OAU: May this mosquito not locate the king’s buttocks, By Chukwunonso E.C.C. Ejike

Nigeria must re-examine whether or not she wants to have universities… What we now have, and run, are not universities in the real sense of the word. Twenty first century universities cannot be run with 19th century mindsets. Universities are ivory towers, not clay towers. The creation of ethnoversities (with the micro sense of the word ‘ethnic’ in mind) is an evil wind that blows no one any good. Nigeria must kill this mosquito that is biting the slave, otherwise it would soon locate the buttocks of the king.

On Monday, March 21, a video of some individuals reported to be Ile-Ife indigenes, protesting the appointment of Professor Adebayo Simeon Bamire as the 12th vice-chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife surfaced. The protesters were said to be armed with charms and fetish objects and to be “determined to forcefully install an Ile Ife indigene as the next vice-chancellor” of the university. Note that Professor Bamire is from Osun State, but not from the community where OAU is located – Ile-Ife. Consequently, in the mind of the protesters, he is not qualified to be the vice-chancellor of OAU. Earlier, the said concerned Ile-Ife indigenes had locked up two of the university’s gates and beaten up both staff and students. Sadly, this has happened (albeit with variations in form and intensity) in many other universities across the length and breadth of Nigeria, in recent times. It is worrisome and calls to question how much of the university is left in our universities.

Ethnic and religious bigotry colour our daily national life. No doubt. It even appears that we have normalised the unmerited premium we place on, “where is he from?” and “how does she worship God?” in our political decision making. Truly, it is a mark of naïveté to engage the Nigerian public (irrespective of their education) on matters of resource allocation, simply on the basis of merit. No way. Our herd instinct is deep; very deep. Indeed one often hears that retrogressive cliché: It is better that my brother takes (steals) the chicken, so that even if he does not give me some of the meat, I will perceive the aroma from his kitchen. It is this bad. Sad!

At about the age of ten, my family was separated because my mother was a “non-indigene” of a State in which my parents had laboured to educate primary school children for many years. My mother was forced to return to “our State”. What I found painful was that many of our hitherto friends, who ate my mother’s food, supported that injustice and called us “ndị ụgbọ”, which loosely translates as “those who came in a vehicle”. We woke up each morning to the question, “haven’t you left?”, asked by these ‘friends’ of ours. Those were difficult times. As an adult, I saw a friend’s family suffer like mine had suffered earlier, simply because my friend’s wife, who was working in her State of origin as a civil servant, got married to a man from a neighbouring State and was therefore asked to go to her husband’s State for employment.

As a young academic, I attended a union meeting once and a respected professor reminded those of us who were not indigenes of the State where the federal university was located, to be thankful to them for allowing us come into the university daily without molestation. His contention was that only a ‘peace-loving’ group such as ‘his people’ would tolerate two successive ‘non-indigene’ vice-chancellors. Really?

A few years ago, we were required to pray for a diocese of the Catholic Church, were even ordained indigenous Reverend Fathers mobilised Catholics and non-Catholics alike, to “force out” a Bishop whose crime was that, though he is Igbo, he is not an indigene of the diocese. In some Pentecostal churches, we see that only people of the same ethnic group as that of the General Overseer become pastors of prosperous parishes. Worrisome as these may sound, we appear to have normalised this, and our universities, where thinkers should abound and where the interrogation of these anomalies should begin, are now the nests for the breeding, and eventual propagation (even if indirectly), of these retrogressive sentiments.

As a young academic, I attended a union meeting once and a respected professor reminded those of us who were not indigenes of the State where the federal university was located, to be thankful to them for allowing us come into the university daily without molestation. His contention was that only a ‘peace-loving’ group such as ‘his people’ would tolerate two successive ‘non-indigene’ vice-chancellors. Really? What I found very disturbing was neither the professor’s noxious utterance nor the fact that I thought such a statement was beneath a man who, despite parental challenges, worked hard to be elevated to such a revered seat, but the fact that his co-travellers, many of them ‘respected professors’ too, cheered him on. Indeed, upon resumption as an Assistant Lecturer in the said university, the Head of Department took me round the Department and introduced me to the staff. Once we got into one professor’s office, he asked me that painful question, with a stern look on his face: Where are you from? Immediately I answered his question, he flared up, eyes blaring, tongue flashing, and lips bubbling, and blurted, “why should they employ you when this is not your State?” This was in spite of the fact that I was appointed following an open competitive process; and I neither knew nor met anyone in the university prior to the interview. It was a painful reception for a young man in his mid-twenties who just got his dream job!

I joined the services of a different federal university a couple of years down the line. I imagined a breadth of fresh air would be soothing. I needed it. I saw an opportunity to contribute to building a world class university and I took it. We were lucky, we had an energetic and visionary vice-chancellor who arrived shortly after I joined the university. So, we toiled and laboured with “our sights on enlightened horizons”, hoping to “take our place among the stars” of the higher education skies. Towards the end of the vice-chancellor’s term of office, all sorts of publications began to appear, in the conventional and not-so-conventional media, insisting that a son-of-the-soil must succeed him. The authors of the publications went as far as literally bullying everyone they imagined had any influence on the selection process. Some of the publications were even signed by professors. I thought it was a shame.

Eventually, a son-of-the-soil was appointed vice-chancellor by the Council. We exhaled. Shortly after this son-of-the-soil assumed duty, another son-of-the-soil, a professor, in the university wrote an article wherein he congratulated the new vice-chancellor and thanked God for liberating the indigenes of the State from “internal colonisers”. I cringed not just when I read the article, but more (a few months later) when this man appeared to be rewarded for his bilious opinions.

Eventually, a son-of-the-soil was appointed vice-chancellor by the Council. We exhaled. Shortly after this son-of-the-soil assumed duty, another son-of-the-soil, a professor, in the university wrote an article wherein he congratulated the new vice-chancellor and thanked God for liberating the indigenes of the State from “internal colonisers”. I cringed not just when I read the article, but more (a few months later) when this man appeared to be rewarded for his bilious opinions. A few days later when the new vice-chancellor held a thanksgiving celebration at an events centre in town, I made my way into one of the tents (as a professor and member of the Council that appointed the vice-chancellor) and a son-of-the-soil staff of the university stopped me by the entrance and asked, “who are you?” I got the message, smiled, and walked two inches taller than my height, past him, but to a seat at the back of the large tent. Lessons.

Nigeria must re-examine whether or not she wants to have universities. We may have certain liberties, but we do not have the liberty to define what a university is. What we now have, and run, are not universities in the real sense of the word. Twenty first century universities cannot be run with 19th century mindsets. Universities are ivory towers, not clay towers. The creation of ethnoversities (with the micro sense of the word ‘ethnic’ in mind) is an evil wind that blows no one any good. Nigeria must kill this mosquito that is biting the slave, otherwise it would soon locate the buttocks of the king.

Chukwunonso E.C.C. Ejike is a professor of Medical Biochemistry and Dean, School of Postgraduate Studies, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria.