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…Affected staff ruined the lives of 142 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 tSSSCE 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.

Oshodin Osayuki

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 youre 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.