OAU crisis - Nigeria

•Everyone should respect the rule of law

For over a month, the Obafemi  Awolowo University has suffered a lockdown. Spurring this paralysis is a logjam arising from conflicts over who should be the prime school’s top officer. Although the university top decision-making body has announced the name of the new vice chancellor and the federal government has appended its signature, the institution has no vice chancellor, the registrar cannot function fully, salaries are on hold and classrooms are quiet.

This is not the first time the battle to be a university helmsman has generated furore in this country. Often it is a battle of egos, a contest of power blocks, a shadow of political contention in the larger society and, sometimes, an ethnic or religious combat.

The Ife story is interesting because it seems professor Ayobami Salami has already been picked by the Governing Council after it deliberated on a shortlist of six candidates forwarded to it by the Joint Council of Senate and Selection Board (JCSSB) in line with the rules.

But two principal stake holders in the university objected. They are the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU). They accused the JCSSB of foul play, and they objected to the choice of Professor Salami.

They also took the matter to court and claimed to have obtained a restraining order, although the governing Council said they did not get any restraining order and went along with the exercise. SSANU and NASU objected to the choice of the shortlist in that some of the professors they expected to make it did not. They also took exception to two candidates from outside the campus. They also objected to the inclusion of a professor outside Ife who is allegedly afflicted with stroke.

During the final interview, only three candidates showed up, including Professor Salami. When the governing council made its choice, the federal government was notified and the Federal Character Commission directed the registrar to notify Professor Salami as the new vice chancellor.

It seemed the matter was over, and the querulous party had lost and the new helmsman could initiate reconciliation. Professor Salami did not have the opportunity to occupy his new seat. Perhaps more absurd was that the man he was to succeed was not allowed to enjoy his last day in office as an unruly drama of blockade prevented both exit and entrance.

The dissenters have already taken the matter to court, and the federal ministry of education ordered the dissolution of the governing council and nullified the process it had already anointed.  With no top officer and governing council, classes cannot go on and the university has been in silence

It is stunning that the federal government could have approved a vice chancellor without examining the process. It is also absurd it nullified its own decision. It is clear that due process was followed in picking Professor Salami. If the SSANU/NASU consensus is not Salami, it does not make the process any flawed.

If the objectors hate the choice, it was no reason for them to break out in unruly theatre, bearing symbolic coffins and mounting blockade and imposing paralysis in a continuation of a rhythm of closure and opening that has characterised our university system for over a decade.

The federal ministry has now directed the registrar to ask the deputy vice chancellor to convene a senate session to pick an acting vice chancellor. That will hopefully restore normalcy. The classrooms should soon hum with lecturers and students until the court determines the way forward.