The way we are going, it is likely that soon we will require Prof. Florence Obi to give the public an explanation why she asked lecturers to teach the students or why under her watch students are required to write exams and labourers cut grass on campus. Because since she became Vice Chancellor, her every act and pronouncement has generated feisty commentary by both those who are affected and those who are not.
I am wondering if that was the case during the tenures of past vice chancellors of the university: professors Emmanuel Ayankanmi Ayandele, Isa Mohammed, Isa Baba Mohammed, Kelvin Etta, Ivara Esu, Asuquo, James Epoke, Zana Akpagu etc, including of course those who ran the institution into the ground. Were there vocational commentators poised in readiness to attack every policy decision of the university or every action of the vice chancellor during their tenures?
When I enrolled into the University of Calabar in 1984, there were about 45 students in my class and about 38 of us graduated in 1988, the rest had been WITHDRAWN. You can ask Dr. Julius Okputu or Rt. Honourable Agaji, who joined in some of the courses we studied, or the current DVC Administration, Prof. Eno Nta, who was a young lecturer in the ELS department back then. Withdrawing students from a higher institution is a tradition that has always been there and will always be there many eons after Professor Florence Obi would have ran her race.
By the way, every student’s academic record can be diligently recalled for re-examination if they disagree with the verdict of the university in their individual cases, to have them withdrawn. The Senate of the university can also be petitioned, even the courts can be approached depending on how strongly the student feel about their withdrawal. The university is a closed but democratic institution, with its laid down instruments for checks and balances.
The general public can be emotive and irrational, especially at this ontoward time, but we cannot egregiiusly engage in telling lies to defend our friends or crucify those who are not our friends. Professor Florence Obi was in politics many years before she became vice chancellor, even rising to the position of the state commissioner for women affairs, so was her son, Hillary, who was already in the state House of Assembly before his mother became vice chancellor. The tail does not wag the dog, it is naturally the other way round.
Those who wanted to fuel emotive sentiments and mislead the reading public rearranged the original document from the university and made the name of a certain politician number one in their doctored list just so that they can achieve their sinister motives, but the truth remains the truth regardless, because we are all equal in our common humanity and before the law. The withdrawal of students from institutions of higher learning should make no news because it is not news.
May you and your family remain unsuccessful if the success of another person or family keeps you awake at night. I hear that Kogi state polytechnic also withdrew over 300 students last week, did the son of the Rector lobby to be speaker of Kogi state House of Assembly too? No doubt the social media is understandably an angry community right now and every passion of a misguided few is thrown into the air like confetti or a feather pillow bust asunder in a gail, whether the sentiment being escalated is true or false.
But the social media must remain a beautiful place for meeting new friends and sharing ideas, we cannot turn it into a platform for political vendetta, squaring up of relational frustrations or dispersion of blatant unthtruths. Those who truly believe that they didn’t deserve to be withdrawn from the university of Calabar know what to do to redeem their situation and can also approach the courts as an alternative. Let us encourage Professor Florence Obi and her team to continue to try to return our dear UNICAL from the cesspool of academic corruption it had become to the citadel of learning that it used to be, and ought to be.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kidzu is a proud alumnus of the University of Calabar)
