UNIBEN VC’s ALLEGED POISONING: ‘Lecturers punished for ‘crimes against humanity’ are fighting back’.
students…
University of Benin (UNIBEN)
Governing Council recently sacked 44
staff of the institution allegedly involved
in allegations that bordered on gross misconduct. But since the decision was
taken, the Vice-Chancellor of the
university, Professor Osayuki Oshodin,
says he has not had peace. Recuperating
from alleged food poisoning, he raised
the alarm that some of those sacked by
the university Council were after his life.
In this interview, Oshodin alleges that
some of the sacked staff were involved in
sexual harassment, extortion and fake
admissions which resulted in the
rustication of 142 students. He also
speaks on the current ASUU strike.
Excerpts:
44 staff of the University of Benin
including senior lecturers were sacked
recently, triggering petitions accusing
you of being behind their ordeal. What is
your take on that?
I am not behind their sack. Some of them
collected money from students and the
students have since been dismissed and
they named them. The procedure for sacking people, the Vice Chancellor does
not have a hand in it. First of all, the
Intelligence Unit of the university
sometimes dictates some of these things
or, when they are reported to by
students, they are now sent to the Disciplinary Committee. The Vice Chancellor is not a member of the
Disciplinary Committee. The Committee
will meet and make recommendation to
Council. The Council take the ultimate
decision and nobody can influence the
Council.
Council is made up of over fifteen
members, so how can one person
influence them? We have four sound
lawyers in the Council, one of them is a
Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). A
former senator is the Chairman of the
Council and other respectable Nigerians.
So, I don't know what they are talking
about. I can show you the rules and
regulations, they are all spelt out there.
You can recommend somebody to the
Council and say the person should be
freed due to one reason or the other, but
the Council can say no , the person must
be punished.
So it has nothing to do with the VC. It is
sad that these people talking and calling
the name of the VC do not even talk
about the crime they committed. What
most of them did can be described as
crime against humanity. Many of them
collected money from students; engaged
in sexual harassment, extortion, fake
admission. People who did not take
JAMB, who did not pass post-UME, who
did not have SSSCE were cleared by
these people. So what has their crimes
got to do with the VC? It was purely a
Council decision and they were dismissed
after investigations.
Ungodly act
A situation where you sexually harass a student and you are now disciplined, you
look for who to blame and say you are being victimized. How can you collect N50,000 from a student and you say you are doing the right thing? Some of them were even caught red handed.
There was a case whereby security agents
were pursuing the person inside the
campus. Is it not ridiculous? A big man
running round the campus after he collected the money but he did not know
security men were watching him. It is wicked to collect money from a poor student who can hardly feed. Parents are
even suffering to get school fees and you
are collecting N50,000 from them. What
shocked me most is that even female
lecturers were involved.
I did not know that female lecturers can
be involved in extorting money from
students. I thought that women are
mothers and they are motherly, that was
the shocker I got. It is a shame. And I
heard that some of them had taught in
other universities before and they were
thrown out. And this was why the
Council insisted that their names must
be published in newspapers so that they
will not go to another university and
continue to perpetrate their evil.
Majority of them had been in the
business for twenty years. As a result,
some people have gone to the internet to
publish more names that we should look
as they are also extorting students. Yet
they are abusing the management of the
university for the action but they forgot
that 142 students that were to graduate
could not graduate because these corrupt
staff admitted them without basic requirements.
You know that at the point of entry, they
are screened, at the point of departure, they are also screened; it was at the point
of departure 'that we discovered these
142. Some have spent five years, six
years, four years but unfortunately, those
years were wasted. So those ones were
punished and you that admitted them
that was supposed to advise them rightly, you expect to stay, no way. It will be ungodly to allow only the students and parents to suffer it. Those who perpetrated the act deserve punishment
and that was the decision of Council.
They ruined the life of those students
because they have to go and start afresh.
One of the staff that was dismissed was
selling biometric data, and he was not
supposed to. I have children and I will
not allow some body do that to them,
what they did was wicked and evil.I was
shocked with the revelations because I
never believed some of them were
involved in some of these crimes. When I
got to Council, where I was trying to plead for somebody because the person is a first offender, it was the first time something has been reported against him, it was then that the Chairman of Council brought out a petition he wrote against me. I was shocked. When you go on the internet, you will see the remarks of former students who said it was good
they were caught.
When did you notice this level of corrupt
practices in the university?
We never had a Governing Council for
almost two years, so the Security Unit of
the university had been gathering this
information. So when they say I am the
one that took the decision, why did I not
take the decision before the Council came. I don't have that kind of power, it is the Governing Council that has the power to appoint and to dismiss, not the VC. I did not even see the report until it got to the Governing Council.
Challenges
We have been promoting infrastructural
development and academic development.
We have new programmes which are
putting us ahead of other universities,
not only in Nigeria but worldwide. We
are relating to international institutions,
that is what academic is all about, not
these frivolous petitions people are writing because they don't like the truth
and they are enemies of progress. I want
to take UNIBEN to the upper most height before the end of my tenure. We are the best in Nigeria. We are the most sought after university in Nigeria, JAMB
can confirm to you that more people apply to go to UNIBEN than any other
university in Nigeria. That is not just a
coincidence, it is a result of the kind of
things we are doing there academically.
There was this report some time ago that
the Inspector General of Police ordered
the investigation of your activities?
I am not aware of that. It is all propaganda that is being carried out by
one of those people who lost their jobs.
One of them has written various
frivolous petitions, he does not even know the regulations on the appointment of Heads of Department, it is the prerogative of the VC to appoint anybody
as long as the person is a senior lecturer
and above. That is the bone of contention
of one particular person who felt he should be a Director. And this is the
person who stayed in one position for eleven years and was never promoted until I became Vice Chancellor. I promoted him and employed his wife in
the university, he is the one writing
frivolous petitions. Investigate me over
what? These are lies and propaganda being peddled to rubbish my administration but they have failed
because we are moving on whether they
like it or not.
We learnt your life is being threatened
and that you were even poisoned
recently?
Yes I have been passing through hell but
I am not afraid God is my protector. It is
these people that lost their jobs that are
threatening my life and, as we are speaking, they have not given up. So if
anything happens to me, all of them
should be held responsible, especially
one particular man who is fond of writing
frivolous petitions. He is being used, others are hiding under him to perpetrate the crime but we know all of them. The problem is that there was so much corruption in the university before I took over as VC and they wanted me to do it the way they ran the place before and I said no. I want this place to develop, I have more at stake in this university than any one of them. I know how the land was given to the Federal Government for the university to be sited there, part of it is my family land.
There was no compensation paid to us,
but we did not make noise about it, yet
some persons think they can colonize the
place with their corrupt practices. I was
even poisoned by these people but I survived. When God is with you, you are
fully protected. I believe that God sent
me to the university for a purpose and
He will not want me to die on the job. I
believe they are wasting their time.
Nobody believed that I will be Vice-
Chancellor; if you know all the wrangling
then, you will know what I am talking
about. I did not join any group to fight
for it, it was the hand work of God, God
gave me the position and God is protecting me and He will protect me to
the end of my tenure. And those who
want to fight God will face his wrath.
Are you not worried about the prolonged
ASUU strike?
We all are worried. But I believe that
through dialogue and understanding, the
issues will be resolved soon. There is
nothing that cannot be solved through
dialogue. The thing is that if we have
good communication with the unions, we
won't have problems. This is my fourth
year as VC, I have not had any problem
with the unions and that is because of
my open door policy. I told them if there
are things you don't like that I do, please
call me to order. I have an open-door
policy and the union members are
human beings, they are understanding
too. It is usually better to dialogue and
find solutions to problems.
Are you saying dialogue is the secret of
you success so far?
My doors are wide open for everybody. If
there are problems, we discuss them; the
ones I can solve immediately, I will solve,
the ones I cannot, I will appeal to them
to give me some time. For example, when
I took over, I met a backlog of promotion
arrears up to ten, twelve years and I paid
it gradually. Those are their entitlements. You know in the university
system, we run it like a community; it is
not a one man show. So you involve
them so they actually see what is going
on, you won't have any problem. It is
only when you exclude them in the
running of the university that you have a
problem. Like this issue of termination of
appointment of some staff, the Vice-
Chancellor has nothing to do with it.
My dream for UNIBEN
I want to see UNIBEN on top; in Nigeria,
they are already on top but, before the
end of my tenure, I want to see them
among the first one hundred universities
in the world. That is my dream.
There is this rumour that you're nursing
governorship ambition?
I am not a politician. This rumour is being peddled by the same people who do
not mean well for the university. They
have said all sorts of things. I am an
academician so I wonder where they are
getting their information from – it is still
part of the mischief and I have decided to
ignore it. God will judge.
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