Anonymously sent/posted. I received this and I thought it should receive a wider audience.

"As a concerned and committed alumnus of the University of Nigeria, it is morally defeating to hear and note certain wrong practices and conducts with inimical consequences going on in my Alma Mater and not raise them for the Administration to either address or for other concerned alumni and general public to take note as well. As such, I am stating the following:

1. Without sounding superfluous, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Charles A. Igwe and his team, as a matter of urgency, need to look into reports of financial misconducts going on in one of the University’s enterprises, and threatening to shut it down. That enterprise is the University of Nigeria Press Limited (UNPL).

2. From a private inquiry, the current director, Professor Enyinnaya Samuel Ikeokwu (a professor in the Department of Linguistics, Igbo, and Other Nigerian Languages) who was appointed last year 2019 to direct the affairs of the Press is, by all standards, grossly incapable of managing a business enterprise.

3. Not only has Prof. Ikeokwu drastically reduced the fortunes of that industry from what the status was about a year ago when he assumed directorship, he has shown that he is acutely bereft of basic enterprising and managerial skills and is only interested in benefitting himself and his cronies.

4. It bears mentioning that Prof. Ikeokwu bypasses certain due processes as well as finance ethics established over the years in the Press which have significantly helped in good record-keeping and financial accountability. On the contrary, he has gone ahead to personalize the management of funds such that his shady deals would go unnoticed and financial transparency stifled.

5. It is reliably gathered that he connives with a certain engineer from his Abia State to siphon funds which remain unaccounted for. There are regular transactions going on between the two in the name of endless repairs of machines even when the machines are in good state or completely out of use. This engineer who is non-resident in Nsukka now practically lives in a hotel in Nsukka at the exorbitant cost of the Press unlike he is expected to be seen occasionally when the machines get faulty.

6. To cover the tracks of these financial malpractices, Prof. Ikeokwu ensures that he meets with the so-called engineer in seclusion to share in cash whatever proceeds they make from fleecing the Press. That way, his bank statement would bear no traces and give no clues.

7. Sequel to the above, this said engineer should be brought under thorough scrutiny and his bank transaction history investigated to get a clue of the transactional relationship going on between him and Prof. Ikeokwu for quite some time.

8. I have learned from another source that Prof. Ikeokwu has a terrible reputation in public management, such as in the mismanagement of the highly-respected Igbo Studies Association (ISA) Conference/Journal set up and taken to stellar heights by Prof Inno Nwadike in the early 2000s which went comatose and unpopular among erstwhile fans and contributors in his (Prof. Ikeokwu’s) hands. It is surprising that the University did not consider his track record of public performance before assigning him to manage (mismanage) one of its important industries like the Press.

9. Prof. Ikeokwu has also been owing the employees of the Press for 3 months now (since July) claiming insufficiency of funds yet helping himself and his cronies from the whittling treasury of the industry, and thus, demoralizing the workers and their output.

10. Under Prof. Ikeokwu, the clientele/customer-base of that Press has significantly diminished because of his very poor human/public relations. In turn, this also has slimmed the earnings and contract potentials of the Press as can be verified by anybody.

11. Prof. Ikeokwu is simply not the man for the job assigned to him or it means that the current Administration of the University is not interested in maximizing profit-making in its enterprises. As a matter of urgency, the Administration should get someone else more enterprising, disciplined and honorable to handle the affairs of the University of Nigeria Press before Prof Ikeokwu shuts it down with his irredeemable incompetence.

12. There is reportedly a severe shortage of funds in the University as a whole as well as national economic frustration/depression at all levels right now, following the COVID-19 and its baggage of consequences. Keeping Prof. Ikeokwu in the University of Nigeria Press to continue to direct and manage it at this critical time is administratively unwise, economically injurious, and would inflict more injuries on the University in other ways.

13. Let the Administration and other private stakeholders/investors in the Press quickly call for and conduct an honest and independent investigation of the above concerns to confirm them and consequently take the action of replacing Prof. Ikeokwu as the director of the University of Nigeria Press Limited."

Moderators: Richiez, Fynestboi, olawalebabs, please this should be posted to the front page.