Cold war at UI over appointment of substantive VC

The jostle for the office of vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan is hot, especially as the acting VC is allegedly illegally reappointed.

The University Act which serves as constitution or guide for the school, on page 149, under Section 14, clearly states that an acting VC is entitled to a period of six months which is not renewable.

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It reads: “An acting vice chancellor in all ‘circumstances’ shall not be in office for more than six months.”

Daily Trust reports that Babatunde Ekanola, a professor of philosophy was firstly appointed in acting capacity in December 2020 after the expiration of the tenure of Prof. Abel Idowu Olayinka and reappointed in June ending for his second term as acting VC, and the reappointment has been generating a cold war within the university environment.

Crisis in the institution started in 2020 when the indigenes of Ibadan land under the umbrella of the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII) insisted that it was time for the host town to produce a VC who is an indigene of the town after 73 years of its existence on their land.

Also, Muslim groups insisted that in the last 73 years, no Muslim professor has been elected as the VC of the institution, therefore, a Muslim must emerge as the VC this time around.

In the same vein, women have also petitioned the institution management that a female professor must be considered for the position of VC of the premier university, as they have never been considered at all since its establishment.

The groups alleged that one of the states in the South-West region of the country had dominated the vice chancellor of the instruction in the last 73 years.

The interest of the different groups, therefore, resulted in appointing an indigene of Ibadan land, the host town as acting VC pending when the processes of electing a new VC would be diligently carried out.

A top management member who craved for anonymous told Daily Trust that the crisis was all about the interest of the outgone VC to ensure he installed his loyalist as VC.

He said there are veterans in the university and they must be recognized by whoever becomes VC, adding that the genesis of their crisis was that the outgone vice chancellor, Prof. Olayinka, “wanted to outsmart them”.

He gave the names of the veterans as Professor Ademola Aremu, former chairman of the Academic Staff Union of University, ASUU, University of Ibadan chapter, and member of the governing council; Prof Aderinto, the campaign director-general of Olayinka; Prof. Isaac Adewole, a former minister of Health; Prof. Tajudeen Akanji, Prof. ARA Alada, a former member of the council and Prof. Okunade.

They appear to be in minority but they have been doing it for about three VCs, the source said.

The source said; “Don’t mind Prof. Olayinka. He is the one that caused the crisis. He knew that on the political terrain, he cannot defeat these people.

“Look at the names, the majority of them are Muslims and you cannot know. Aremu is a Muslim and he married a Christian and is living happily. Aderinto is a Muslim and you hardly know because we call him Yinka and he is a club man.

“Alhaji Akanji too is a former chairman of the staff club which means he has to flow with members regardless of their religion or ethnicity. So also many of them but when the out-gone VC was trying to see how to defeat them, he now introduced ethnic and religious sentiments.

“By the time he told them that they want to Islamise UI, they began to have sympathy for Christians. He was the one that took his choice candidate to the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII) and got them to say in the last 73 years, no Ibadan indigene had been elected as VC.”

“He told them to support their man. Don’t mind him also, he went to the same secondary school with the man he succeeded and we never raised it when he was campaigning.

“They both went to Ilesha Grammar School. All the members of the inner caucus appointment planning team of Prof Olayinka himself are Muslims. Maybe it was only Prof. Okunade is a Christian among them and they worked for him.

“It is unfortunate that such a thing has to polarise the university. The union is polarized. We don’t have a strong union on the ground now. Good people are now going against themselves. There is a cold war but we are just managing ourselves.”

The source said also what the institution is doing at the moment is only encouraging illegality by renewing the appointment of the acting vice-chancellor.

“It is clearly stated in the university’s act that it is illegal to renew the appointment of acting VC and we all know that. We may appoint another person but for the same man to be reappointed, it is illegal.

“But you know, nobody can go to court because we are one big family and we may individually need something from the university. Our people are trying to protect their names because they may need something from the institution.

“You know, since the acting VC is in government, he is in majority. It will take strong courage to challenge him.

“Having an acting VC twice is unfortunate. If you watch it critically in the last 10 years, members of the Academic Staff Union of this institution hardly have issues with the management because we manage our affairs.

“The VCs manoeuver political groups in the university and that is why we didn’t have crises. Unfortunately at this time, there is a crisis between the main political groups. When I say political group, I mean the union. It has been dominating for the past 10 years.

“Though we have other minor groups, such as religion and ethnicity, but they are not as strong as the union. They usually hide under the union to achieve whatever they want. By the time we tell our members that a candidate is the choice of the union and they know it is the only union that can fight for them whenever they are having issues, they would key into it.

“It is always difficult to defeat the candidate of the union because it is usually under the pretence that we are protecting the interest of the system. Unfortunately, this time around, the immediate past VC that also went through the system wants to bring his political hegemony and dynasty which conflicts with the interest of the union.

“Being a sitting VC, he has some sympathizers behind him. You know, he dictates many things like appointments, promotions, and others. Though it was unwritten, we all know the likely person that may succeed him within the group but he didn’t go in that direction, rather he made attempt to weaken the group that brought him into office and you know naturally, the group would resist him,” the source said.

It said there are some veteran union leaders in the institution who are against the interest of the VC which made it difficult for him to install his candidate without consulting them.

“While trying to float his own group, he tried to weaken the leadership of the union forgetting the fact that many of them are veterans in enthroning VCs. Though they are few they are very powerful in the school environment. Meanwhile, they are the arrowhead of his coming to the office.

“The DG of Olayinka is trying to come on board but Olayinka is blocking him because he wants to have his own dynasty at the university environment.”

The source said members of the university community are now suspecting each other for the man-made crisis in the institution.

“Though we exchanged greetings during the festive period, it wasn’t like before. Before now, we used to visit Christians during Christmas and New Year and when it is time for the Muslims, we visit them also. There was love among us.

“It is easy for one to get something in Nigeria once you introduce ethnicity and religion into it. It may have a negative effect on our students when they suspect that they are oppressing Christians or they are oppressing Muslims.

“It may not have an immediate effect, but it will surely have an effect if care is not taken because it will spread to faculties and later to the departments. They will be saying don’t vote Christians and others will be saying don’t vote Muslims.

“We didn’t suspect anyone before but now, we are always very careful of what we eat and where we eat among our members. We are now suspecting each other. One of the best friends of Aderinto, Prof Ajiboye, popularly called Bembe betrayed him because of religion.

“They usually spend time together as friends. So, the religion and ethnic sentiments have to be corrected for the betterment of our society and university community,” the source said.

When contacted to comment on the illegality of appointing an acting VC for a second term, the spokesman of the institution, Mr. Oladejo Olatunji, only said “I don’t have anything to say on it. You can write whatever you want to write. Thank you.”