For several decades, the ivory towers remained sane environments, but all that appeared changed with the introduction of vice chancellors and other lecturers into Nigeria’s political process.
One major issue that dominated discourse in the immediate past year is the corrupting influence of the political class on the nation’s university ecosystem.
Until 2015, the Nigerian university system was very innocent. Lecturers were only mindful of their academic calling. They put all they had into the lecturing activities, doing research and helping their students to achieve academic excellence. They were contented with living in their quarters within their campuses. They were, to a reasonable extent, insulated from the corruption in society perpetrated by politicians. They were also contented with the old model vehicles they drove around the campuses. They were not so bothered about the too much money and the opulent lifestyle of the political class.This innocent disposition disappeared following the appointment of Attahiru Jega in 2010 by then President Goodluck Jonathan as the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Jega, a professor and former vice chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, replaced Maurice Iwu, who was sacked two months earlier.
Following his appointment, Jega felt that co-opting vice chancellors of the nation’s universities into the electoral process could add value to the system.
“We were looking for people with integrity, and we have no doubt that there are many people with integrity in the Nigerian university system.
“So, it is like a ready-made constituency to get the kind of people we need for the job to be done. That is not to say that only in the universities can you find people of integrity,” he said.
He further said, “We know that anybody who has risen in the system to become a vice-chancellor will not, for anything, damage his or her reputation by pandering to the wishes of politicians,” he had explained at a dinner organised in his honour by the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, held in Abuja in June 2015.
But in the estimation of many Nigerians, what seemed to be a great move has over the years become an albatross as the members of the academia involved in the election processes may have yielded to the corruptive influence of the political class.
Since Jega tried the experiment in the 2015 general election, vice chancellors and other members of the academia have continued to feature in the nation’s general and off-cycle elections. And the idea, experiment, and result have turned out worse than Charles Dickens ‘Great Expectations.’
Whereas vice-chancellors play their role as returning officers at the federal and state levels, lecturers and other academics function at elections at the local government.
What has emerged over the years is the allegation of maleficence against these returning officers described as people of integrity by Jega.
Unlike in the days when the vice chancellors and lecturers did not bother about the model of cars they drove, they now compare themselves and try to compete with the political class. In their quest to level up with the lifestyle of politicians, they are now under pressure to manipulate results to favour those who have made promises to them.
Although the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured convictions against one or two of such individuals, there are several others who have fouled the air and are still in the system and have continued to perpetrate electoral fraud.
Recall that in 2021, a High Court sitting in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, convicted and sentenced to 36 months imprisonment for election fraud, a returning officer, Prof. Peter Ogban.
Ogban of the Department of Soil Science, University of Uyo, acted as the Collation/Returning Officer in the 2019 National Assembly elections. He was accused of manipulating and falsifying the scores of election results in the Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo Local Government Areas.
In January 2022, a fresh trial of Ignatius Uduak, a lecturer at the University of Uyo, began at the Akwa Ibom State High Court 9 sitting in Uyo, the state capital.
Read also: Here are Nigeria’s 20 affordable private universities in 2025
Uduak was facing a three-count charge bordering on publishing and announcing false electoral results.
The case was filed by the INEC against Professor Uduak, who was engaged by the Commission as a Collation/Returning Officer for the Essien Udim State Constituency on March 9, 2019, for the governorship and House of Assembly elections.
Up till now, the charges filed against the professor have suffered repeated adjournments. In the course of the trial, the judge in charge of the case was reportedly replaced by a new trial judge.
Uduak was alleged to have made efforts to rig the 2019 Akwa Ibom North-west Senatorial District election.
Observers believe that the appetite of the vice chancellors and lecturers for easy money may have been so sharpened that they have become slaves to “electoral fraud for instant gratification.”
Election after election, there are indications that these returning officers have not weaned themselves of bad behaviours. These are evident in the avalanche of mutilated result sheets in their efforts to allegedly manipulate figures.
Today, unlike before, the vice chancellors and lecturers, who are now among those referred to as ‘politically exposed persons,’ are driving sleek cars around their campuses.
Having tasted the “goodness” of easy money or unexplained wealth, some of them have also taken that political spirit to their campuses. The nation’s ivory towers have now become badly politicised.
A professor of many years with a first-rated university in Nigeria, who recently spoke with BusinessDay on condition of anonymity, lamented that the university environment has been taken over by politicians who dictate what goes on in there.
“In those days, the university environment used to be a sacred place. Politicians did not have any influence. Decisions were all taken by members of the community through the Senate. But today, the system has been hijacked by politicians, who determine who becomes what in the system. Today, ‘you must belong’ before you amount to anything in the system, no matter how bright or resourceful you are. Money rules the system now. For instance, if you are doing well in a particular program and your colleagues have any cause to think there is money there, the next minute you are gone. This is hindering the growth and development of our universities these days,” the professor said.
Phantom projects and kickbacks by VCs
Before the sharpened appetite for easy money, fraudulent activities in the nation’s universities were rare, but today, some vice chancellors have become very manipulative, looking for every avenue to make money for themselves.
Recall that in 2021, the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Garki, Abuja, presided over by Justice Maryam Hassan Aliyu, had found Professor Magaji Garba, former Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Gusau, guilty of a five-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretence and forgery and sentenced him to a 35-year jail term.
Garba was arraigned by the EFCC on October 12, 2021, for allegedly extorting various sums of money from a contractor on the pretext of awarding him a N3 billion contract for the perimeter wall fencing of the University.
The offence is contrary to section 1 (1) (a) and punishable under section 1 (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.
Read also: Obaseki, UNIBEN mourn Grace Alele-Williams, Nigeria’s first female Vice Chancellor
Count two of the charge reads: “That you, Professor Magaji Garba, whilst being the Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Gusau on or about the 15th of May 2019 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, with intent to defraud obtained the sum of N100,000,000 from Alhaji Shehu Umar Sambo, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Ministaco Nigeria Limited, a contractor executing the construction of the Grand Convocation Square of the Federal University, Gusau under the false pretense of awarding a project for the perimeter wall fencing of the University valued at the total sum of N3 billion, which representation/pretense you knew to be false.”
Count three reads: “That you, Professor Magji Garba, whilst being the Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Gusau on or about the 1st August, 2019 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja with intent to defraud obtained the sum of N150,000,000 from Alhaji Shehu Umar Sambo, Managing Director/Chief Executive officer of Ministaco Nigeria Limited, a contract executing the construction of the Grand Convocation Square at the Federal University, Gusau under the false presence of awarding a project for the perimeter wall fencing of the University valued at the total sum of N3,000,000,000, which representation/pretense you knew to be false.”
War over appointment of Vice Chancellors
The appointment of vice chancellors, which used to be a seamless exercise conducted by the Senate of the universities, has suddenly become a political warfare.
Politicians are now trying to have their way; imposing their candidates on the universities.
The recent brouhaha over the appointment of VC at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, readily comes to mind.
The ongoing standoff at the University of Abuja is also a result of meddlesomeness by outside influence.
The vice chancellorship position has become so lucrative and influential that people now go to any length to seek it. Today, the position guarantees access to a ceaseless flow of cash, endless fraternisation with politicians, and freebies for certain undisclosed favours.
In all of these, it is Nigeria that bears the brunt as the desired quality of teaching and learning expected from the ivory towers for the overall development of the country has been sacrificed on the altar of mammon.
Worst hit by this sad development are the Nigerian students whose future makes little or no meaning to the politicians now masquerading as university administrators.
It is, indeed, a hopeless present and a bleak future for the ivory towers in Nigeria.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
