The title of this piece is not fresh. It is owed to that famous writer, Chukwuemeka Ike who, among other books authored the piece titled: The Naked gods. Because human activities tend to move in circles, the issues raised in his book continue to recur in our polity. What are these issues? In the book, Chukwuemeka Ike focused on the power-play in a Nigerian university, with foreign powers and nationals stoking the fire as usual. Since Oscar Wilde has intoned that the present is the past entered through another gate, it looks as if in contemporary times, the gods are still naked. And if I may be allowed to state, very much so in contemporary Nigeria. Indeed if Chukwuemeka Ike, was still alive, chances are that he would have written a sequel to his earlier classic.
From Ibadan, through Jos to Lagos State University (LASU), the ivory tower is embroiled in various forms of succession battles. One of these battles is so disgusting that one is forced to pause and ask: are these universities in the classical sense of what a university should mean? We may as well remind ourselves here that a university ought to be like a city set on a hill shedding light on its surroundings in terms of comportment and the generation of ideas for the enhancement of society. Indeed, such an institution should be sufficiently alive to give light and direction to the rest of society. As things stand, such idealism has become jaded. So jaded that one does not really know who is leading whom? Is the town leading the gown or vice versa? As I write this, the famous and premier university, the University of Ibadan comes to mind. The battle for the position of Vice-Chancellor took a very nasty and demeaning turn. This was when, all of a sudden, some groups emerged to demand that a son of the soil, to be precise, an Ibadan man, should be given preferment as regards who should be the next Vice-Chancellor of the institution.
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One of these battles is so disgusting that one is forced to pause and ask: are these universities in the classical sense of what a university should mean?
Horrors of horrors! Just what is Nigeria turning into? Then the press war started in earnest as regards how, since the years of its existence, an Ibadan man had never been allowed to be Vice-Chancellor. Personally, I feel diminished. Though I am not an alumnus of that institution, I hold the university in very high regard. It is not just a national institution, but a global one. For this global profile is really one of the major attributes of a university where sub-national merchants should not have any say. Alas, however, the contrary situation obtains. And as such matters tend to go; the various unions decided to step in and in the process, wielding their own peculiar brands of detergent.
At a point in time, when a Council session was on, to determine who would lead the university, the unions besieged the place and virtually flushed out the members. Meanwhile, other brickbats started flying and brigandage of various forms was to be seen. Therefore, it was time for the State to step in. And it did, through the National Universities Commission by putting a stop to all Council meetings. Mercifully, the life of the council has undergone a natural expiration and a new council is currently in place. The new Council is headed by that old political warhorse of the ruling party, Chief Odigie Oyegun. Clearly, Oyegun and his colleagues have their work cut out for them. And I am sure that wherever he is now, the new Chairman will be busy with other members of the council seeking and trying to pick up the pieces. Whichever way, it is a new low for our dear country Nigeria.
Such indeed is our capacity to pander to base instincts that we do not really know where or when to stop. Certain things in an institution of that calibre should ideally be off-limits and not subjected to gutter-politicking. But there it is; it has happened, or better still, it is happening. The training ground for eminent Nigerians such as Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Iya Abubakar, and Ken Saro Wiwa has been turned into just another jousting arena for sub-national merchants. Clearly, the situation is so dismal that, one can only intone ominously by quoting another famous writer, Alan Paton who wrote: Cry the Beloved Country. Part of my own agony also lies in the fact that the current situation is in essence a diminution of that exalted body – the University of Ibadan. It is so exalted that someone has quipped that: if you did not attend UI, chances are that you were taught by someone who attended that famous University. So when a national institution is allowed to descend to such a level, how about the other schools that are not as hallowed as our famous UI. Again, we may wish to fall back on another classic phrase here: when gold rusts, what will iron do. In other words, when a prima Donna like our famous University of Ibadan is allowed to go down the slippery path of infamy, what do you expect from the lesser schools?
And this is where we may as well give some attention to a much younger institution, the Lagos State University; LASU. This particular institution has in recent times, surprised everybody by its exponential leap into national and global reckoning. This feat was achieved largely through the efforts of its immediate past vice-chancellor, Professor Lanre Fagbohun and his team. The university was named the second-best university in Nigeria. Holy Moses! Something good is coming out of Nigeria after all. But before one could say, Jack, a fly was found in the ointment as the war for the next Vice-Chancellor started. And till date, just as in the University of Ibadan which lacks a substantive Head after the exit of Professor Olayinka, a substantive successor is also yet to be named after Professor Lanre Fagbohun. In other words, the gridlock continues in LASU too.
Prof. Soremekun, immediate past Vice-Chancellor of Federal University Oye-Ekiti, is the editorial board chairman of BusinessDay
