UNIBEN: Group Warns against Tribal Sentiments in Selection of Vice Chancellor 

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin-City 

A group, Edo Unity League worldwide (EUL), yesterday said it would resist any attempt by any group, persons or individuals to tribalise the appointment of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin.

The Coordinator General of the group, Mr. Marvis Okharedia, gave the warning in a statement entitled ‘UNIBEN Vice Chancellorship: Stop Dropping Benin National Congress Name or Ethnic Sentiments in Your Pursuits, Edo Unity League Caution Some Benin professors in the race to replace the outgoing VC, and made available to journalists in Benin-City.

It would be recalled that tenure of the present Vice Chancellor of University of Benin, Prof Lilian Imuetinya Salami, would elapse on December 2, 2024 and the jostle by various groups in the university to throw up a replacement.

However, the EUL said in this time and era, proficiency and intellectual capability should be the basic factors for pushing who takes over from Prof. Salami as the new vice chancellor and not tribal sentiments, noting that it would be counterproductive.

According to the group, “Following the official unveiling of the internal and external advertisement for the would-be vacancy into the office of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin on Thursday, July 11, 2024, our secretariat has been inundated with schism by some professors of Benin extraction to have been purportedly endorsed by the Benin National Congress, as well as touting ethnic jingoism as the major criteria for the credibility-proof appointment. 

“This is a most unfortunate tendency, and should not be allowed to gain roots in an intellectual capacity driven citadel of learning of a foremost federal institution. 

“When we sought clarification from the Benin National Congress, it turned out to be outright falsehoods, the claim that it is supporting any candidate of Benin extraction, and it emphatically declared that – by providence, the Benins have had the shots at the post of UNIBEN VC back to back and back, its (BNC) is not taking that for granted, and it is more than ever predisposed to competence, capacity and credibility as the irreducible minimums from academicians seeking the post regardless of their ethnic or geopolitical backgrounds in Nigeria.  

“It added that, the BNC will publicly expose any academician engaging in such outrageous sentimental voyage if they do not desist forthwith”.  

Okharedia said for them in the Edo Unity League, they are in sync with the Benin National Congress, to expeditiously pray for the emergence of a thoroughbred academician, and ultimately, an administrator that can further transform the citadel of learning to greater heights, at a time when tertiary institutions in Nigeria are faced with crossroads of unbearable indebtedness to electricity distribution companies due to new tariff regimes; the challenge of implementing an automated students scholarship loan programme of President Tinubu; and other existential challenges. 

He said with the level the university has attained and the marks it has made for itself since it was founded, anyone championing ethnic card is trying to draw the institution backward.

“Just now, the University of Benin desires a cice chancellor with verifiable tentacles of investors and philanthropic giants for transformation, so, anyone capitalising on tribal cleverness is absolutely bereft of the vision and mission of an aspiring world class university,” Okharedia said.