it difficult to understand while Council
decided to include in the final list the name
of one of the two candidates from FUTA
who clearly has health challenges, having
just been stricken with stroke.
But members of two non-teaching staff
unions on campus, namely the Senior Staff
Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU)
and the Non-Academic Staff union of
Universities did more than just raise
questions. They simply headed for the court.
While, however, their counsels were still
struggling to perfect their papers in Federal
High Court, Akure, the Joint Council and
Senate Selection Board sent notices to the
shortlisted candidates, informing them that
the interaction would hold on April 7. In
reaction. members of the two unions took a
decision to literally blockade the entrances
to the venue of the interaction, thus
preventing the candidates from getting in,
and members of the interaction panel from
getting out. It in fact took the intervention of
Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi
before the unions could agree to relax the
blockade.
Wumi Raji
By this time, they had already succeeded in
serving the University with the court
processes. Having received the papers, the
University responded by filing a notice of
preliminary objections, in which it declared
that the court had no jurisdiction to entertain
the matter. The court fixed Tuesday June 7
for the hearing of the preliminary issues.
This having been done, the belief of the
members of the community was that the
Governing Council would suspend the
selection process until the court case had
been dispensed with. Not so, surprisingly.
On Wednesday June 1, the Registrar and
Secretary to Council, in flagrant display of an
attitude of utter contempt for the court of
law, sent sms messages to the shortlisted
candidates informing them that the
interaction which had earlier on been
suspended would soon be re-visited. They
were told to get themselves ready for it.
Two days later, and precisely on Friday June
5, the candidates were sent letters by the
same officer, informing them that the
interaction would now take place on Monday
June 6 in Abuja, FCT. The venue and time of
the interview were not indicated in the
letter. Rather, the candidates were simply
asked to report at the liason office of the
Obafemi Awolowo University in Abuja on the
evening of the preceding day, where they
would be informed of the time and venue of
the interaction.
On receiving the letters, three of the four
internal candidates on the shortlist
immediately wrote back to the Selection
Board, informing it that due to the subsisting
court case, they would not be able to
present themselves for the interview. They
also gave as added reason the fact that the
invitation issued to them contained no
information as regards the venue and time
of the interview,
The Joint Council and Senate Selection
Board simply brushed aside the letters and
went ahead with the interaction. The three
internal candidates who had earlier written
back to the Board boycotted it. Only
Professor Ayobami Salami, the candidate
who had earlier been awarded the maximum
marks of 100% presented himself for the
interaction. One of the other two candidates
from FUTA was also physically present. The
second who as I said earlier was down with
stroke was interacted with on phone. At the
end of the interaction, Salami was ranked as
number one, predictably, while the two
candidates from FUTA were placed in the
second and third positions respectively.
In other words, even the man who currently
suffers from a debilitating stroke was
recommended as appointable. The Board
had to do this, apparently, in order to make
sure it meets the demand of the provision of
section four of the Universities
Miscellaneous (Amendment) Act which
insists that three names must be
recommended to the Governing Council out
of which it will then select and appoint one
as Vice Chancellor. It was on the same day
– Monday, June 6 – that the Selection
Board interacted with the three candidates
that they wrote their report and submitted it
to the Governing Council; and it was on this
same day that Council met to consider the
report. It was, finally, on the same day that
it announced Salami as the new Vice-
Chancellor. All this from an undisclosed
location in Abuja,
Hell was let loose on campus when the news
came through the following day. As leaders
of SSANU and NASU headed for the Federal
High Court in Osogbo to report what the
Governing Council had done, other members
trooped out in protest and eventually
converged in front of the administrative
building. They resolved to lay siege on the
building from then onwards, vowing never to
allow Salami to step into the office of the
Vice Chancellor. Fortunately, Tale Omole,
then the incumbent Vice Chancellor had not
yet arrived in the office as at that time.
Having received briefing on the situation, he
wisely decided to stay away. Until his tenure
expired on June 23, Professor Omole never
tried to come near the office of the Vice-
Chancellor again. Actually on that Thursday
June 23, SSANU and NASU members brought
a mock coffin to the campus. The “coffin”
had “RIP TALE OMOLE” boldly inscribed on
it. First, they marched round the campus
with the “coffin,” before finally taking it to
the University gate where they set it on fire.
Afterwards, they returned to the front of the
administrative building, fried akara balls and
shared them out among themselves. As far
as they were concerned, they had carried
out the funerals of the former Vice
Chancellor.
Salami did not try to come to the office the
following day, June 24, when his tenure was
supposed commence. What he did, instead,
was to send a message to the University
community, announcing himself as the new
Vice Chancellor, expressing willingness to
negotiate for peace. But members of the
two unions simply ignored him. They carried
on with their action, daring the man to try to
come near the office of the Vice Chancellor.
On Thursday June 30, ASUU branch of the
Obafemi Awolowo University finally held a
congress. Earlier, and precisely on June 13,
and without calling a congress, its chairman
had issued a statement which he described
as the “Official Position (of ASUU) on the
Appointment of a Vice Chancellor” to the
press.
The statement had absolved the Governing
Council of any wrong doing, stating clearly
that the body had observed due process in
the course of the appointment. Among other
such issues, the statement maintained
complete silence on the fact that the
Governing Council had acted in contempt of
court in the final stage of the process. It
refused to raise questions on how it
happened that some of those who made the
shortlist in 2011 failed to do so in the latest
exercise, even when the advertised criteria
remained the same. It refused to see
anything wrong in scoring candidates at the
level of shortlisting. And it saw nothing
wrong in including somebody who has
serious health challenges on the final list,
much against one of the conditions included
in the advertisement. ASUU congress of
June 30 was tense.
There, members of the union made it clear
that the statement sent out by the chairman
does not represent their position on the
appointment process and insisted that it
should be repudiated. That same evening,
the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu
Adamu came on air to announce the
dissolution of the Governing Council of the
University, along with that of the University
of Port Harcourt. The Minister also ordered
the suspension of the process of
appointment of a substantive Vice Chancellor
for the University until after the case in
court must have been decided.
The announcement was greeted with wild
jubilation on campus. SSANU and NASU
members who had spent several days at the
barricade felt vindicated and they went
round the campus dancing in jubilation.
ASUU members who, just a few hours before
the announcement, had forced their
chairman to retract a statement which he
claimed to have issued on their behalf also
rejoiced. The next thing was to wait for the
next announcement from government, which
was expected to provide direction on how
the leadership of the University would be
reconstituted.
Today, close to two weeks after the Minister
had made the announcement on the
dissolution of the Governing Council and the
suspension of the selection process, the
University has continued to exist in limbo. No
new Council has been put in place. There is
nobody functioning in the capacity of a Vice
Chancellor. Senate cannot sit because there
is nobody that has the power to call the
meeting or act as chairman. Because there
is no Senate to take the decision, students
cannot be called back to campus to resume
their studies. June salaries have not been
paid because there is nobody to instruct the
bursar to do so. Everything, in short, is at a
standstill.
But just why should a simple process of
selecting a new Vice Chancellor precipitate
so much crisis and give birth to the kind of
rancor that we are currently witnessing in
Obafemi Awolowo University? Going by its
conduct in this exercise, it seems to me that
the Governing Council has, along the line,
compromised itself. This being so, it has
found it impossible to handle the whole
process with an attitude of impartiality and
objectivity it required. Consequently, the
men and women in that body have ended up
letting themselves and the entire community
down. The lesson to take away from this
lies, as I see it, in the need to maintain an
attitude of honesty and retain a sense of
history whenever we find ourselves in
positions of responsibility. Any attempt to
circumvent this can only result in chaos and
anarchy as is currently being witnessed in
Obafemi Awolowo University.


Wumi Raji is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Dramatic Arts, Obafemi
Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2016/07/crisis-in-obafemi-awolowo-university-ile-ife/

ok

.