AN OPEN LETTER TO PROFESSOR USF NNABUE, THE IMO STATE COMMISSIONER - TopicsExpress



          

AN OPEN LETTER TO PROFESSOR USF NNABUE, THE IMO STATE COMMISSIONER FOR TERTIARY EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. Dear Prof., IMSU MUST BE RESCUED I do hope you will forgive me for not writing any note to congratulate you on this well-deserved appointment as a commissioner in our own dear State. I do not congratulate an athlete before the finishing line, an athlete will get my loudest congratulations when he finishes the race well. I am thankful to God for not burdening me with the ignominy of sycophancy. However, I should not have the slightest reason not to congratulate you for your enviable achievements in your days at my alma mater, Imo State University, Owerri. You were a shining light and I am not surprised that the Governor found you worthy to be a member of his Rescue Team, please do not join the Re-skew Team. For I am made to understand that an overwhelming majority of those in that cabinet have become members of the Re-skew team and the Governor talks it off. Please you have a reputation to protect, leave that cabinet if your integrity must be diminished. For the avoidance of any doubt, I did not study law, therefore, I did not attend any of the classes you taught in. but as a Students Union leader in my undergraduate days, there were meeting points between us, especially during your days as the Dean of Students’ Affairs. You handled the students like they were your own biological children. Your instructions and interventions during the days of strife assuaged frayed nerves and averted potential crises. As an aspiring university teacher, I have been severally inspired by the good testimonies some of your former students share about you. Having being a teacher myself, I appreciate the huge challenges that steadily confronts teachers. For some of those who have had the fortune of passing through your tutelage to confirm that you have been successful in your teaching career is a great honour, which you should relish more than the highest political office. It should also keep you on your toes always, since it makes it obvious that there are thousands of young people -both those who were your former students and some of us who were not fortunate to have been your student- who look up to you as a role model. As a man who has invested stupendously towards earning the trust of a good number of Nigerian youths, it is important you watch very well to avoid any situation that may dent the enviable reputation you have managed to gain for yourself. The present position you occupy has the capacity of doing just that, it also provides an opportunity for you to walk yourself deeper into the hearts of more people. If they say that political offices are surest ways to corrupt the incorruptible, I will want to beat my chest in the nearest future and say that Professor USF Nnabue was beyond the corruption and destruction of political offices. However, I must squeal it to you that some people may have tactically embarked on a project to tarnish your hard-earned reputation and embarrass you before your numerous admirers. While I am seriously doubting that this goes on with your tacit understanding, I must not fail to point out that you can stop them on their destructive track. Recently, Imo State University has come under serious but scathing reviews by the media. This is not the first time this is actually happening, but it is the first time it is happening under the administration of a man who is regarded all over the African continent as the grand master of free and qualitative education. While, Chief Ikedi Ohakim may be forgiven for his role in destroying this great citadel of excellence, because of his unpretentious disdain for academic excellence, it still baffles a majority of Imo people how our amiable Governor could sustain the evil and ominous legacy of a man who gave Imo people little reason to be happy. Some group of people had written an open letter to the Pro-Chancellor demanding immediate actions towards stabilizing the leadership and management of that university. In that letter, they pointed out the precarious condition of my alma mater and put the whole blame on the inability of the management of the university and the government of Imo State to find a lasting and fair solution to the perennial crisis of succession that has bedeviled and crippled the university for the past five years. It may be understandable if those who were in charge of the educational sector were over-burdened by the bogus work schedule which their brief portended. This may explain why the Governor had to scout for an egg head and a quintessential administrative guru of your standing to man that sector, as well as better streamlining your work schedule to focus on tertiary education. Sir, to be fair to the Governor, he has done all he should to ensure that you succeed, if he hasnt, please let us know. Imo people will hold you solely responsible for any flop in the tertiary sector of our educational system. My dear Prof., it is disturbing that the first serious assignment you are undertaking as a commissioner in this government is to further plunge Imo State University into deeper crisis. I am particularly worried because some desperate usurpers seem to be trying to dribble you into the fiery furnace of public opprobrium. This is true because whatever affects Imo State University also affects every family in this State. You will be doing yourself and indeed the Governor of this State a great disservice if you do not bring your wealth of experience into marshaling out or proposing a lasting solution to the instability in Imo State University. This cannot certainly be achieved by advertising for a position that is deemed by law as not being vacant. The advertisement placed in The Nation Newspaper of 25th November, 2013 which called for interested candidates to apply for the position of substantive Vice-Chancellor of Imo State University, is an embarrassment to your person and antecedents as not just one of the most respected academics in Imo State University but as a teacher of law and jurisprudence who taught and still mentors some of Nigeria’s brightest legal practitioners. As a lead dramatis personae in the entire drama that precede the palace coup that eventually ousted Professor I.C Okonkwo from office, you should have been the last person to have allowed such advertisement to see the light of day. From 2008, when Professor I.C Okonkwo was tactically but illegally eased out from office on trumped up and callous charges, this alma mater of great Stars have known no peace. It has crashed from one of the best universities in the country to the least rated university in the country. Its Law Faculty where you were recently Dean, has crashed from its enviable position as one of the best law faculties in the country to a de-accredited faculty that can no longer admit the teeming applicants who are enthralled by the rich and top of the world history of that faculty. The fate of hundreds of others who are at different stages in their law programmes have also become shaky. These anomalies are possible because the several acting Vice-Chancellors who have being called upon at various times have always seen the office as an opportunity for some instant wealth. Some of them had concentrated on the politics of retaining their seat and playing to the gallery in order to please their appointees and godfathers. Does it not make you cry when you understand that about eleven other programmes of this university have been denied accreditation by the National Universities Commission(NUC)? Do you not feel bad that about twenty other programmes of this university are merely enjoying interim accreditation, which could be withdrawn at any time? Do you not worry about the pathetic condition of the Imo State University Teaching Hospital? It is saddening that with all the funds we are told that this Governor is ready to throw and is already throwing into the university, things are still this bad. You were an integral part of the university management team during Prof. I.C Okonkwo’s time as Vice-Chancellor. You can recall that the subvention at that time was something around fifty million Naira every month. yet, at the time Chief Ikedi Ohakim became Governor, several months passed without a dime of this subvention getting to the university, yet, Professor I.C Okonkwo as an ingenious leader and administrative guru ensured that every staff of the university was paid as at and when due, while the other aspects of the university system ran smoothly. Today, the government you are serving sings it to every ear that Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorcha has increased this subvention to more than two hundred and fifty million Naira, that he has creatively introduced wonderful strategies to boost the Internally Generated Revenue of the university, yet, the university management is still finding it difficult running a smooth administration. Is it not worth it that we ask, where all these monies go to? We are told that it was in the Governor’s sincere bid to give the best to the university that he appointed Professor Ukachukwu Awuzie as an acting Vice-Chancellor in the University, but the lure of lucre and desperation to retain power seem to have distracted an otherwise icon of integrity. Professor Ukachukwu Awuzie seems to have forgotten so fast his background as a forthright and uncompromising stickler to justice, fair play and truth. Do not allow him and his sponsors to deceive you into falling into the same gutter of ignominy they have pushed themselves into. Does it not surprise you that this same Profeesor Ukachukwu Awuzie who was at the fore-front of those that condemned the ill-treatment meted out to Professor I.C Okonkwo is the same person who is doing everything within and beyond his powers to ensure that Professor I.C Okonkwo is not re-instated as the Vice-Chancellor of that university. however, it is worth mentioning that the only solution to the instability crisis shattering that university is for Professor I.C Okonkwo to be re-instated to complete his tenure as the substantive Vice-Chancellor of the University. this is the truth you must ensure that the Governor hears, if you wish to repay him for the confidence he has reposed in you. You know it more than every other person that considering the present state of things in that university, there cannot be a substantive vice-chancellor there soonest. The earliest that we can have a substantive vice-chancellor in Imo State University is may be in the next few weeks if the Appeal Court favours Prof. I.C Okonkwo’s prayers that he be re-instated to complete his tenure. This is what I think every lover of that university should be praying for. This is because the refusal of the Court of Appeal to accede to this fair prayers will further elongate our pains and suspense as stakeholders in that university. knowing who Professor I.C Okonkwo is, he won’t end the battle at the Appeal Court, he will save no cost at ensuring that he exhausts all legitimate avenues towards obtaining justice. This is no way an act of desperation, rather it is intended to clear his name of the mud that was splashed on it by the self-serving Visitation Panel, instituted by the previous administration with the singular mandate to indict him. I am yet to come to terms with the mean desperation of Professor Awuzie to become a substantive Vice-Chancellor, I do not know what is in that seat that so entices him that he could throw away all the love and goodwill he enjoyed from across the country, due to his now suspicious doggedness as the national President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Are you aware that he has unilaterally withdrawn all the security and other official staffs attached to Professor I.C Okonkwo as the substantive Vice-Chancellor of our university? Do you also know that he has inexplicably refused to obey a subsisting Court order requiring him to return to status quo? You should be as bothered as every concerned IMSU stakeholder that the life of one of our finest professors is in serious danger. Professor I.C Okonkwo has been placed in a situation where his life and safety are completely in Gods hands. While I am certain that God is enough and able, I will not delude myself by thinking that human security paraphernalia is not important. you must wash your hands off this injustice by calling your Professor friend; Ukachukwu Awuzie to order. It was enough insult to the image of that university to have named someone who does not have a Doctorate degree as the university’s acting Vice-Chancellor. Going further to advertise for the position of a substantive Vice-Chancellor without listing Doctorate degree qualification as per-requisite for intending applicants is an unbearable slap across the faces of all alumni, staff and indeed all those who hold a stake in that university. As a top of the class academician and thorough bred stickler to due process and merit, one cannot begin to lecture you on the implications of retaining a person with such indispensable academic deficit at the helm of the university management. This will continue to be an embarrassment to the image and status of the university among other universities in the country, as it will automatically disqualify Imo State University from awarding Doctorate degrees, in line with the universally accepted principle: ‘NEMO DAT QUOD NON HABET’. So many vibrant lawyers of today first heard this Latin maxim from you and they are expecting that you call the attention of His Excellency Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha to this anomaly which stares us in the face. My dear Prof., I will like to end this letter on a very ambitious and positive note, knowing what you are capable of and your indisputable high sense of integrity. The present State Executive Council as constituted by the Governor can boast of at least three respectable and probably best Professors to have come out of Imo State University. you can align with Professors Anthony Anwuka, Okey Okoro and C. Iwuchukwu in pushing through, this innocuous proposal which will ensure that IMSU is stabilized and the future of our children safeguarded. Remain blessed. Yours, Mr Onwuasoanya FCC Jones
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 08:32:05 +0000

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