The academic community in Nigeria was recently shocked by an ugly development at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, Osun State when people dressed in fetish garb stormed the university campus to protest the appointment of a non-Ife indigene as Vice-Chancellor.
At a time when it seems Nigeria is enervated by various demons from the netherworld, one had thought that the ivory tower would retain the last vestiges of decency in our beleaguered social space.
Sadly, ethnic bigotry which hitherto dominated the core fabrics of our nationhood broke free from its subdued enclave and bared its fangs before the whole world. Although ethnic considerations in appointments had always existed in Nigerian universities, it had never been so shamelessly displayed in the marketplace.
The OAU debacle is a disgrace to the university and academic community still stifled by industrial strikes. The issue was the appointment of a vice-chancellor following the expiration of the term of Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, the 11the substantive VC of the university. Visual images on mainstream and social media showed a group of persons believed to be traditionalists, carrying fetish items in their bizarre outfit, walking around the university premises protesting the failure of an Ile-Ife indigene to emerge as the new VC of the university.
The incident adds to Nigeria’s absurd aviary constantly upheld by misbegotten fellows whose parochial inclinations to national cohesion is founded and established in ethnic convictions.
According to confirmed reports, the Governing Council of the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, in compliance with extant laws of the university on the appointment of the Vice-Chancellors, commenced the process of appointing a new one on the 7th day of December 2021.
Vacancy for the position was duly advertised in national dailies which circulated across the country. On the 14th day of February 2022, during a special meeting of Council, twenty applicants were considered and their curriculum vitae thoroughly scrutinized.
At the end of the exercise, sixteen candidates were shortlisted for meeting the stated criteria for the position. Following the short listing of the candidates, they were invited for an interview which was conducted from 14th to 16th March 2022.
At the end of the exercise Prof. Adebayo Bamire emerged victorious ahead of other applicants including Prof. Rufus Adedoyin a professor of physiotherapy, an indigene of Ile- Ife.
In fact, Professor Adedoyin came a distant 9th out of the sixteen candidates interviewed for the position. It is unfortunate that the office of the Vice-Chancellor has become a political one.
The academic community views it as a juicy position because the VC has enormous powers and controls a large financial budget. In many cases, he determines who gets employed, who gets what contract and formulates policies that affect people’s career. But the university is an international arena where research and the highest level of intellect are on display.
Therefore, such base thinking as ethnicity should have no place in a proper university environment. This situation is prevalent in public universities. In private universities, it is possible for anybody from any ethnicity to emerge as the VC based on merit and qualification.
Besides the position of the Vice-Chancellor, ethnic mentality has eroded almost all public universities in Nigeria. There are universities where a lecturer, no matter how qualified, can never head a department because they are not from the host community of the university. This is disgraceful and condemnable.
There are universities in Nigeria where the indigenous headship has surreptitiously adopted a policy never to employ non-indigenes in the department or the faculty.
This type of practice is retrogressive, antithetical to research and innovations. While other countries of the world are matriculating to new heights, ours is choking in the vicious grip of ethnic parochialism.
If we are to continue to exist as one country, ethnic sentiments should have no place in any area of our national lives. To insist that an indigene of the university host community should become the ViceChancellor is irresponsible and frivolous, The Trumpet gathered.
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To also employ only indigenes within the university community is against the rules of intellectual and academic excellence. In the US, a Nigerian lady Dr. Toyin Tofade will on the 1st day of July 2022 assume office as the first black woman to head the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS) as president.
There are many other instances around the world where non-nationals occupy leadership positions in universities. We must collectively resist this trend of clannishness before it destroys our already ailing universities.
