Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The decision by the Governing Council of the Federal University of Otuoke (FUO) to strip seven professors and associate professors of their professorial ranks and demote them to lower ranks came like a thunderbolt.
The university Registrar, Iruo Yousuo while conveying the decision, said the governing council at its 10th meeting decided to “sanitize the system” in order to take it to a greater height. “They (demoted professors) do not have the requisite criteria of scholarship to have been made professors” says Yousuo.
Those affected by what the university referred to as re-classification for lack of requisite scholarship are Steve Nwabuzor who was downgraded from the rank of professor to lecturer 1, Leonard Shilgba downgraded from the rank of professor to senior lecturer, Timothy Falade Obalade, downgraded from the rank of associate professor to senior lecturer and Felina Nwadike downgraded from associate professor to senior lecturer.
Others are Sepibo Lawson- Jack downgraded from the rank of associate professor to lecturer 1, Marcellina Offoha downgraded from the rank of associate professor to lecturer 1 and Dr Evans Eze, downgraded from the rank of Associate Professor to Lecturer 2.
The governing council also stated that the trio of Nwadike, Obalade and Lawson- Jack had their appointments converted to contract appointments as their tenure appointments were at “variance with applicable rules”
Since the announcement, there have been lots of recriminations on the motive of the governing council to move against the affected lecturers. Two broad schools of thought have emerged fiercely arguing for and against the demotion. The first school of thought are those that hold the view that the decision was a witch hunt of the pioneer staff of the university with the sole aim to humiliating them for some inexplicable sins against the new leadership of the university.
This is Witch-hunt
“The university and its management have set out on a witch hunt to eliminate all the staff that built the institution and made the university to where it is today. These men and women built the university from the beginning and suffered the harsh terrain and overcame the difficulties of starting a university from scratch. They did it with honesty and Christ like integrity. Now that the work is done, the university and it’s management have decided to demote, remove and reshuffle these men and women out of their works, duties and functions even when some of them are weeks away from retirement” says Donald Mbamah, a lawyer and counsel to Prof Steve Nwabuzor.
According to him, before the governing council decision, the university management had allegedly harassed the affected lecturers forcing them to hire lawyers to engage the school management. He said all efforts were futile as “the university completely disregarded the lawyers and our effort”.
“The National Universities Commission (NUC), the Ministry of Education and other supervisory bodies of the university should not seat idly and watch the builders of our state and country be so humiliated and embarrassed” Mbamah added.
Nwabuzor, Nwadike, Ugboji-Eze at media briefing recalled how academics from the Diaspora came back to joined hands with the pioneer Vice- Chancellor; Prof Mobolaji Aluko to build the university. “Prof Aluko on assumption of office, recruited some academics and professionals from the diaspora together with several others from within the country to assist him in the onerous task of laying the academic and physical foundations of the new university. As would be expected, these pioneer staff made huge personal sacrifices, many a times putting their health and safety at risk, in order for academic activities to take off on solid ground in 2012” they noted.
The trio argued that since Aluko left and Prof Seth Accra- Jaja came in as VC, he has not hidden his disdain from the pioneer staff of the university.
“Prof Accra-Jaja showed from the outset of his tenure that he was uncomfortable with the crop of senior academic and administrative staff his predecessor had employed. He wanted to replace all of them in leadership positions but found that he did not have the staff to do so. He started recruiting academic staff from the Rivers State University, Niger Delta University and Delta State University on sabbatical, adjunct and contract appointments and placing them over and above those who were on ground thereby sowing the seed of discord”.
The trio noted that for no just cause, those from the Diaspora were specifically targeted as Prof Accra-Jaja “decided to terminate their appointments by recklessly and illegally demoting them and converting their tenure appointments to contract appointments”.
Governing Council was wrong
Nwabuzor in an interview did not mince words as he took a swipe at the governing council over the reason for his demotion and that of others.
“On the allegation of lack of requisite scholarship, I don’t know where the council got that from. Anybody can come up with any story. We did not employ ourselves. There are standard procedures anywhere in the world how people are appointed to positions of professorship that cannot be contradicted by anybody. One thing is clear our appointment followed due process and protocol. Our appointments were ratified by previous governing council of the university. Long before Prof Accra-Jaja came as VC, there was a governing council that ratified all appointments made by Prof Aluko. Under Prof Aluko’s tenure about 200 academic staff were recruited following the same process and why now that all the Diaspora academics that have been targeted for immolation on the Otuoke cross”.
Nwabuzor was categorical that he would not accept the demotion and gave a hint of challenging it in the law court.
“The damage has been done to our reputation and we would leave that to the judgment of God and man in the long run. I was teaching in the United States and I was invited to come, I didn’t come here to look for a job. So would I come here to hide under one umbrella to be a professor. My professorship cannot be taken by anybody, it is for life. Otuoke is too small to talk about professorship. Otuoke is a university we built from the scratch; it is a university, the genesis and history I can tell you about. We are the link between the past and the present. We have the requisite scholarship and we can present that at the appropriate forum”.
On why the ASUU branch of the institution is not taking up their case as it happened in some universities where the union fought the university management on behalf of the lecturers, Nwabuzor accused the ASUU chairman, Dr. Joseph Omoro of pandering to the dictates of the VC because of benefits the union is getting.
“He (Omoro) is a lackey to Accra-Jaja. Whatever ASUU is doing he does not take our case to ASUU congress but only decide with a select few. Accra-Jaja use them as foot soldiers to get his bid to be done in exchange for contracts. They are academic contractors”.
Asuu defends Demotion
However the second school of thought on the issue believe the affected lecturers got what they deserved as their promotion were unjust and unmerited in the first place. Omoro, who said ASUU threw its weight behind the decision of the governing council, disclosed that it was the union that petitioned the affected lecturers to the governing council. He insisted that the demotion was justified.
“When we were employed in 2012, there was no council in place, the VC then on his own by fiat appointed these seven persons as professors without recourse to rules of engagement. The first person, Prof Nwabuzor, who we now refer to as Dr. Nwabuzor came from United States, Dr. Shilgba who was made professor by Prof Aluko came from this American-Atiku University, as a senior lecturer he applied to be a visiting professor and he was made a professor by fiat. Dr. Lawson- Jack, he was made an associate professor without due process. His publication is not up to four. You need 21 papers to be an associate professor. In the same vein, Dr. Marcellina was made associate professor with three published papers. Dr. Evans Eze was made an associate professor with no published paper. Dr. Falade had papers not up to the required papers” he explained.
Omoro continued “I stand firm to contend and state that it is highly justifiable decision. It is the union that raises the dust. And when the council was constituted we simply asked the council to look at the anomalies and requested for proper placement. The council actually set up a verification committee where every member of the university was asked to present themselves for verification. It is not just that the VC woke up and is victimising people. That is not true. These are my members and so would I victimise my members instead of defending them. All of us including myself as ASUU chairman faced the panel individually and presented our certificates. Nobody is being witch- hunted”.
As it stands, the court of law would be the final arbiter between the embattled lecturers and the management of FUO, who would blink first remains in the womb of time.