Tag: favouritism

In this third and concluding  part of his series on the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Assistant Editor ADEKUNLE YUSUF reveals more dirty details of the rot in the 42-year-old university

Shortly after Prof. Ishaq Oloyede left office, his administration was accused of speedily granting an award of N22 million to two members of staff who are alleged to be his relations before he left office in 2012. One of them is his son, Ayopo Oloyede Abdulkarim, an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Telecommunication Science. The second beneficiary is Mrs. Fatihah Adeyinka Odumosu (nee Oloyede) of the Department of Physiology. Records showed NI7 million went into the pocket of Ayopo Oloyede and N5million to Mrs. Odumosu. At the time, a group known as the University of Ilorin Stakeholders Forum (UISF), which called for the probe of the awards, insisted that the awards were illegally granted, alleging that it was nepotism since Ayopo is the biological child of the former VC while the second beneficiary was alleged to be his distant cousin.
It was also alleged that by the time Ayopo requested for the favour, via a letter dated February 22, 2012, he was yet to be a staff of the university. The young Oloyede was only given his letter of appointment on June 28, 2012 vide a letter reference number UIL/S SE/ PF/5023. It was signed by Oyeyemi, then registrar. Barely two months later, precisely on August 24, 2012, the university granted the request, vide a letter signed by Adegoke. His father was to justify the speedy approval and disbursement to the awardees, saying nothing was done outside rubric of due process.
“The Governing Council of the University, in May 2007 before I became Vice-Chancellor, decided to suspend the requirement that a newly recruited academic staff should spend a minimum of two years before he could go on study leave. Consequently, lecturers of the university were released on Staff Development Awards (SDA) scheme, which only consisted of paying their salaries, to pursue their PhDs anywhere in the world,” he said.

Lopsided promotions

Ordinarily, it is supposed to have fizzled out of memory. However, despite the passage of time, the hurried appointment of Mrs. Bamitale Janet Balogun is still being widely reviled, if not regularly spurned among academics that lay claim to integrity credentials in UNILORIN. At the time of her appointment in August 2013, she was the wife of the secretary of the local faction of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) that is robustly loyal to the administration. Touted as part of the gale of appointments without the due process in UNILORIN, Mrs. Balogun, now in her mid-fifties, was employed as Assistant Lecturer on temporary appointment into the Department of English Language, even without any interview whatsoever and without being recommended by the Head of Department or Dean of the Faculty – against all extant rules governing academic appointments.
Despite all subtle protestations by the Head of Department of English Language that there were more suitably qualified persons, who had been interviewed, found employable and were merely waiting for appointment letters, the powers that be foisted Mrs. Balogun on the system. It was a case of fait accompli of sort, an appointment many lecturers see as a favour to her husband who, until he died, was one of the chieftains of ASUU who enjoyed the ears of the university authorities. Going by the written objection of the HoD, Mrs. Balogun’s area of specialty was not also very much needed at the time, but UNILORIN ignored all this.
One of the casualties of this decision whose fate suffered a body blow at the time was one Mrs. O. Adeoti, who was the department’s best graduating student in 2003 and a doctoral student in the same department then. Her case was tabled before the university authorities by her department, but nothing was done. Against what has become the norm in the university, it was because her candidature was not backed by any big name in the system, sources said. Like others who waited in vain after being recommended for employment, Mrs. Adeoti had been interviewed, found employable and recommended for employment long before the issue of Mrs. Balogun, with a Master of Arts in English Language, surfaced through the VC’s office.
“The Department’s 2003 best graduating student, who is also a present PhD student in the Department, Mrs. O. Adeoti, had been interviewed and found appointable to the post of Assistant Lecturer in English Language, which Mrs. Balogun has now applied to. We were actually awaiting a response in respect of Mrs. Adeoti sir. There is also the dire need of the department in respect to Literature-in-English lecturers. There were, in the 2012/13 session, only five Literature-in-English lecturers on the ground as against eleven language lecturers. It is evident that Literature-in-English lecturers were overburdened with courses,” the HoD commented on Mrs. Balogun’s application letter, which did nothing to sway the university leadership who forwarded an already approved application and asked him to “please comment on the approved applicant”.
That is not the only absurdity trailing her recruitment, critics said. At the time of her appointment, records show that Mrs. Balogun was already 49 years old. Many lecturers therefore argue that she was too old for such an entry-level academic job, which may limit her contributions to the system. Thus, they see her appointment as a clear subversion of public service rules on the age of people that can be employed into trainee cadres – since Graduate Assistantship and Assistant Lecturership are trainee cadres.
But if the fuss that greeted Mrs. Balogun’s appointment calls for a thorough probe, it may pale into insignificance when compared to the “extreme lopsidedness” that is at the heart of multiple promotions enjoyed by another “administrative errand boy” in the Department of Computer Science. Reviled as a reference point in the “scandalous wave of unbridled favouritism thriving in UNILORIN,” not a few pooh-poohed the frenetic rise of Dr. Rasheed Jimoh. As at January 2011, he was still an Assistant Lecturer in the university. At the time, he was in a Malaysian university battling with writing his PhD dissertation and how to defend same. On his return, Dr. Jimoh was promoted to Lecturer II in February of 2011, having earned same with a fresh-minted PhD certificate.
And by October of 2011, the young lecturer was elevated again to Lecturer I – in a style that is said to be both strange and unknown to all rules and regulations governing promotions in academic circles, but which the tenure of Prof. Oloyede was said to have promoted to no end. As if that was not enough, he was propped up again to Senior Lecturer rank on October 12, 2012 and, later Associate Professor – a generosity that has helped him bypass lecturers, who taught him during his undergraduate days. Within this short period of less than four years, Dr. Jimoh has oddly enjoyed nothing less than four promotions. Besides this, he has also served as HoD, bossing his colleagues as well as former instructors around. And without exuding any spectacular erudition or parading academic feat in terms of a breakthrough in research that sets him apart from peers, he has now been tipped to man one of the most important units in the university – thanks to his ‘loyalty’ to the authorities.
Although some people in the system insisted that no rule was broken, another case that some lecturers say reeks of nepotism is that of Mr. Ibrahim Abdulganiyu Ambali, VC’s son in the bursary section. The young Ambali’s wife (Mrs. Rabiat Gambari-Ambali) was granted external study leave in 2014 and the young man was allowed to join her in the United Kingdom on no known grounds, such as study leave, leave of absence, etc. Yet the university continues to pay the salary of a man that can best be described as an AWOL. However, those close to the family said the husband and wife are both being expected back this year.
Like most appointments in the last ten tears, Adam Abdulrahman Idoko was appointed on temporary basis in the Microbiology Department. Later, at the ‘regularisation interview’ where he was the only candidate, having been appointed and having assumed duty anyway, he was said to have performed so poorly that even his godfathers admitted out of rare candour that his appointment could not be rationally sustained. However, instead of dismissing him outright for being unfit, he was asked to continue on ‘probation.’ But to the chagrin of other workers, in the interim, he was processed for overseas study and whisked abroad, which some lecturers in the department said the university usually denies otherwise qualified candidates. He is now back in the system – a situation which academics in his department say underscores the sham and danger of temporary appointments because Mr. Idoko would not have been employed if there had been advertisement and competitive interview.
“It shows how qualified persons are deprived of positions and how the nation is being destroyed by filling positions with incompetent persons, thereby perpetuating a cycle of incompetence. It also shows how sycophancy and subservience has come to dominate the academia. Authorities prefer the temporary appointment mode because it enables them to fill positions with relations, friends and cronies or as favours, thereby ensuring the subservience of all without regard to merit or competence,” a senior academic in the department said.
An alleged impropriety involved in the appointment and promotion of Mrs. Taiwo Toyin Ambali, one of the wives of the UNILORIN VC, has triggered a seething controversy. The kernel of the dispute is the fact that she was employed as Lecturer I on a temporary appointment in 2015, and then promoted to Senior Lecturer a year later, which sparked protests among her colleagues who insisted that her appointment and promotion were in clear breach of regulations guiding academic appointments and promotions.
Born on July 10, 1958, Mrs. Ambali joined the services of UNILORIN in 2015. The VC’s wife obtained a Bachelor of Education degree in Adult Education from the University of Maiduguri in 1996, a Masters and a PhD also in Adult Education from the same university between 2003 and 2014. She was a lecturer in the Department of Continuing Education and Extension Services at UNIMAID before UNILORIN, where her husband is the VC, offered her appointment as Lecturer I and promoted her a year later. Her letter of appointment was dated July 30, 2015, with reference number UIL/SSE/PF/6237, putting her on step 7 of the CONUASS 04 in the Department of Adult and Primary Education. The letter conveying the good news of her promotion was dated September 30, 2016, with reference number UIL/SSE/PF/6237.
Unlike her appointment letter which was signed by the Registrar, Emmanuel Obafemi, Mrs. Ambali’s letter of promotion was signed by M.S. Adegoke, on behalf the Registrar.
“I am directed to convey approval of your promotion to the post of Senior Lecturer on CONUASS 05. Your new salary will be N3,101,505.00 per annum i.e. step 1 of CONUASS 05 with effect from October 1, 2016. I wish to congratulate you, on behalf of the University Council, and to urge you not to relent in giving your best in the service of the university,” the letter read. However, rather than congratulatory messages from colleagues, her promotion sparked an outrage among vocal academics, who cried blue murder that her appointment and promotion were anomalies that should not find expression in an academic environment.
Among other things, critics are miffed that her appointment was done without prior advertisement – contrary to rules governing academic appointments of that status. Besides, appointing a recent PhD holder as Lecturer I was also said to be overindulgence, an action that some lecturers said breached academic rules and procedure. According to regulations in UNILORIN, advertisement indicating a vacancy for the position should have been done before she was allowed to join the system. It is also clear in the rules that no academic staff can be promoted from one cadre to another until after three years of meritorious service. Even for academics that have stayed on the job for years and later obtained PhD, they are only awarded Lecturer II on attainment of the highest academic degree, prompting critics to query the rationale for promoting Mrs. Ambali, who has less than ten years’ experience as a lecturer. As if this was not enough, Mrs. Ambali was rewarded with promotion to Senior Lecturer – all within a year as Lecturer I in UNILORIN – when regulations governing academic promotions are explicit that promotion from one rank to another cannot be countenanced until after three years. And this can only come after due confirmation of appointment.
Interestingly, the local faction of ASUU has kept mum on the matter. It perhaps sees nothing wrong in the appointment and promotion of Mrs. Ambali. But the faction recognised by the parent body of ASUU would not allow such alleged infractions to go unchallenged. Although it controls the minority followership, the critical faction has been a pain in the neck of the university authorities, having lately written petitions to anti-graft agencies alleging colossal fraud in pension deductions, extortion of students, lack of transparency in contract awards, among other weighty allegations.
Led by Dr. Kayode Afolayan and Dr. Solomon Oyelekan, chairperson and secretary, respectively, ASUU railed against the “heinous acts of nepotism and favouritism”.
According to ASUU officials, what it means, in essence, is that Mrs. Ambali has been placed ahead of her superiors by nothing less than six years, thus further “bastardising the concept of merit and academic integrity.”
Because she now enjoys salaries that she would not have earned until about six years’ time, they claim the promotion has awarded the VC’s wife unmerited monetary benefits – at taxpayers’ expense – thereby adding to the economic adversity of the nation. In a letter addressed to the VC on February 6, ASUU spelt out the “illegality of Dr. Taiwo’s appointment and promotion.” Acknowledging that while the appointments and promotions committee (AP&C) headed by the VC is responsible for appointments and promotions, ASUU insisted that the committee must be seen to be doing so within the ambit of the law and regulations.
The union, therefore, demanded “immediate reversal of the illegal and nepotistic awards to Mrs. Ambali by the current administration headed by her husband,” maintaining that her appointment and subsequent promotion within a year cannot be morally, legally or administratively justified. Accusing the university authorities of bias and nepotism, ASUU maintained that Mrs. Ambali’s initial appointment should have been to the position of Lecturer II instead of Lecturer I, and that she was not in any way due for promotion until after three years of her previous appointment or promotion.
“It is also worthy of note that, while constantly violating and manipulating regulations to enhance the careers, economic status and social standing of its relations, friends and cronies, the same administration keeps violating and manipulating the same regulations by constantly shifting the goal posts to keep down other staff, thereby treating them as slaves. This is morally reprehensible,” ASUU said.
UNILORIN descended on ASUU officials. It slammed the duo of Dr. Afolayan and Dr. Oyelekan with queries on February 6, accusing them of “serious acts of misconduct” and “malicious allegations and publications”.
The query, with reference number UIL/SSE/PF/471, gave the union leaders 48 hours to explain why disciplinary action should not be meted out to them. Asserting that it has received a report, which has “disclosed a prima facie evidence of acts of misconduct” against the two lecturers, UNILORIN alleged that the duo circulated or caused to be circulated a leaflet “containing words and allegations that are considered to be bluntly disrespectful and insurbordinating to the office of the Vice Chancellor, which in effect has challenged the integrity and fairness of the university administration”.
The university went further to claim that, in the leaflet, the two union leaders “made some malicious statements and claims capable of inciting staff and students to protests, agitation and violence targeted at disrupting normal academic activities on the campus”. The leaflet was also said to have been “calculated to undermine the authority of the university, its peace and order”.
Although UNILORIN requested that the lecturers should respond to the query within 48 hours, a day after issuing the query, precisely on February 7, it suspended the duo. The bad news was conveyed in a letter with reference number UIL/SSE/PF/4471. It was signed by the Registrar.
The suspension letter reads: “The Vice Chancellor has directed, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 8.4.2 (d) (i) of the Conditions of Service for Senior Staff of the University of Ilorin, that you be suspended from duty from the date of this letter, pending the outcome of the investigation into your alleged acts of serious misconduct bordering on insubordination to the office of the Vice Chancellor, circulation of malicious statements and claims capable of inciting staff and students to protest, agitation and violence targeted at disrupting normal academic activities on the campus as earlier communicated in a letter of query issued to you dated 6th February, 2017.”
The letter concluded that “you are hereby suspended from duty. You are to hand over all the university property in your possession to your Head of Department forthwith. By a copy of this letter, the Bursar is being requested to place you on half pay pending the determination of your case. Please leave your residential address, email and phone number with your Head of Department for purpose of reaching you without hindrance should the need arise.”
Dubbing it a victimisation of its officials, Ibadan zone of ASUU (comprising universities in Oyo, Osun and Kwara states) flayed the action of the university “as an act of illegality and cowardice.” It added that the VC acted as a judge in his own case by querying and suspending the duo for merely raising allegations against him and his wife.
“This latest act of illegality and cowardice by the Vice Chancellor of University of Ilorin is a classic case of corruption fighting back when you fight corruption. The Vice Chancellor also showed extreme lack of decency or decorum by acting unilaterally as a judge in his own case (as the allegations are against him and the latest also involve his wife) without at least waiting for the intervention of the University Council. How do you suspend union officials for making allegations against you without first being absolved of the allegations which are before the relevant government agencies?
“After enjoying fifteen years of uninterrupted corrupt practices due to suppression of authentic union representation and critical voices, the university is now fighting tooth and nail to banish the new ASUU executive from its campus in order to continue its corrupt practices without challenge. By appointing his wife on ‘temporary appointment basis’ (while many PhD staff who had put in years of service in the university are still on Lecturer II even after PhD), and by promoting her after only one year (when all other staff have to wait for three years), Professor Ambali certainly breaks new grounds in corruption and indecency,” Dr. Ade Adejumo, zonal coordinator of ASUU, said in a statement.
The union warned that the “actions by the University of Ilorin pose a great danger to democracy, to decency, and to the anti-corruption efforts of the present government. How can the government proudly claim that it is encouraging citizens to ‘blow the whistle’ against corrupt officials while allowing its agencies to openly victimise whistleblowers? If university officials can be so openly corrupt under the glare of anti-corruption agencies, then what is the future of the fight against corruption? And how can democracy and justice thrive when a University, an institution that is supposed to nurture leaders and democrats, openly practise dictatorship and illegality while suppressing debate or dissent?”
The VC has, however, faulted ASUU’s stance, saying the promotion of his wife followed due process. At an interactive session with reporters, the VC provided clarifications on his wife’s promotion, saying it was not illegal. He explained that the promotion of any academic staff is the sole responsibility of the Appointments and Promotions Committee, stressing that Mrs. Ambali was duly promoted following legal procedures. “My wife commenced her career at the University of Maiduguri as a Lecturer II officer in 2006 and was promoted to Lecturer I in 2009. She later transferred her service to the University of llorin and was recently promoted to the rank of Senior Lecturer by the AP&C. This act was sequel to the approval of both the department and faculty management team.”
Prof. Ambali restated that the university is run on committee basis, which he said makes it impossible for anybody to “singlehandedly do anything without due process and approval of the committee concerned and such decision will also be carefully scrutinised before final approval is given”.
“The VC comes at end of the equation. When it comes to committee’s deliberation and it concerns those who are close to the VC, the VC usually steps aside during the deliberation so that people within the committee can feel free to deliberate on it. That is exactly what happened. She has almost 10 years of university teaching experience,” the VC said.
But Dr. Afolayan also fired back, picking holes in the explanations by the VC.
“If you look at the promotion letter, when she got to University of Ilorin, she was promoted to lecturer 1 on temporary basis. Even then, she ought to spend three years in the University of Ilorin before she can be promoted to Senior Lecturer. She was also promoted to Lecturer 1 on Level 7, which would mean that she had spent seven years as Lecturer 1, which is another wrong information. When the AP&C was to meet, her own (Mrs. Ambali’s) case was treated specially. The Vice-Chancellor had said he did not know about the promotion, how come he is now saying it is legal? He formed a special panel for his wife and promoted her to Senior Lecturer. The promotion ought to have come in 2018.
“Even if she were to be promoted on accelerated basis, there should have been a newspaper advert stating that there is vacancy in the position of Senior Lecturer in her department. But none was done. They promoted her on special recognition without following due process, which is totally wrong. The Vice- Chancellor cannot feign ignorance in the case and cannot defend it. You don’t transfer years of service from Maiduguri to Ilorin,” Dr. Afolayan said.

Fears of UNILORIN dons

A past ASUU leader in the school, Dr. Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju, believes there is a deep-seated displeasure about what is going on in the university. He added that most people who look as if they are cowed are merely afraid of reprisals.
“The system is filled with cronies of the current and past VCs, often incompetent persons through an abuse of the temporary appointment mode of appointment. The cronies running into hundreds consider themselves indebted to the current and past VCs and would always do their bidding whether legal or illegal. They constitute a severe limitation to the university, which is supposed to be built on a system of merit and excellence. The country cannot develop with this mode of populating the academia with incompetent hands. Apart from enthroning a cycle of incompetence, it also serves as a disincentive to otherwise competent and hardworking persons. This amounts to double jeopardy, but the country is the overall loser,” he cautioned.
Significantly, all the issues bordering on improprieties in the university – ranging from allegations of corruption, nepotism, favouritism and disregard for due process – were staunchly debunked by the VC. While fielding questions in an extensive interview with The Nation last September, Professor Ambali dismissed all the issues as mere figments of imagination of his traducers who do not see anything good in a school that has become a model in university management. When confronted with allegation on bonanza professorships, the VC lambasted those who flay the procedure, saying no process can be more transparent, competitive and merit-oriented than what obtains in UNILORIN.

One university, two ASUU

It is a long-drawn-out war of attrition, but none of the warring parties seems ready to eat the humble pie. Like two parallel lines that can hardly meet, UNILORIN leadership and the ASUU have been locked in a bloody faceoff for about two decades without any sign of respite in sight. The feud, which started during the tenure of Prof. Shuaib Oba Abdulraheem as VC, began then as a minor rift between ASUU and the university authorities over the need for the lecturers to shun the strike declared by the union of academic staff, has now snowballed into an intractable crisis that is fast consuming all the combatants. As at the time of turning in this report, nothing less than five court cases are pending before the National Industrial Court (NIC) as well as conventional courts, midwifing two opposing camps into existence.
But to keen observers of happenings in the nation’s academia, the rift between ASUU and UNILORIN dated back to over 15 years. The seed of what has become a pig-headed disagreement was to be planted in 2001, when Prof. Abdulraheem’s administration sacked 49 lecturers in one fell swoop for defying the university management, which forbade them from participating in a strike called by the national body of ASUU. Prof. Oloyede, a student and long-term ally of some members of ‘UNILORIN 49,’ chaired the panel that recommended the firing of the recalcitrant lecturers.
Before the UNILORIN chapter of ASUU became splintered into miserable factions, Dr. Oloruntoba-Oju, a die-in-the-wool iconoclast, led the union then. Generally soft-spoken but imbued with a mind like a steel trap, he is the last man standing, almost twenty years after. Prof. Amali, an even-tempered academic who succeeded Abdularaheem, enjoyed a relatively peaceful tenure; his coincided with the period the sacked intellectuals were jumping from one courtroom to another trying to wriggle out of the conundrum. By the time Prof. Oloyede succeeded Amali in 2007, hope of a quick resolution of the brewing crisis came alive, as stakeholders, including the national body of ASUU, expected him to right the wrongs of the past, being one of the dramatis personae.
He declined to accede to their demands, culminating in the eventual suspension of the local chapter of the union. It was alleged then that Oloyede’s administration deliberately instigated the suspension of the local chapter of the union for a purpose, which signaled the beginning of more serious court battles between the feuding combatants. All political solutions proffered to resolve the logjam failed woefully. However, after intense legal fireworks that literally sapped all the parties almost beyond redemption, ASUU floored UNILORIN in court in 2009. After nine-year legal battles that had disrupted the national academic calendar to no end, the Supreme Court declared the sack of the famous “UNILORIN 49” as illegal and ordered their immediate reinstatement.
Before then, the Court of Appeal had ruled against the striking dons on July 12, 2006. About a year earlier, a Federal High Court in Ilorin had also sided with the sacked lecturers, ordering their immediate reinstatement. The industrial row was sparked, when all lecturers who refused to sign an attendance register created by UNILORIN as a way of foiling the 2001 nationwide ASUU strike, were summarily relieved of their jobs. The union claimed that the lecturers’ sack was a gross violation of the 2001 agreement ASUU reached with the government, which stipulated among other things, that no member of the union would be victimised on account of the strike. At the time, UNILORIN insisted that the appointments of the affected staff were terminated for different reasons.
But, as it finally turned out, the Supreme Court ruling was a pyrrhic victory. After almost ten harrowing years of staying out of job, some of the promising lecturers had died. Some who could not bear the pain sought greener pastures beyond the shores of UNILORIN. Careers were also stagnated or brutally ruined. There was an urgent need for reconciliation and healing of wounds, but both parties chose to embark on ego trips. However, despite the ruling by the highest court in the land, it is still being alleged that some are yet to receive their full entitlements. As fate would have, Oloyede, who recommended the sack of the lecturers, was also the man in the saddle by the time the court resolved the dispute. But the union did not trust him, accusing his administration of not complying fully with the judgment. The union declared war on his administration.
That was how two factions of the same union emerged in UNILORIN: one faction, which is clearly in the majority, consists of more pliant minds; while the other comprises remnants of the confrontational wing which waged war with their employers. For obvious reasons, the former group, which is derisively tagged as “administration ASUU,” has enjoyed a chummy relationship with successive VCs, but it is deemed illegal because its parent body does not recognise it. It has also suffered heavy setbacks in the courts, which affirmed its illegality, though appeals are pending. With a clever use of carrot and stick, UNILORIN has helped the loyal ASUU to amass huge followership over the years, having had the likes of Professor Ayo Omotosho (2001-2003), Dr. Kola Joseph (2003-2006), Dr. Sa’ad Omoiya (2006-2009), Professor Wahab Egbewole (2009-2012), Dr. AbdulRasheed Adeoye (2013-2016) and Dr. Usman AbdulRaheem (2016-?) as chairmen.
It is however a different kettle of fish for the radical faction, now led by Dr. Afolayan. Its members, like lepers banished from the community in order not to infect other households, are not only being treated as outcasts on campus; they are also roundly shunned by successive administrations. As the crisis continues to develop twists and turns, visits to the campus in the last four years have shown that students of UNILORIN are the happier for it. Stable and rancor-free academic sessions have furnished parents and their wards with the much-needed tranquility of mind to plan – a cherished rarity in a country where public universities are recurrently enmeshed in unpredictability and strikes.
Arguments are also fiercely divided as to whether or not the institution is paying any price for having its house divided against itself, but there is a dearth of external supervisors, as required under academic stipulations, to moderate examinations and assessments in UNILORIN. Because of its refusal to recognise the local chapter of the union known to the national body, the university is sanctioned by the National Executive Council of ASUU, making it difficult for academics in many federal universities to serve as external examiners in the institution. But the faction loyal to the administration has often debunked this as the “greatest fallacy of the century,” maintaining that it is a mere “rumour” and a “lie put up to destroy” and discredit the university.
As The Nation found out, one man that is yet to be forgiven for his roles in the crisis is the immediate past VC. As far as ASUU is concerned, Prof. Oloyede remains blacklisted, being an “anti-union administrator with draconian propensities.” That was why his appointment as JAMB Registrar was greeted with wild protests last August. Among other things, ASUU was miffed that Oloyede, whom it considered as the most unsuitable man to head such a sensitive national body, was given such a plum job. When the appointment was made public, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU National President, urged the government to reverse the decision immediately and investigate “Oloyede’s tyrannical and nepotism tendencies” during his reign at UNILORIN. The union also vowed never to interact with a man who “took nepotism to unprecedented heights as vice chancellor of UNILORIN” or allow him into any public universities where it has members.
“Given our inside knowledge of his anti-democratic and anti-union antecedents, Professor Oloyede is the last person that we expected to be so honoured with a national appointment of that status in the education sector. His anti-workers stance stood out in the case of the sacked UNILORIN 49. He led the administration’s team to as far as Lagos to testify falsely against the workers before the Industrial Arbitration Panel,” Professor Ogunyemi added.
Expectedly, the local ASUU body loyal to the national union threw its weight behind its parent body’s decision over Oloyede’s appointment. Its Chairman, Dr Afolayan, said ASUU UNILORIN aligned itself wholly with the call that Oloyede’s appointment was a huge mistake by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
He said: “The branch is in agreement with the union’s publicised opposition to Oloyede’s appointment as JAMB Registrar and for the reasons stated. This is not the first time that allegations of fraud, nepotism and having anti-workers tendencies have been raised against Professor Oloyede from within the University of Ilorin itself. The allegations were raised even while he was VC, but they were always suppressed by the powers that be within the university.”
Not surprisingly, the “administration ASUU” hailed Oloyede’s appointment, saying he is the most worthy person to lead JAMB. It also descended on its parent body, calling it names. It said: “What ASUU National Executive Committee (NEC) is lamenting is its serial failure to foist unpopular leadership on the branch. Majority of our members had insisted and still insist that ASUU NEC will continue to fail woefully and sulk until it embraces the elementary democratic principles in the election of leadership. It is yet another evidence of the meddlesomeness of a union (leadership) that has lost track of the laid down objectives of its cherished founding fathers. Otherwise, what kind of reasoning will produce such an outburst over a well and widely acknowledged appointment?”
UNILORIN also defended Oloyede’s appointment, accusing the national ASUU of “bad belle” and purveyors of lies.
Kunle Akogun, Deputy Director, Corporate Affairs, said the university management was shocked that ASUU could be raising such allegations against the former VC.
“It is baffling that despite the national applause elicited by the recent appointment of Professor Ishaq Oloyede as JAMB Registrar, any group can still come out to oppose such highly commendable decision of President Muhammadu Buhari. Of all the appointments made so far by the Buhari administration, that of Professor Oloyede has been singled out as a veritable round peg in a round hole. It is in this regard that the management of the University of Ilorin views the allegations leveled by ASUU against the person of our former VC as not only spurious but also irritating, as it smacks of ‘bad belle.‘“
One thing is, however, clear: it will be far easier for the proverbial camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for the opposing parties to reach a truce. For example, Dr. Afolyan’s group firmly holds on to the belief that since the NIC had declared as “illegal the group of persons declaring themselves as ASUU,” there should be no need for controversies. It insisted that UNILORIN should just tread the path of legality and withdraw its support for the rival faction, since the “crisis persists because the management prefers a lame duck union comprising mostly stooges of the sitting Vice Chancellor to foist a feudal system on the university”.
But its rival faction enjoying the ears of the university management considers the other group as ingrates. It has also staunchly opposed the request for “payment of accumulated salaries” and the thorny issue of backdated promotions for the years members of dissident group were in the trenches. It also sees nothing wrong in the monthly check-off dues of all ASUU members deducted at source, but which are allegedly not remitted to the coffers of the national secretariat of the union. Flaunting its numerical advantage, it also boasts that members of the other faction are not on the ground in the university, adding that unionism connotes a group and not one-person affair.
Now with the choreographed birth of two chapters of ASUU firmly in place, analysts say it seems UNILORIN has murdered sleep, as the two factions and successive university administrations have continually been at daggers drawn – to the continued detriment of the university’s image. With feuding combatants perpetually trading accusations and counter-accusations, it is as palpable as cotton that all the actors have revved the engine on the road to mutual assured destruction. Who will resolve this seemingly intractable rift between “family members of the same destiny and profession,” as Akogun, the university’s ever-ready spokesman, often sarcastically dubs it?

In this second part of his series on the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Assistant Editor ADEKUNLE YUSUF reveals dirty details of an academic fraud covered up by the 42-year-old university 

From time immemorial, stealing and publication of another person’s work as one’s own original work – with or without consent – is often detested as the height of academic dishonesty. That explains why plagiarism, a form of intellectual theft that regularly attracts serious punishments from academic integrity committees, easily mutilates or ruins careers, especially in the academia where it is loathed as an anathema. But at UNILORIN, the exact opposite is what happened. It has elevated one of UNILORIN lecturers to the rank of Professor and Vice Chancellor, in spite of serious acts of plagiarism established against him by the Faculty of Social Sciences Investigative Committee, which probed the allegations against him.
The culprit in question is Dr. Abdullateef Usman, formerly of the Department of Economics in UNILORIN. An academic widely regarded as an administration crony during his days in the university, he is now the acting VC of Fountain University, Osogbo, capital of Osun State. The university is owned by Nasrul-Lahi-il-Fatih Society (NASFAT), a leading Islamic society in Nigeria. For a grievous offence, which some academics say should normally warrant a demotion or dismissal to boot, he was allowed to resign and go home to ‘sin no more.’ But if what Dr. Usman was alleged to have done was utterly disgraceful and reprehensible, the reprieve given to him by his “godfathers in UNILORIN” equally came at the most wrong time: after overwhelming evidence of acts of academic misconduct had been established by the investigative committee against him.
With the soft landing, Dr. Usman has effortlessly shrugged off a disgrace that would probably have mutilated his career in 2015, though critics are still livid that such a monumental scandal was “cavalierly swept under the carpet”.
Trouble started like a child’s play for Dr. Usman when he was caught by chance in the Department of Economics. That was during the short-listing of applicants for the ranks of Professor and Reader in 2015. A routine in the academia, the former Senior Lecturer merely submitted his list of publications for 2014, being part of preconditions for elevation to the next rank. But he had his luck run out, when Dr. G.T. Ijaiya, also of Economics Department, raised alarm that one of the works flaunted by his ambitious colleague was a plagiarised version of his own work, but which Dr. Usman published in his name only. Initially, it was assumed to be a minor oversight, but an Investigative Committee, which was constituted by the Faculty of Social Sciences to probe the allegation, was to unearth more cans of worms that stank to high heavens.
After more than three months, the Investigative Committee came up with its sweeping findings into one of the biggest intellectual scandals that almost successfully outfoxed public attention. The voluminous report, which was submitted to the Registrar on June 25, 2015, thoroughly indicted Dr. Usman as a serial plagiarist whose entire academic career and achievements were soaked in intellectual dishonesty. The culprit should be disrobed of all previous academic honours and promotions the system had mistakenly endued him with, the report recommended. According to the minutes of the Faculty Appointment and Promotion Review Panel, which consisted of all professors of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty Officer, Dr. Usman was also slammed for “refusing to answer a query given to him in respect of his various suspected acts of misconduct” and “issuing ultimatum to the Faculty Appointment and Promotion Review Panel to withdraw a letter of advice written to him in the course of investigating his suspected acts of academic misconduct and using language unbecoming of a person in his circumstance”.
The minutes of the Faculty Appointment and Promotion Review Panel said rather than toe the path of honour and defend his own integrity, Dr. Usman “walked out” angrily on the Faculty in 2015. But, The Nation tried hard and succeeded in getting him to defend his name last month. Although he did not answer calls to his two mobile phones, he eventually replied one of the text messages sent to the two lines, which intimated him that questions had been emailed to him. However, by the time he responded to the email, Dr. Usman merely wrote tersely that “I shall get back to you after discussing with my lawyer.”
The VC of Fountain University was indeed faithful to his word. He said he was not indicted for plagiarism, adding that he left UNILORIN for better career advancements.
Usman said: “I was not indicted for plagiarism or indeed any other offence at the University of Ilorin. I have an unblemished record in that university. The University of Ilorin is there to furnish you with the names of their officers that were indicted. Please cross-check with the authority. I retired voluntarily from the University of Ilorin because I got a better opportunity elsewhere. I was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ilorin and another university appointed me a Professor. So, I left for a greener pasture. Any other person in my shoes would have done the same. As you can see, I am better off than I was in University of Ilorin.”
He, however, resorted to subtle blackmail and threat, warning that “I suggest caution against possible libel. Please let me appeal that you do not allow your most reputable newspaper to be used as a platform for libelous action.”
But, unknown to Dr. Usman, The Nation was on top of the story since the day he was caught till the buried scandal became public knowledge both in the Department of Economics and Faculty of Social Sciences, which quickly constituted an Investigative Panel to unravel the truth. It soon became the talk of the whole campus. That was early 2015, as many lecturers openly lampooned and derided not Dr. Usman but authorities of UNILORIN for “aiding and abetting the worst crime in the academia because it involved an administration crony”.
The Faculty Appointment and Promotion Review Panel, which also took Dr. Usman to the cleaners for an “attitude unbecoming of a lecturer of his status,” indeed went ahead to process the findings of the Investigative Committee. It said it was not bothered by the culprit’s attitude. While the report was being processed, a letter (with reference number UIL/FSS/01) was sent to the Registrar on April 10, 2015, which was an update on the earlier ones written to the university when Dr. Usman was caught and, later when an Investigative Panel was constituted.
The letter reads: “I write to inform you on the case of Dr. Usman of the Department of Economics. I have received the report of the Faculty Investigative Committee on the allegation of plagiarism against Dr. Usman of the Department of Economics and I regret to inform you that the report established and confirmed Dr. Usman’s involvement in widespread plagiarism.”
After the Faculty Appointment and Promotion Review Panel had concluded its work, a letter accompanying the findings of the Investigative Committee, was forwarded to the university. It was signed by Professor Ayodele Jimoh, Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences. When The Nation met Prof. Jimoh in 2015, he confirmed the plagiarism scandal and acknowledged that investigations were indeed carried out and recommendations were properly forwarded to the university. But in spite of ceaselessly prodding to literally squeeze water out of stone, the Dean bluntly refused to provide more details.
“I am just the Dean of this Faculty; I am not the Vice Chancellor,” he quipped with a tone of finality.
In 2016, The Nation also returned to Professor Jimoh to persuade him to talk on updates on the scandal. Asked why Dr. Usman was allowed to escape without facing the consequences of his actions as the law envisages, especially after widespread plagiarism had been proved against him, the Dean also firmly held his ground just as he did in the previous meeting.
“I don’t speak for the university. I am neither the Registrar nor the Vice Chancellor,” he retorted in his usual assertive tone.
A member of the Investigative Committee, however, attributed it to the “reign of impunity in UNILORIN,” which shielded the culprit from punishment.
Curiously, UNILORIN allowed Dr. Usman to resign, instead of meting out the appropriate punishment after receiving the report of Investigative Committee. He turned in his resignation letter on June 25, 2015 – coincidentally on the same day the university received the findings of the Investigative Committee which probed all allegations against the former Senior Lecturer. While the letter accompanying the submission of Investigative Committee report was with reference number UIL/FSS/01, Dr. Usman’s application for withdrawal of service, which was addressed to the VC, was with reference number UIL/PSF/SS/2372 – all on June 25, 2015.
“I humbly wish to apply for withdrawal of my services from the university. The notice is given to take effect from 29th June 2015 to 29th September 2015, bearing in mind the mandatory three months’ notice as contained in the university’s conditions of service for senior staff. I am by this application thanking the university for the platform given to me to develop, grow and to serve the university in this capacity for 23 years. Thanks for your usual cooperation,” Dr. Usman wrote in his resignation letter. Interestingly, not even a word about his running ordeals or reasons for wanting to disengage from a beloved university that has “given me the platform to develop, grow and to serve” for over two decades. He was just 52 at the time, obviously unripe for retirement, since a new law pegs retirement age for academics at 70.
And on December 30, 2015, the university responded to Dr. Usman’s resignation letter, via a letter with reference number UIL/SSE/PF/2372. Like Dr. Usman’s letter, which evidently glossed over the crisis threatening to hold him by the jugulars, UNILORIN was also conspicuously silent on the monumental plagiarism scandal seeking to erupt under its feet like an angry volcanic magma. Surprisingly, it also completely feigned ignorance of the festering scam, let alone address the findings of the Investigative Committee already in its custody.
The reply, written by the the Registrar, reads: “I am pleased to inform you that approval has been granted for the acceptance of your withdrawal of service with effect from September 29, 2015. Liaise with your PFA (pension fund administrator) and register with the National Pension Commission for your entitlements, based on your service of 29 years, 5 months and 3 days in public service. I thank you for the exemplary service you rendered to this institution during the tenure of your appointment and wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours.”

The committee’s findings

Although Dr. Usman’s iniquities were swept under the carpet, the voluminous report that contained the findings of the Faculty of Social Science Investigative Committee revealed that his was a career dripping with academic fraud. First, the Investigative Committee concluded that “Dr. Usman plagiarised the work of Dr. G.T. Ijaiya of Economics Department and the extent of plagiarism is put at about 97.8 per cent and that plagiarism is a fashion to Dr. Usman.”
Unfortunately, it was the same offending work that led to more discoveries of academic thefts, forcing those wanting to plead on behalf the former Senior Lecturer to quickly lose their voice.
Perhaps having tasted the forbidden fruit without ever being caught, the report said Dr. Usman took his escapade to a higher level – going internationally. A careful perusal of number 17 on Dr. Usman’s 2014 list of publications showed that he plagiarised the work of Judith A. Giles and Clara L. Williams, who are both professors at the University of Victoria, Canada. The report established that Dr. Usman’s “Trade Policy Strategies and Employment Growth in Nigeria: Some Econometric Results,” published in Crescent Journal of Business in 2010, contained several word-for-word paragraphs from Judith A. Giles and Clara L. Williams’ “Export-led Growth: A Survey of the Empirical Literature and Some Non-causality Results Part I,” published in Econometrics Working Paper EWP0001″ (ISSN 1485-6441) in 2000(http://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/economics/assets/docs/econometrics/ewp0001.pdf). The plagiarised portions can be found on pages 197-198 and 211-213.
Another offending publication was number 24 in Dr. Usman list of publications – “The Impact of Bank Regulations in Nigeria: ‘A Macro Econometric Simulations’,” published in Social Sciences Research Network in 2012. A careful reading also revealed that it contained a number of word-for-word paragraphs copied directly from Donsyah Yudistra’s “The Impact of Capital Requirements in Indonesia.” It was published in 2003, available online at http://econwpa.repec.org/eps/fin/papers/0212/0212002.pdf. A further trace of Yudistra revealed that the academic is of the Department of Economics at Loughborough University, Leicestershire, United Kingdom. According to the findings of the Investigative Committee, the extent of plagiarism was put at about 41.6 per cent.
But if Dr. Usman’s conduct in the works cited above was bad, it was even worse in another publication that became controversial in his list of publications for 2012. The offensive publication in question is titled, “External Reserve Holdings in Nigeria: Implications for Investment, Inflation and Exchange Rate,” jointly published by Usman and W. Ibrahim in the Journal of Economics and International Finance, 2012. It plagiarised two academic works, namely “Foreign Exchange Reserves Accumulation: Implication for the Nigerian Economy,” published in 2007 by Magnus O.A., and “Reserves Accumulation in African Countries: Sources, Motivations and Effects,” also published in 2007 in Economics Department Working Paper Series (Paper 24) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, by Adam Elhiraika and Leonce Ndikumana.
Other categories of serious acts of plagiarism against Dr. Usman included another publication he co-authored in 2012 with W. Ibrahim. Published in the Social Sciences Research Network, “The Impact of Bank Regulation in Nigeria: A Macro Econometric Simulations” was said to be a “carbon copy” of W. Ibrahim and T. S. Ajagbe’s “The Impact of Bank Regulation in Nigeria: A Macro-Econometric Simulation,” published in the Entrepreneurial Journal of Management Sciences in 2012. The Investigative Committee estimated the “extent of plagiarism at about 87.3 per cent”.
That is not all. In another offending publication, Dr. Usman authored in 2012, the Investigative Committee also put the “extent of plagiarism at about 95.3 per cent”. First, it was discovered that the article, “External Reserve Holdings in Nigeria: Implications for Investment and Exchange Rate,” published in the Bi-annual Journal of Institute of Management Studies, is the same entry with two other works by different authors. The works are, “External Reserve Holdings in Nigeria: Implications for Investment, Inflation and Exchange Rate, published in the Journal of Economics and International Finance in 2010, and “Investigating the Relationship between External Reserve Holdings and Selected Macroeconomic Indicator in Nigeria,” published in the Babcock Journal of Management and Social Sciences in 2012.
Lastly, another scam was also dug open when a Letter of Acceptance for a publication submitted by Dr. Usman was found to be a fake document. While his Letter of Acceptance bore the name of International Scientific Press and an unknown/untraceable address, the Investigative Committee findings concluded that the official address associated with Science Press Limited (www.sciencepress.com), is Suite 1359, Kemp House, 152-160, City Road London ECIV 2NX, United Kingdom. However, in spite of a deluge of acts of plagiarism established by the Investigative Committee in 2015, the powers that be in UNILORIN looked the other way to save one of their own.

Loud murmurs greet
‘bonanza’ professorships

Given the prestige it confers on recipients, award of professorial rank is always jealously guarded, making its attainment impossible outside the rubric of due process. According to rules and regulations governing academic affairs in public universities, professorship cannot be awarded without being rigorously processed through the Department, Faculty, A&PC, External Assessors and Council – in that order. Unfortunately, this rigorous process is being easily circumvented in UNILORIN with impunity, as there are mounting complaints from senior professors who claim that regulations are being deliberately bent to favour cronies.
One academic that is the regular butt of derisive jokes among some of his colleagues in UNILORIN is Dr. Abdulrafi Omotosho of the Department of Islamic Law. Although nobody seems to be calling his erudition to question, his colleagues are unhappy that he attained professorial cadre in 2014 allegedly “through the back door,” or as one Dean puts it, without being “processed through the Department, Faculty, A&PC and External Assessors at all.” According to the Dean, who witnessed the event in 2014, not a few professors in attendance were aghast when the “VC announced Dr. Omotosho as a Professor during a Senate session without following the due process”.
Going by regulations governing academic promotions of that nature, it is compulsory for a would-be reader or professor to respond to an advertisement for such vacancies, following which applications are treated and assessed by the Appointments and Promotions Review Panel in the Faculty. Academic traditions further have it that applicants whose submissions receive a positive grade are subsequently invited for an interview by a panel to be set up by the VC, following which the report on deserving ones will be sent to the A&PC and External Assessors. Unfortunately, Professor Omotosho, who transferred his services from the University of Jos, was said not to have undergone any of the mandatory stages of evaluations en-route his professorial rank in UNILORIN.
According to three senior professors, including a Dean, who were at the floor of the Senate the day Dr. Omotosho was announced as a professor, it was simply said that he had participated in a professorial assessment six years ago at the University of Jos (UNIJOS). In separate interviews last year, they all spoke with The Nation on off-record basis to escape reprisals. They disclosed that the VC merely announced at the Senate that because the report of assessment Dr. Omotosho undertook in UNIJOS six years ago had come, UNILORIN was bound by it – clearly against all regulations guiding the only route to professorial cadre at the time. Yet, as findings later revealed, professorial assessments had taken place at UNILORIN, which the academic did not bother to participate in since he joined the university.
Dr. Omotosho came to UNILORIN from UNIJOS as a lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies – not from Faculty of Law. Findings showed that because his initial degree in Islamic Law from Islamic University of Medina, Saudi Arabia, was said not to be recognised by the Nigerian Legal Council and the Law School, he was in the Department of Religions in UNIJOS. He joined UNIJOS in August 1985, spending twenty years without becoming a professor before he left the university in 2008. However, he was appointed in UNILORIN as Associate Professor in the Department of Islamic Law in December 2008, though it is not clear whether he had remedied the seeming deficiency in his initial degree to enable him function in a Faculty of Law.
Writing as a worthy alumnus in the recent edition of the Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (IMES) newsletter at the University of Edinburgh, where he received his PhD in 1984, Dr. Omotosho traced the trajectory of his career and how he reluctantly accepted lecturing job at UNIJOS in August 1985.
“The university (UNIJOS) persuaded me to come and I visited their campus in August 1985, where the interview was conducted and the appointment letter was issued to me the same day. I took up the appointment reluctantly with the hope that I would move to the South within five years. I ended staying for about 24 years. I rose from the rank of Lecturer II at the time of appointment to Professor in 2008,” Dr. Omotosho proudly shared his post-graduation history with his alma mater.
His claim that he left his former employers as a professor in 2008 was however found to be contrary to records at UNIJOS, where reports had it that he quit as a result of frustration arising from years of delay in elevating him to professorial rank. Findings further laid it bare that several months before Dr. Omotosho was asked to join professors’ seat at UNILORIN, he had been elevated to the rank of professor in Department of Religious Studies at UNIJOS. That was in February 2014 – six good years after his departure to UNILORIN. According to a statement issued on Friday February 21, 2014, by Steve Otowo, UNIJOS Deputy Registrar (Information and Publications), Dr. Omotosho (Religious Studies Department) was among the 16 academics that were promoted to the rank of professors and 15 others to the rank of readers. And it was not indicated that the awards were backdated for any of the beneficiaries.
That is why some professors are livid that his promotion in UNILORIN as Professor of Law was on the basis of his promotion in UNIJOS as Professor of Religious Studies. Critics pooh-poohed the university administration for “bastardising the system.” One of them lamented in frustration, saying “such cases are now rampant in our campus, especially in Law and Veterinary Medicine.”
The Dean said: “I have never seen a situation where we use an assessment of another university here. The mere fact that he (Dr. Omotosho) had disengaged there even made it more worrisome. There are other ones, but Omotosho’s case was too glaring because everybody saw it. Even if they had made him to pass through some semblance of assessment, it would have been better. A professor from Federal University in Oye Ekiti came here and we did not find him appointable. If any professor here wants to go to the University of Ibadan, he does not automatically become a professor there.”
This, however, did not dissuade admirers of the former Director of the Centre for International Education (CIE) and UNILORIN Archives and Documentation Centre (UADC) from organising a thanksgiving in his honour on Saturday December 27, 2014. At the prayer-filled event, which held at Dam Site, the Chief Imam of UNILORIN, Professor Abdulganiyu Oladosu, said Dr. Omotosho’s elevation was in accordance with the will of Allah and therefore enjoined Muslims to always uphold the tenets of Islam.
But Dr. Omotosho is not the only academic whose professorship is tainted by alleged lack of adherence to the exacting rigours of due process. Going by loud murmurs in UNILORIN, Professor Kolawole Raheem Salman is also said to be having thick palls of doubts on his professorial rank due to the way he was awarded, which reportedly fell outside the rubric of due process. He was appointed as a Professor from the Nigerian Law School (NLS).
And because the NLS is not run like a conventional university and does not have the same career structure as a university, some academics are at a loss wondering how he could have come from being a lecturer in NLS to become a Professor of Law in UNILORIN.
Similar allegations of bending the rules and changing the goalpost in the middle of the game also cloud the academic honours bestowed on a few others in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, especially those who were allegedly promoted to professorial cadre under the administration of the sitting VC without following the rules.
His critics said “because the VC is the Chairman of the Appointments and Promotions Committee and has the last say, he is known to have overridden the better judgements of Deans at the AP&C meetings.” They cited the case of his brother, Prof. Ambali also at the Vet Medicine. “Because the VC is also the Chairman of Senate, a lot of power is concentrated in him, which should be exercised with decency and sense of responsibility. But once an occupier of the position is a bigot, a nepotist or a thief, then the system will be in total ruins.”
But Professor Ambali defended the promotions, adding the due process was strictly followed in all appointments and promotions done in the university.
“The VC does not give anybody professorship. If people know how a professor is made, they will appreciate that no single individual can influence somebody becoming a professor. What happened is that we inherited some delays in some people. When the vacancies were created because of the new programmes that we introduced, we split some departments and faculties and that gave room for people to grow. But where you have about five thousand people, somebody will have to be crazy, and the university is made up of people with weird ideas,” the VC said.

Culture of impunity

A thorough review of the payroll of UNILORIN also revealed a system that is excessively cluttered with massive wastages and bogus allowances. Apart from millions being squandered frequently on Duty Tour Allowances (DTA), depletions are also regularly manifested in illegal practices such as “ghost allowances,” which are being paid to staffers of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, who are taking their own equivalent of “call allowance” without rendering any call duty service. Against extant regulations, this same naira rain (call allowance) is equally extended to non-consultant lecturers and professors at the College of Health Sciences, otherwise known as medical lecturers without postgraduate fellowship.
Although regulatory provisions say clearly that a possession of fellowship is a sine qua non for the appointment of anyone as a consultant or clinical lecturer, altercations arising from the issue of relativity of postgraduate fellowships in medicine and dentistry vis-à-vis PhD were recently resolved in favour of holders of the latter at UNILORIN. Yet, the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards handed out for medicine and dentistry by the NUC, which says “any clinician that has only a PhD as his only postgraduate attainment is not appointable as a consultant and cannot have patients under his care,” is not unknown to the university.
That is not all. The school’s payroll also showed that administrative units, such as registry and bursary are heavily overstaffed compared to other public universities of its size and age; filled with all sorts of people, including relatives of people at the helms of affairs, leading to redundancies. Although the powers that be are not unaware of this, they seem to be playing the ostrich by trudging along the path of financial recklessness at the detriment of the nation. But one sad fallout of overstaffing is that it has impelled a burden of over-bloated wage bill, a reckless development that is putting so serious a strain on the purse of a university that regularly borrows from the cooperative societies’ fund to offset payment balance, thus incurring the wrath of staff members who depend on the cooperative for last resort lifeline.
While many recent products of the university who finished with top grades are busy roaming the streets around the country in search of elusive jobs, UNILORIN is regularly bending its rules, sometimes turning merit on its head, in a bid to accommodate the interests of ‘loyal’ staff members who want their wards to “join the system.” For example, by the time no fewer than twelve persons were employed in the library section last year, it dashed the hopes of those who had been working in the library for years as contract staff. Despite the fact that the disappointed worker had garnered valuable experience working in the university library, the school did not waste any time in dispensing with them, replacing them with the sons, daughters and relatives of big names in the university.
That is why some concerned lecturers are raising alarm that the system is being wantonly littered with the likes of a boy who finished with a third class in the university and has now ended up as a permanent hand in UNILORIN FM under the Corporate Affairs section. And his attitude on the job seems to have justified the fears of critics. Since he joined the system as a result of parental influence some years ago, the young man, a happy-go-lucky son of a well-known professor in the school, continually plays truancy on his duty post but no one dare query him in order not to incur the fury of a powerful professor.
Although even the university’s most virulent critics admit that it is no crime to employ deserving children of members of staff, their grouse is that the practice has become another instrument of dispensing “political largesse,” if not a tool for feeding patronage and entrenching cronyism by any sitting VC. Now, since it is no longer seen as an anomaly in UNILORIN to have an entire household – comprising father, mother and children – on the payroll of the university, almost all ‘loyal’ academic and non-academic workers whose sons or daughters are not old enough to take up paid employment are literally racing against time to replace themselves with their children as retirement clock ticks.
Many lecturers also begrudge the university authorities over the fact that benefits and opportunities that are statutorily meant to be allotted through a transparent and competitive process are dispensed on the basis of “whom you know.” According some lecturers, one of such initiatives being routinely abused is the TETFUND grant for staff development. Scores of academics who spoke with The Nation admitted that the only thing that is done without discrimination in the university is staff development award, but they all said the process of awarding TETFUND is “neither fair nor transparent”.
A professor in the Faculty of Arts said: “I have never seen anybody who got TETFUND in this university without knowing the powers that be either directly or indirectly. You must know somebody that knows somebody before you can access it.”