… A Note on the Mistake of Admiral Ezeoba’s Resignation as Pro-Chancellor and Governing Council Chairman
Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD
Odogwu of Ibusa
Nwaezeigwe.genocideafrica@gmail.com
There is no doubt that one of the greatest mistakes of Admiral Dele Ezeoba in his life is his resignation as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Admiralty University, Ibusa over the appointment of Prof Christopher Ogbogbo as the substantive Vice Chancellor of Admiralty University of Nigeria, Ibusa. His action reminds me of one story my late mother told me about one of her cousins who abandoned her matrimonial home because she believed her husband was cheating on her with another woman.
The first pertinent question her father asked her was, by abandoning your matrimonial home because you believed your husband was having affair with another woman, don’t you think you are eventually abandoning your matrimonial home for the same woman to take over, including your children? “Go back to your husband’s home and protect your matrimonial home. Save your marriage by removing your eyes and mind from what you think your husband does outside, so long as he takes good care of his family.”
A candid advice no doubt from her father! Ofcourse by our culture, I mean the culture of the present peoples of Edo and Delta State without ethnic distinction, no sensible family accepts its married daughter back to her paternal home who abandons her matrimonial home for the flimsy excuse of a cheating husband. Wife beating yes! Irresponsible dereliction of family responsibilities as a husband yes! But not for a cheating husband!
This was just what Admiral Dele Ezeoba did by his resignation as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Admiralty University of Nigeria, Ibusa. Unfortunately, it is very difficult for Generals to listen to the advice of bloody civilians, otherwise the mere disagreement over the appointment of a Vice Chancellor for a University he conceived and natured up to its present stage was not enough reason for his resignation. It is like a responsible wife abandoning her matrimonial home and her children under the care of an unknown woman; for who knows what would be the dispositions of his successor towards his pet-project.
One should have expected Admiral Ezeoba to consider the overall interest of the university over and above his personal choice of who becomes the Vice Chancellor of the University. By his statutory office as a Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the University Governing Council, he has no personal powers of his to decide who becomes the Vice Chancellor under his supervision. Indeed, whatever official action he takes under such office must be subject to the approval of majority of members of the Governing Council.
Furthermore, it was obvious that Admiral Ezeoba had a missing link between him and other members of the Governing Council; otherwise, how could even his junior comrades-at-arm revolt against his will? Of course, that missing link appears to have anchored on his apolitical dispositions towards the political nature of the office of the Vice Chancellor as well as his misconception of what constitutes the “Best” in the appointment of a Vice Chancellor.
Yes! At the initial stage of the life of the University when the Chief of Naval Staff was the de facto Visitor of the University and there was no strong subsisting interest, he could exercise such commanding influence; but as soon as the Federal Government took over the ownership and control of the University, such commanding influence was bound to wane.
The concept of “best” is a relative phenomenon allied with the proverbial description of an elephant by ten blind men. The one who touched the body described the elephant as a wall; the one who held the trunk described it as a large snake; while the one who held the leg described as a tree. Thus, describing Prof Lucian Chukwu as the best candidate just because he scored 83.41% against Prof Christopher Ogbogbo’s 72.5% by KPMG does entail finality in the choice of the overall best candidate.
In the first place, KPMG is not a well-known firm in the business of recruitment of academics and Vice Chancellors. It’s fundamentally an accounting firm that lately diverged to corporate recruitment, which the position of Vice Chancellor does not fit into. Appointment of Vice Chancellors of Federal Universities can only come by two ways—direct appointment by the Visitor or internal selection mechanism initiated by the Governing Council supported by the University Senate which elects members of the Selection Committee, as in the case of University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
The university system in Nigeria does not require an external body to provide a better assessment of the best candidate to run a Nigerian university. This is inconceivable within the academic cultural context of the Nigerian university system. There is no doubt therefore that KPMG was incompetent to decide the best candidate for the position of a Vice Chancellor of a Nigerian University. If it were the case of the appointment of a bank chief executive or the chief executive of a corporate firm, no one should have faulted KPMG for whatever was the outcome of their assessment. But in this case, it was the case of a square peg in a round hole.
The Office of a Vice Chancellor is an academic political appointment woven in distinctive logic of relative excellence. This explains why the essential duty of the appointment of a Vice Chancellor rests with the Governing Council in coordination with elected members of University Senate Selection Committee as in the case of University of Nigeria, Nsukka and, not with an external recruitment and accounting agency like KPMG.
Indeed, what most people might not be aware of is that the position of a Vice Chancellor of a Federal or any State University in Nigeria is as political as the appointment of Ministers, Commissioners and other related political offices. The Vice Chancellor is like a mini-State Governor in the sense of his administrative powers and policy formulation within the administrative framework of the Nigerian university system. In the case of Federal Universities, statutorily, every appointment to the office of the Vice Chancellor is made by the Visitor of the University who is the President of the Federal of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. For State Universities, the State Governors hold the position of Visitors; while for private universities, the proprietors hold the position of Visitors.
The Visitor has even the powers to overturn a concluded process of the appointment of a Vice Chancellor by the University Council. This explains the reason why the Council is required to nominate the three best candidates for appointment. It does not therefore legally translate to whoever is adjudged the best candidate becoming the Vice Chancellor.
In other words, the Visitor could exercise this statutory right by directly appointing anybody as Vice Chancellor of any Federal University, especially for newly established universities or, in the case of already established universities, through the Governing Council of the particular University. In that case, the University Governing Council only acts as a proxy to the Visitor of the University.
Admiralty University of Nigeria, Ibusa is a Federal University, and no longer owned by the Nigerian Navy, as Zik Zulu Okafor erroneously implied in his recent article in ThisDay news outlet. So, the Visitor of Admiralty University of Nigeria, Ibusa is the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who often acts in this case through the Honorable Minister of Education.
Anyone of the three candidates was therefore qualified to be appointment when other factors external to the result of the interview are considered. Indeed, if Admiral Ezeoba was properly briefed, he shouldn’t have considered the selection of Prof Ogbogbo as illegal. Indeed, his characteristic exhibition of ultra-opposition to the appointment of Prof Ogbogbo against the background of the overwhelming support of other members of the Governing Council was ill-informed and unhealthy for confidence-building between him and other members of the Governing Council on one hand, and between him and Prof Ogbogbo on the other.
This is the fundamental reason why the appointment of Prof Christopher Ogbogbo cannot be faulted; and this further explains why Admiral Ezeoba’s resignation was ill-conceived and absolutely unnecessary, especially when considered by the fact that the position of Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the University is a part-time Board appointment with no executive powers in the running of the university.
The Federal Ministry of Education was therefore right when it stated: “Following a thorough review of the selection process, subsequent ministerial intervention, and in line with the Federal Government’s commitment to merit and fairness, the Ministry confirms that Professor Christopher B. N. Ogbogbo is the most eligible candidate for the position.”
Indeed, when the academic profiles of both Prof Ogbogbo and Prof Chukwu are placed side by side, even Prof Chukwu will agree that Prof Ogbogbo is a better candidate than him. Zik Zulu Okafor in his sycophancy-driven article that attempted to downplay the high-flying intellectual and leadership profiles of Prof Christopher Ogbogbo did not consider carrying out a comparative assessment of the academic profiles of both candidates; although being a non-academic, his incompetence in this regard should be well understood. This is one of the dangers of intellectual albatross of the like of Mr. Zik Zulu Okafor who thinks that competence in the vagaries of local Nollywood script-writing equates with the intellectual complexities of the appointment of Vice Chancellors.
In the first place, Zik Zulu Okafor lied when he stated that the appointment of Prof Ogbogbo “naturally sparked widespread outrage and condemnation. “Widespread outrage and condemnation”, by which people! The prayer of Anioma people was that a true and competent son of theirs should be appointed the Vice Chancellor of Admiralty University of Nigeria in order to properly situate the university within the cultural milieu of its surrounding communities. The Federal Government understands this fact and so with the host community.
It was also an act of despicable ignorance and lack of a sense of judgment for Zik Zulu Okafor to assert that the process that brought Prof Ogbogbo “was a decision that flagrantly disregarded the principles of meritocracy, transparency, and the natural cause of justice.” How would Zik Zulu Okafor have known what he is not competent to know? The culture and principle of excellence within the university system is what a raw local Nollywood champion would not comprehend.
The principle of appointment to any academic office within the university system comes with the tincture of excellence, meritocracy and democratic principles. The selection of Prof Ogbogbo was democratically driven, given the majority-position of the Members of the University Council. One cannot therefore say that the appointment of somebody who scored second best with an “A” grade-point in one aspect of a multifaceted assessment framework was not based on merit and transparency.
Ofcourse Prof Lucian Chukwu is the current Deputy Vice Chancellor, Management Sciences at the University of Lagos, a position which within academic circles equates to Dean of Management Sciences at University of Nigeria, Nsukka, University of Ibadan, and Obafemi Awolowo University. Moreover, it is a position elected not generally by merit and competence but by the grace of the Vice Chancellor who has the powers to nominate whoever pleases him and capable of being malleable to his policies. That does not therefore in any manner give him any advantage over Prof Ogbogbo.
Prof Christopher Ogbogbo as a Professor of African History is a better administrator with a more competent leadership pedigree and holistic intellectual dispositions than Lucian Chukwu who is a Professor of Marine Biology, a very intellectually-restricted field of study with deficiency background of public leadership principles.
Admiralty University is a multidisciplinary and multifaceted institution of higher learning that requires a competent achievement-driven scholar-leader with versatility in essential principles of academic leadership and strong historical background in the development of the university educational system in Nigeria. Prof Lucian Chukwu unfortunately lacked these high-flying intellectual qualities which were fundamental in the final consideration of Prof Ogbogbo as the ultimate Vice Chancellor of admiralty of University of Nigeria, Ibusa.
Prof Ogbogbo has the advantage of coming from the Department of History, University of Ibadan, which has produced more Vice Chancellors than any Department of any University in Nigeria. Prof Kenneth Onwuka Dike, the first Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan was a member of the Department of History, University of Ibadan. Prof Tekina N. Tamuno, another Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan, was a member of the Department of History, University of Ibadan. Prof Omoniyi Adewoye was another historian from the Department of History, University of Ibadan who was Vice Chancellor of the same University of Ibadan.
University of Lagos also benefitted greatly from the rich administrative competence of professional academic historians. Prof Saburi Oladimeji Biobaku, the second Vice Chancellor of University Lagos, was from the Department of History, University of Ibadan. Similarly, Prof Jacob Festus Adeniyi Ajayi, popularly known among historians as J. F. Ade Ajayi, was another Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos.
Ironically, at the same time Prof Kenneth Dike was the Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan, Prof J. F. Ade Ajayi from the same Department of History was his Deputy Vice Chancellor. Which University in Nigeria would have tolerated such, except University of Ibadan where the science of modern African historical research germinated under the solemn guidance of Prof Kenneth Onwuka Dike and, among the Yoruba who regard the importance of history to their existence in Nigeria with religious dexterity?
There is therefore no gainsaying the fact that Prof Christopher Ogbogbo has a strong pedigree of university administration through professional academic intimacy with seasoned and iconic historian-Vice Chancellors of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. His appointment as the substantive Vice Chancellor of Admiralty University of Nigeria, Ibusa, is therefore a square peg in a square hold. It is an appointment that should usher in a new page in the history of the university.
