Who becomes Unizik VC?
• 30 Professors apply
• Governing Council walks tight rope
• Petitions trail excercise
From GABRIEL DIKE, Osogbo
Thursday, May 28, 2009

The race for the post of the Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) in Awka, Anambra State has reached the final stage with a total of 30 Professors jostling for the position. They are all flaunting intimidating academic credentials and management background making the task of selecting any of them by the Governing Council of the institution a tough assignment.



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The selection exercise which was started three weeks ago by the Governing Council of UNIZIK would, no doubt, be an uphill task for the council committee to accomplish.

Aside the problem of selecting the most qualified out of the 30 academic staff that have applied for the plum job, the members of the council are also faced with the task of contending with the avalanche of petitions from some interested parties against some of the contestants as well as the council members themselves.

Daily Sun learnt from a source that some petitions have been forwarded to the Minister of Education and the Presidency complaining against alleged plot by members of the council to manipulate the exercise to favour a candidate of their choice and not on merit while more have also been written to undermine the chances of some the applicants by those who do not want them.

The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the university, Chief Senas Ukpana made allusion to this unhealthy situation when on Wednesday, May 6, 2009, he inaugurated a search team in respect of the vacant post of VC as stipulated under Section 3(b) of the Universities’ Law, 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Chief Ukpana was represented by Ibidapo Awojolu, member of the council at the inauguration of the five-member search team headed by Senator C.K. Awoyelu as Chairman while others include, Reverend Father J. O.Oguejiofor, Venerable (Professor) Ben C. Okeke (Senate representatives), Professor Godwin Onu and Dr Ify Anolue (Congregation representatives).

The council chairman disclosed that a lot of controversy had trailed the exercise and stressed that if not properly handled it would mar the exercise adding that the consequence would definitely affect the growth of the university. “Council notes with displeasure the unfortunate dimension which the issue of the VC’s appointment has taken. Petitions have been written and the issue has degenerated to press controversy. Let me assure the public that the university council cannot be compromised”.

To douse the tension, Chief Ukpana pledged that the council members would be above board in handling the VC selection exercise while stating that it would be conducted with “openness, impartiality, transparency and providing a level playing field for the 24 Professors”.

According to him, any misconduct on the part of council could mar its reputation and stall the march of the university to greatness and emphasized that for confidence building, stability of the institution and trust, the council would appoint a VC promptly without much delay. Noting that the choice of a substantive VC for the university would not be localized but would be open to any qualified Professor from any part of the country and that same criteria would be applied to the appointment of other principal officers of UNIZIK so as to reflect the Federal character principle.

As at Tuesday, May12, 2009 when our Correspondent visited the university, a total of the 30 Professors had applied for the job of UNIZIK VC, 10 of the academic staff are members of the university community, one application was received from one Professor Sunny Nwankwo from University of East London while the rest applicants are lecturers in other universities across the country.

Investigations by Daily Sun revealed that the contest for the VC’s post is fiercer among the contestants from within the university. Though there is no open campaigns going on any where, the underground networking by the applicants and their supporters have thrown the institution into an uneasy calm.

Our Correspondent noticed that the members of the university are now discussing their preferred candidates in clusters and hushed tones. But the greatest source of worry is the rumour making rounds that because the Presidency has delegated the powers to interview and appoint the candidate for the VC to the Governing Council, some desperate contestants and their sponsors are trying to induce members of the council with money to select their candidate.

Thus worry among staff of the university now is that rather than merit other factors such as undue influence and money might dictate the tone in arriving at the possible Professor for appointment of a substantive VC of the institution.

It was further gathered that even the issue of age which was not earlier made as a criteria when the advertisement for application for the vacant position was made, is now been introduced by the council members, thus some of the applicants now have a better chance of clinching the plum post than the others. As it is now the policy allowed the council members to conduct the screening, interview and submit the names of three persons to the Presidency who would approve one as a substantive VC.

It would be recalled that the VC position have been occupied on Acting capacity by Professor Boniface Egboka since 2008 when the former VC’s tenure, Professor Ilochi Okafor, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) expired . Among the front runners from the university include the acting VC, Professor Boniface Egboka, incumbent VC of Anambra State University, Uli, Professor Paul Orajiaka, former Deputy VC under Professor Ilochi, Professor Augustine Ebeatu as well as the former Dean of Management Science, Professor Ben Osisioma.

Among some staff Professor Egboka is believed to be a good material for the VC position because of the manner he brought peace and maintained the infrastructure in the university which the immediate past VC Professor Ilochi Okafor introduced. Besides he has a track record having been in a public office as a former Commissioner of Works in Anambra State and has also been a consultant to many international institutions including Swedish institutions on water resource management.

On his own part, Professor Orajaka is rated as one of the most qualified for the post and it is believed that he came first in the last selection exercise in 2003 but lost to Professor Ilochi because of political intrigues. His accomplishment at Anambra State University, Uli where he has been the VC in the past four years stand him out as the most qualified for the position.

However, Professor Ebeatu is believed by many staff of UNIZIK to have an edge over other contestants on the ground of his antecedents in both academic and public office as his intimidating academic records according to them speaks volume. He has the rare academic records of having supervised 18 Ph.D students, many Masters students who have successfully completed their programmes, as well as having in his possession 103 publications both in International and local journals and books.

Professor Ebeatu has been in the university system for the past 30 years, a graduate of University of Ibadan, lecturer at Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto 1980-1994 before transferring his service to UNIZIK where he was DVC for four years under the immediate past VC Professor Okafor. He played an active role in the enthronement of excellent academic policies and infrastructural development that mark out that administration and is seen as a possible winner of the race. While Professor Osisioma, on his own part is known to be a highly principled, tolerant and God fearing academic.

Though the Governing Council has given an assurance that it is well disposed to selecting any Professor from any part of the country as the substantive VC of the institution there is, however, doubt of the possibility of the members implementing such policy. It is not likely that the appointment can be made outside applicants from Anambra State going by the background of origin of those who have occupied the position since the university was created.

Records available revealed that all the past three substantive VC’s starting from the pioneer VC, Professor Festus Nwakor, Professor Pita Ejiofor and Professor Ilochi Okafor including the current acting VC Professor Boniface Egboka are indigenes of the state. Thus it is an uphill task for Chief Ukpana led council to successfully carry out any plan to appoint any person outside Anambra State to that position.

If all things go well, it is expected that by Wednesday, May 27 the forth substantive VC of the university would have emerged. The past VC of the institution was Professor Festus Nwakor (pioneer) followed by Professor Pita Ejiofor and the immediate past Professor Ilochi Okafor (SAN), current governorship aspirant under the platform of People Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming gubernatorial election schedule early next year.

A lecturer in the Theatre Arts Department of the university, Dr Alex Asigbo expressed confidence in the ability of the council members to provide a level playing field for all the 24 Professors and enthrone transparency in process of the appointment of a substantive VC that would take the university to a greater height.

Dr Asigbo, however, cautioned that selecting a candidate from within or outside the university has its advantages and disadvantages and in his opinion “it is better to choose a person from within the university”. According to him, somebody who had been with the institution would not need to spend time familiarizing himself with the university community and the intrigues within stressing that an outsider would first of all take a long time to understudy the environment before setting to work.

According to him, this kind of development will not be the best option for the university which is still at its developing status adding that: “I think what would happen is that UNIZIK would be better at the end of this VC selection because of the quality of individuals aspiring for the position. They are persons with intimidating antecedents in academic and management background. We are only praying God to give us the best amongst them especially one with the fear of God who will not dabble into the mucky waters of distractive intrigues that would set the university backward”. While staff of the university were expecting the new VC to resume office on May 27 as earlier announced by the governing counicl, strong indications has emerged that the job of selecting from among the 24 Professors has become an uphill task to accomplish as the Council which earlier slated the date for assumption of office of the VC has now changed the date.

Daily Sun learnt from the university’s Registrar and Secretary to the council’s committee in charge of the screening of the applicants for the VC contest, Nkoli Onyechi that the reason for the shift was due to a major conference holding in the institution and the democracy-day celebration thus staff of the university are worried over the postponement.

Investigations revealed that the staff saw the shift of date as a result of the high level political intrigues that have characterized the VC selection exercise. Though nobody in the institution would express his or her apprehension openly, they would however not hesitate in telling anybody they could trust that there are many under hand manipulations on the VCship selection process. The Registrar however dismissed such fears as unreasonable.

Said she: “The shift in our schedules for the selection and appointment of the substantive VC for the University is due to two reasons: one, we have an international conference which is holding in our University and we are expecting the Minister so the whole members of management, all the professors, the deans are going to the conference because we are expecting people from outside. This conference was earlier scheduled but it escaped the memory of the members of the Governing Council when we slated the programme for this VC appointment exercise”.

The UNIZIK Registrar stated that the schedule for the VC exercise fell on this year’s Democracy-day celebration date and because some members of the Governing Council are politicians who would want to go to their constituencies to mark the occasion it becomes necessary that the exercise is deferred. But Daily Sun gathered that the number of applicants for the VC race which as at Tuesday, May 12, 2009 stood at 24 has now increased to 30.

The university would enjoy the new Federal Government policy as against the past when the council conducts the interview for the applicants and at the end of it forwards names of at least three successful applicants to the Visitor, who exercises the final power in appointing from any of the three nominees. The visitor in the current policy has delegated the powers of appointing the substantive VC to the Governing Council.

Following the development there is tension and fear among staff of the institution that the postponement of the date for the conclusion of the VC selection and appointment from May 27 would create a vacuum in the office of the VC in the university because the second six-months’ tenure of the acting VC, Professor Boniface Egboka would expire on Monday, May 25.

The expectations was that a substantive VC would have been appointed by May 27 thereby saving the institution the trouble of having a vacuum in that position particularly considering the fact that the current circular on the appointment of an acting VC as release by the Education Ministry makes it a policy that a person appointed on acting capacity as a VC can only function for six months after which the appointment can be renewed for the same period of six-months.

Based on the fact that the acting VC, Professor Egboka is one of the front-runners in the post, the question on the lips of many staff is: “will the Governing Council renew the appointment of Egboka as the acting VC now that it will not be possible for a substantive to be appointed when his tenure on acting capacity expires on May 25 or is there going to be a vacuum in the VC position?”.

But the UNIZIK Registrar has an answer to this as according to her there would be no vacuum. She explained that already a process for the appointment of a substantive VC had begun in the University. Besides she explained that the letter which was forwarded to her a year ago from the Ministry of Education stated clealy that the person who was occupying the position as the deputy Vice Chancellor administration should act as VC “ , pending the reconstitution of the Governing Council which is expected to commence he appointment of a substantive VC”. And stating that it is this process that the council has currently commenced the registrar declared, “Certainly, I speak on authority that before middle of June (2009) we should have been through and a substantive VC appointed”.

It was gathered that the council has already short-listed about seven of the applicant for the interview as part of the process the successful candidates according to the council’s rating were: Professors Ben Osisioma, Boniface Egboka, Sunny Nwankwo, Ikpeze, Paul Orajaka and Augustine Ebeatu. However the registrar denied that any of the candidates had been short-listed for the interview as according to her such information was a rumor.

“We have not concluded the process of short listing. Any thing you hear about short listing is speculation”, she added. But she declined to reveal the names of the applicants. She only confirmed that the applicants cut across Professors from Federal Universities across the six geopolitical zones of the country. And contrary to the fear being entertained that the Governing Council might have adopted age as a barrier for some of the contestants the Registrar explained that age is never an issue to the extent of being used as a barrier against the possible selection of any of the applicants.

She explained that the Universities’ law did not make age a barrier for any contestant for appointment to the VC of the University. She however stated, “It (age) can only be accepted as an opinion, or advice of suggestion which council is free to accept or reject”.

Denimination factor has become one of the major constraints on the council in carrying out the exercise to a successful conclusion. There appear to be an established tradition in the institution where the appointment of the VC rotate between Anglican and Catholic faithful. It is believed that since the immediate past VC, Prof. Ilochi Okafor is an Anglican, the next VC ought not to be an Anglican.

The council has stressed that UNIZIK because of its federal status ought not to be influenced by the appointment of its VC by such sentiments as any person who is qualified from any part of the country can be appointed as the VC irrespective of his religion, tribe or belief. The basic parameter accessing the contestant according to Onyechi includes, number of publications, number of years as a Professor, work experience, contribution to both national and community development among others.

Among the academic and non academic staff of the university, Professors Ebeatu and Orajaka ranked top on likely successor to Professor Okafor but majority are routing for Professor Ebeatu because of his track records and his relationship with every staff of the university. Already the staff are looking forward to see who clinches the post after the screening exercise.

why don't you simply post a brief intro and provide a link to the full article.
Copying and pasting an entire article is redundant, and often times lossy (as some relevant links and images are omitted).