THE UNIZIK V-C SAGA

The sacking of Benard Odoh as vice-chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University is unfortunate, argues MONDAY EZE

The appointment of Ebonyi State-born cerebral professor of geophysics, Professor Benard Ifeanyi Odoh, as the 7th substantive Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, is, every inch, monumental. Since 29th October, 2024, when Prof. Odoh’s appointment was announced, there have been ripples within and outside the university. These ripples would have been regarded as normal but for their high pitches outside the campus. This development drew more than cursory attention to Prof. Odoh’s appointment and the hysteria it is generating within the new Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, and the permanent secretary of Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. Nasir Sani-Gwarzo respectively. 

It is alleged that both the minister and the permanent secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja, are members of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, MD-CAN. The duo probably saw the public offices they occupy as offering them the golden opportunity of installing their colleague in UNIZIK as vice-chancellor. It was the resistance of the Governing Council of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, led by Dr. Greg Mbadiwe, to the attempt of both the minister and the permanent secretary to install their professional colleague, a man who got his Ph.D merely two years ago as against the required 15-years, that made both the minister and the permanent secretary to throw both the law of the land and caution out of the window. 

The minister, through the permanent secretary of his ministry, had alleged that Prof. Odoh “was not a professor”. When Prof. Odoh brought evidences of his promotion based on his assessment by three assessors, two of whom are alive and had deposed to affidavits to assert the veracity of Prof. Odoh’s professorial appointment, the permanent secretary issued a letter through his office accusing the council of not following due process in the appointments of both the vice-chancellor and the registrar. The permanent secretary, in what has been regarded as a disturbing disrespect to the Nigerian judiciary and an attempt to usurp statutory powers of Unizik’s governing council, purportedly nullified the appointments of both the V-C and registrar as lawfully made by Unizik’s council. By virtue of its establishment Act, Unizik is an autonomous body and not an extension of the Federal Ministry of Education. 

The appointment of Prof. Odoh was made pursuant to an order of mandamus by a competent court of jurisdiction; and aggrieved persons had filed suits (some of which had the Federal Ministry of Education as a party) against the appointment and that these suits were pending before courts of competent jurisdiction. By virtue of the pendency of these suits, the appointment of Prof. Odoh as Unizik’s substantive V-C was sub-judice. It is equally disheartening that the minister of education alongside the permanent secretary never gave both the Governing Council of Unizik and Prof. Odoh the opportunity of stating their cases. The resort to self-help by both the minister for education and his permanent secretary was a clear case of contempt for the Nigerian judiciary. 

When on Nov 1, 2024, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, replied the ministry’s letter, and explained vividly the fair and lawful manner the appointment of Prof. Odoh was made, the allegations of the minister of education fell like packs of cards in the presence of the irrebuttable facts and evidences presented by Unizik to prove the legality and procedural wholesomeness of the appointments under review. The letters equally exposed the bias, bad faith and contempt of both the minister of education and the permanent secretary in their conduct over the appointment of Prof. Odoh. At this juncture, the minister for education did not say any further thing. Prof. Odoh hit the ground running in the implementation of his out-of-the-box development plan for Unizik. 

When the world woke up to the announcement of a presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, that President Bola Tinubu has axed both the Greg Mbadiwe-led Unizik Governing Council and Unizik V-C, Prof Odoh, as well as the Unizik registrar on grounds of the unsubstantiated allegations of the minister of education, many wondered what happened to respect for Nigerian judiciary personified by the courts before which cases on the Unizik matter are pending. What happened to rule of law? Why is someone misleading the president into actions that contravene the Act/law governing Unizik? Why would an officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria mislead the president into contravening the maxim of audi alterem partem as enshrined in the principles of natural justice; and guaranteed in the Nigerian Constitution? 

The world watched with trepidation and dismay, the futile efforts of a television interview crew as they battled to push the minister’s effort to make President Tinubu the Nigerian version of George Orwell’s Napoleon. For those who want Prof. Odoh ousted, if President Tinubu said that the appointment of Prof. Odoh was wrong, then it is wrong no matter what the law says and what the law courts before which cases related to the appointment pend might rule! This narrative is dangerous for Nigerians, democracy and the Tinubu presidency. The present administration is a product of law. It therefore follows that the first and only creed of President Tinubu should be the rule of law and nothing else. The current subtle subliminal promotion of President Tinubu as ‘the law’ in the Unizik saga is an aberration which must be rebuffed. In Atiku v. Obasanjo (2007), superior courts in an obiter dictum made it clear that the loyalty of Nigerians should lie to the Nigerian constitution and not to the president! The president should, as a matter of urgent public importance, restore the Governing Council of Unizik, and the Vice-Chancellor of Unizik and Registrar of Unizik back to their status and allow all lis pendens, including the Federal Ministry of Education, have their respective days in the respective courts before which the Unizik V-C suits pend. We cannot afford to encourage self-help in any form!

· Eze writes from Awka