When the Abia State University (ABSU) took out advertisements in national dailies to tell the world that it had ‘cancelled and withdrawn’ (tautological emphasis) the certificate of Kalu, Orji Uzor, most people believe that it was the voice of Joshua but the hand of incumbent Abia State Govt Esau. However, ABSU clearly advertised why it revoked the degree.
When the Abia State University (ABSU) took out advertisements in national dailies to tell the world that it had ‘cancelled and withdrawn’ (tautological emphasis) the certificate of Kalu, Orji Uzor, most people believe that it was the voice of Joshua but the hand of incumbent Abia State Govt Esau. However, ABSU clearly advertised why it revoked the degree. It told us that its action derived from its “onerous statutory responsibility to guard and maintain at all times the academic regulations of the university, its hard earned reputation and the credibility of the certificate it awards”. I guess with this strong declaration it expected applause. However what it has gotten mostly was a lampoon with a few endorsements deriving from political consideration.
We should quickly dismiss the defence that has been offered on behalf of ABSU. The two: justified precedence and legality are interrelated. It is submitted that withdrawal of certificates is a worldwide phenomenon and the action of ABSU is nothing spectacular. It is further submitted that the laws and regulations of the university permit such. Yes, the facility for universities to withdraw their certificates is worldwide but the circumstance of each is peculiar; and that is what matters. The fact that you can remedy an untoward situation does not say you should allow it to happen. Its happening and the remediation are two different matters. If a nation is known as crime infested, does it make it less so because the State posses the authority to punish crime? The fact that Universities have powers to withdraw degrees should not give them confidence/latitude to be careless about, compromise or even connive at breaking their own regulations in the first instance. The first act creates the image; and its remediation, as in the case of ABSU, highlights and possibly worsens the image.
The aim of this piece is to show that ABSU has failed and will have to do a lot more to defend the credibility of its certificate. And to also show that ABSU is not an exception but an example of the deep rot in the administration of the Nigerian University system. Scratch most Nigerian universities slightly and you will find an ABSU. Also, this article is not interested in the dog fight between the current Governor of Abia State and his predecessor except to the extent that the university has been drawn in and has allowed itself to be abused. The university and political systems of any nation must necessarily interact. Each seeks to protect and advance its territory while seeking to influence and control spheres outside to it. Politicians seek to dominate their environment, the universities inclusive. However in Nigeria, the domination is for corruptive and degenerative ends. The university seeks to protect its relevance and integrity by insisting on autonomy in its activities and administration. The way to develop and defend autonomy is for the university to possess character.
Character here is defined as the moral strength of courage, honesty and fairness. Sadly, a large number of universities in Nigeria lack character. In seeking to lead the universities, the office seekers become totally beholden to political office holders. All manner of sentiments such ac place of origin, political party affiliation, religion are mobilized such that when the position is obtained, Vice-Chancellors become puppets in the hand of their political masters and they take the university down with them. This is the context in which Orji Kalu’s ABSU Administration and Theodore Orji’s ABSU Administration may be understood. Orji Kalu’s ABSU Administration was unable to show courage and resist the unworthy application of its Visitor to become its student concurrently; nor was it able to properly scrutinize his application document, nor ensure that the regulations that govern residency, lecture attendance, examinations etc were adhered to.
Theodore Orji’s ABSU Administration felt obliged to commit self immolation in the public to satisfy the crave of its new Visitor. The sad but true situation is that this genuflecting by universities to the depravity of political power is very pervasive in the Nigerian university system. University regulations are frequently breached to accommodate illegal requests of political/traditional rulers/religious leaders, other men of power and influence and nepotistic relations. One clear implication that should be immediately underscored is that as the universities lack character, their products, graduates and research, will also be devoid of character since you cannot give what you do not have. The consequence for the nation is that a large number of graduates are being pushed into the nation who see nothing wrong in shoddy and fraudulent reasoning, cutting corners, uncouth and tyrannical exercise of power, sycophancy, cronyism. The world is wary of research results from the environment of universities that lack character.
The ABSU episode shows that the institutional structures that are within and around the universities are non functional and severely compromised. This is the only way the Orji Kalu’s studentship and certificate scandal could have occurred because his admission when he was Governor was an open knowledge both within and outside of ABSU. One may ask, what manner of recruitment got lecturers on the Faculty of ABSU that are able to allow a student who did not attend lectures for 4 out of 6 semesters to write exams or to return marks for exams not written? What sort of Departmental and Faculty bodies approved such a result at their meetings without any of the lecturers raising an issue? Were questions raised at the Senate at the time of the award? Who raised the question for the Senate to review its position now? Has the Senate gone the whole hog to investigate and discipline the lecturers, Heads of Dept, Dean of Faculty, Admission Officer responsible for this situation? Where were the students who were Orji Kalu’s course mates?
Did they raise a query about their absentee mate or they just went along so they can get their certificate which is now badly assaulted? NUC conducts periodic accreditation where one of the things it certifies is students’ admission and records. In this instance it must have conducted at least one accreditation exercise and given approval to what ABSU has done. There is also the possibility of Visitation to the University by the Visitor. If there was one, what did it find? It is open knowledge that these quality control exercises are corrupt and merely whitewash university administrations. The Union of academics has a branch in that university: did it play its role as a watch dog of the system or was it compromised? The essence of the issues raised here is to query how such a big camel can pass through the many needle points available to police the system. And that is the summary of the situation of our universities today. ABSU is not alone; a number of programs involving the political/military/business elites in our universities are compromised. The rot in the national environment is equally deep in our universities. The scary aspect is that the university is expected to be a guiding light to the nation but sadly it has become immersed in the depth of a corrupt and dysfunctional nation. When gold rusts…..
Prof. Poju Akinyanju ([email protected])
Dept of Microbiology
University of Ilorin. Ilorin
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters
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