As UNN appoints a substantive vice chancellor
In the next few days, the Governing Council of the University of Nigeria led by a thorough bred technocrat Engr K.O. Ojo will appoint a substantive Vice Chancellor. This will be coming after a significantly challenging 14 months and 3 acting Vice Chancellors. The pressure is high and the tension is palpable. This is so because the university has tasted decay and stagnation way below the mean in the currently challenged Nigerian University system. The thousands of alumni are worried that the Alma Mater has fallen upon protracted difficult times, while the millions of critical stakeholders across the globe are worried that this unique heritage is in protracted distress.
The University of Nigeria, like any other, has peculiarities. A professor of the university is like no other, higher or lower, but just unique. The process, and intellectual output leading to being one are unique. Over time, this has enabled the university to hold her own not just in Nigeria but also amongst great universities in Africa and beyond. And this has played roles in the processes that led to the appointment of Vice Chancellors in the past. As the university council approaches this process these politically intriguing times the tasks before the key drivers of the process come by tranches:
The Senate; The senate must elect two members of Senate who are not members of Council to serve in the Joint Council-Senate Selection Board. The Senate should intentionally and deliberately set out to elect two credible senators who understand the university, have sacrificed and are willing to sacrifice for the university, and in particular are ethically above reproach.
(1) Persons who are not avaricious and transactional.
(2) Persons who are known to be objective and unbiased in assessment and selection processes, including the regular assessment of staff and students!
(3) Persons who do not have records of manipulating the Extant laws, rules and Regulations of the University or any other organization in which they have served in order to favour their Selfish/Group Interests.
(4) Persons who are trustworthy, and cannot be easily enticed by those in positions of authority!
(5) Persons who are known to be bold in speaking and propagating truth in all circumstances, not minding whose ox is gored.
*It is only such persons that will be unbiased in the examination of the Curriculum Vitae of the shortlisted candidates and interaction with them in order to be able to appoint the most qualified and most suitable person Vice Chancellor as provided in the Guidelines for the appointment of the Vice Chancellor! It is impossible to learn left-handedness at old age!
If two Professors who possess the above attributes listed above are elected to serve in the Joint Council and Senate Selection Board, it will be easier for them to convince the other three members of the Selection Board, including “two members of Council, not being members of the Senate” and the Pro-Chancellor as Chairman to devise unbiased and globally competitive Selection Critaria through which the most qualified and most suitable person will be appointed Vice Chancellor of the University. A person who shall be chairman of Senate and whose duty it shall be to superintend the process for the promotion and appointment of academics to the rank of professor must be one who is is already one, or who is fit and proper to be professor of the university in his or her own right. It is only when the most qualified and most suitable person is appointed Vice Chancellor that there will be a suitable environment for the kind of teaching, research and community service which will enable the University of Nigeria to sustain her legacy and remain globally competitive and take its rightful position among universities, nationally and globally. It is then that there will be sustainable development of the University. This will translate to the restoration of the dignity of man!
The Senate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka should ensure that the university is not dragged several decades backwards by appointing someone who is not qualified to be a Professor in UNN. There can be no moral authority to continue to use the Yellow Book to assess academics for promotion, if someone is appointed as Vice Chancellor, who cannot pass the rigors of the Yellow Book. The Senate and Council should not stoop, as doing so would damage the foundation upon which much of the international acclaim that the university enjoys today stands. In addition to this, the Senate needs to make a bold statement on the need for the Selection Board to use this particular Selection Criterion in its meeting scheduled to hold on Monday, 28th July, 2025. Senate must therefore critically assess, without sentiments, each of the candidates contesting for election into the Selection Board. This note has become important in the light of the unusual jostling, in particular by external influences including Traditional Rulers and Local Council Chairpersons to influence the Senate Process.
The Joint Council and Senate Selection Board: The Committee of five has an extremely important role assigned it by the University laws; to examine the Curriculum Vitae of the shortlisted candidates, interact with them and recommend to the Council three persons from which a Vice Chancellor may be appointed. Members of this Board must demonstrate altruism in this assignment. They are encouraged to place themselves in the shoes of Nnamdi Azikiwe who founded the university, and thereby consider what is best for her without sentiment in this process.
The Governing Council: It is already in the public domain that the technocrat chairman and other eminent members of the Governing Council are under excruciating pressure from governors and sundry political forces aiming to make political capital of this appointment. At his introduction, Engr. Kayode Ojo told members of the University of Nigeria Senate that he is the youngest Pro-Chancellor in the Federal University System, now sent to superintend the oldest autonomous university at a difficult time. So he came highly pre-qualified and as a unique star in the galaxy. In particular, he was sent to secure peace and progress at a time of turmoil, recovery and growth following protracted illness, stagnation and decay. In carrying out this assignment, Engr Ojo and the Council he leads must necessarily therefore play above self, business and personal considerations. It is well to remind him and his council that notwithstanding the current challenges of the university, they are in the shoes of giants.
The Minister: Using the cliché “the best thing since sliced bread”, it goes without saying that Dr Tunji Alausa is the best thing to have happened to the Educational Policy and the ministry in a while. That said, it is expected that the ministry should manifest this in the processes in the universities at this critical time in the history of the university. The processes of the University of Nigeria must now be the test case.
Too many eyes are on the Ministry, the University and the Council. Any mismanagement of this appointment process could produce a cascade of events beyond the University.
Professor Smart C. Obiora, Ph.D., FNMGS, FNSEG, COMEG Certified Geoscientist. Professor of Geology, with Specialization in Mineralogy and Petrology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
