UNN Vice Chancellorship: The domestication of an international university
By Jim Isilebo
Since inception over 65 years ago,the University of Nigeria has remained a national university, with an international outlook in both staffing and student population.
The Vice Chancellor position has thus been occupied by foreigners and people from both northern and southern regions of the country.
However,over the last 30 years,the position has drifted to people from only the south eastern states,and particularly skewed mostly to indigenes of Abia,Anambra,and Enugu states extractions.
Most recently, Enugu state has mounted campaigns to permanently retain the position of the Vice Chancellor,and even gone further with the ludicrous arguments to rotate the posts within local governments making up Enugu state.The agitation initially championed by Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo ( a former governor), was to ensure that an Nsukka indigenous professor is foisted on the University.The failure of this obviously disingenuous agitation on national television did not deter the campaign which has now been bought over by the present governor and redesigned to favour the constituent Senatorial zones.
The domestication of the leadership of this University with the enviable status and standing known for it since inception, may have a correlation to recent decline in both national and international ratings,as it's no longer within the league of 10 best universities in Nigeria.
As at now, almost every leadership position in its hierarchy is presently occupied by people from Enugu state,and this obviously does not convey any good perception amongst the committee of elite citadels of learning in the country.
For instance,of the 15-member council governing the University, the Acting VC, DVC, Registrar, as well as 4 other members are all from Enugu, whilst the rest are persons from Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi and Ekiti states.
In fact, there is no member either elected or nominated that is from Imo State particularly. It is also worthy of note that both Imo and Ebonyi states have been marginalized in the VC position of UNN since inception. However, Ebonyi currently has a DVC and an elected member in the council.
Consequently,any attempt, premeditated or otherwise, to domesticate a once national educational pride to a local university,should be resisted by the federal government,lest it will be disaligned from the vision of it's initial conceptualizations of the founders alongside its peers from other parts of the country.
It is very pertinent to point out that a situation where the Ag VC, DVC, Registrar, Bursar and Librarian of the University come from one State (Enugu) completely negates the Federal Character Policy of the Federal government.
The Visitor of this federal university still remains the President and we implore him to use his good office to resist the attempt by the Governor of the state in cohort with other past Governors to foist a VC based on sentiments. A national university like UNN should enjoy robust engagement in selecting leadership to drive desired educational realignment of present federal government.
Chief Jim Isilebo,a Strategy/Communication Consultant,writes from Abuja.
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