By Justina Nwankwo
Whatever the intentions of the SSANU leadership in FUOYE are is not clear. What is clear, however, is that the management of FUOYE under the Vice-Chancellorship of Mr Fasina runs the university as a shining model of sustainable growth, professionalism and academic excellence, which is the hallmark of the President Bola Tinubu policy direction in public education.
Last week, precisely on Thursday, 10 April some faceless Coalition of civil society organisations made certain wholesale false allegations against the management of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti.
These are allegations that purportedly support the agitation of some individuals within the internal workings of FUOYE to discredit the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Abayomi Fasina, with a sinister intention to remove him from office.
First, the faceless group claimed,“the University is bleeding financially, morally and structurally.”
Nothing can be farther from the truth than this false assertion. FUOYE was established in 2011, alongside eight other federal universities. Today, it has more students, more academic programmes and more faculties than the others. It is number four on the list of most subscribed universities in Nigeria, as rated by JAMB. Candidates who applied for admission into FUOYE in the 2024/25 session were 55,000. The University has had an uninterrupted academic calendar since the incumbent Vice Chancellor assumed duty in 2021. No academic session was lost since 2020, despite the COVID-19 lockdown and a series of industrial actions. This is because the institution deplored robust learning management systems and an efficient ICT architecture, which has ensured the uninterrupted continuity of teaching and learning in critical times.
FUOYE does not owe salary of staff. It does not owe contractors or any financial institution. It has no abandoned projects. The University has been meeting its financial obligations within the resources available to it. Under the administration of Professor Fasina, seven roads were constructed or asphalted, including a ring road leading from Phase II to Phase III of the campus. The administration did a five-kilometre perimeter fencing of its Oye-Ekiti campus to curtail land encroachment, which was a menace prior to 2021.
The Vice Chancellor has delivered, in four years, 156 projects, including a 1000-capacity Main Auditorium, Faculty of Law building, Faculty of Education building, Professorial building, Students Union building, Innovation Hub Centre, Conference Centre, and more. Many of these facilities are duplicated in the two campuses (Oye and Ikole Ekiti). The university, not being connected to the national grid, runs on solar energy supported by generator plants, which service staff and students.
The university that detractors describe as bleeding, started a College of Medicine two years ago and the students are approaching the third year, with approval from both regulatory authorities (National Universities Commission, NUC, and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN).
On academic depth, FUOYE researchers have improved tremendously since 2021 that Professor Fasina took over as vice chancellor. Under his administration, it became mandatory for staff to publish articles in Journals indexed in Scopus, Web of Science (WOS), IBSS and others; a practice that benchmarks the promotion of academic staff members of the university.
The number of authors affiliated to FUOYE whose works are indexed in the Scopus database increased from 261 in 2020 to 294 in 2021; 463 in 2022; 650 in 2023; and 769 in 2024. This is no doubt a legendary improvement. The university has improved tremendously in ranking by international bodies. FUOYE was ranked as 32 in Nigeria in 2020, 25 in 2021, 23 in 2022, 17 in 2023, with the ranking for 2024 in view.
The university was ranked fifth most subscribed institution by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board in 2021 but it improved to becoming the fourth most subscribed in 2024.
The AD scientific index declared FUOYE number 19 among public universities in Nigeria and number 27 among all institutions in the country. FUOYE is the only university among the 2011 peers, which SciVal ranked within the best 20 universities.
FUOYE pooled in 2024 a total of 1,219 scholarly outputs, 4,186 citations with 754 authors in 2020-2023 as recorded on Scival database.
Time Higher Education rated only 21 universities in Nigeria in 2024, with FUOYE being one of the 26 Nigerian Universities in Africa showcasing efforts in advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
In interdisciplinary Science ranking, the international body (THE) rated FUOYE number seven nationally and in the 601+ band globally, reflecting leadership in addressing complex societal challenges through cross disciplinary research.
In sub-Sahara Africa ranking, Times Higher Education rated FUOYE number 10 in Nigeria and 38 regionally, highlighting excellence in teaching, financial sustainability, equity and regional impact. With these numbers, which are easily verifiable, independent objective observers will never agree with the judgment of the spurious coalition that FUOYE is bleeding structurally, morally or financially. It is nothing but the figment of the writers’ imagination.
Secondly, the group said that there is a depletion of reserve of the university from N4.3 billion to N100 million.
It is a crass display of illiteracy and gross ignorance for the writer to talk of depletion of university reserve. What is reserve in a public institution? Is FUOYE a Federal Government that has foreign reserve? If the intention of the coalition was to shed light on the income and expenditure, FUOYE is not performing badly, from what is publicly available. Like other public universities, inadequate funding continues to be an issue in the administration of FUOYE.
However, a university is neither a commercial organisation nor is it a profit-generating institution. The figure of N4.3 billion vis a vis N100 million being touted are unrealistic numbers which are nothing but funny constructions from a mischievous mind. They should consult the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to determine the correct numbers.
Their third claim is that the Vice Chancellor is accused of awarding a N200 million contract to each Council member, and a N3 billion project to the chairman of the Council. This is ridiculous to say the least. Anyone who is familiar with the Procurement Act will know that the ministerial tender board awards any contract above N100 million in any MDA, while contracts of N1 billion and above have to be awarded by the Federal Executive Council. How then could Mr Abayomi Fasina as vice chancellor have awarded a N3 billion contract to the chairman of Council? Besides, majority of the projects in the university are TETFUND contracts, which are subject to rigorous scrutiny and standardisation by law enforcement agencies. In any case, no contract was awarded to any member of Council and no contract was awarded to the chairman of Council, according to findings. The records of contracts administration are available in TETFUND, Ministry of Education and in the FEC for diligent observers to peruse.
The fourth claim is that the Vice Chancellor is running the university like his personal business empire, causing contract inflation, favouritism and reckless foreign trips.
FUOYE, it will be observed, is running effectively using the age long tradition of the committee system. A careful study of the administration of the school will reveal that statutory committees hold their meetings as scheduled, while the Senate meets once a month and it has never been shifted since 2021 under the headship of Mr Fasina.
Contrary to the wordings of the article by the coalition, the Vice Chancellor presides over highly regular meetings of principal officers who constitute management of the institution. The Pro-Chancellor presides over Council, which holds once in a quarter.
Talking about favouritism, who is favoured and who is disfavoured? In 2022, the university approved new promotion criteria, which makes publications in outlets that are indexed in SCOPUS, Web of Science, IBSS etc as a major benchmark for promotion. It was a policy that put lazy academics at a disadvantage, but one that has improved the ranking of FUOYE tremendously.
Any university of sound state of health cannot avoid foreign travels. Many scholars are abroad under the Academic Staff Training and Development Academics, pursuing PhD and MSc programmes. Apart from this, staff members have to collaborate and partner with colleagues and agencies abroad to get exposed. As a result, many individuals do travel for stints in foreign countries. At the moment, a number of scholars are on Fellowships or sabbatical leaves overseas.
The Pro-Chancellor believes that rather than going for an El dorado sort of training in Europe or America, there is a whole lot for the managers of FUOYE to learn in some African countries such as Bostwana, South Africa and Rwanda. This explains why the Governing Council approved a five-day Study Visit by members of Council and Management to University of Kigali to see how things are working in an African space. The opportunity enabled the university to open discussion on the need for one or two partnership engagements. It was neither reckless nor wasteful. It was as a result of reaching out to the world that FUOYE recently was awarded a cutting edge Connected Autonomous Space Environment Sensor (CASES) from Virginia Tech. The equipment is valued at US$15,000. The equipment is a revolutionary tool for space weather monitoring.
Their final claim is that some cronies of the Vice Chancellor were made professors without meeting the minimum criteria and that friends of the Vice Chancellors who were not staff were awarded professorial ranks.
The writer mentioned Professor Tajudeen Opoola as one of the so-called cronies of Mr Fasina who was made Professor without meeting the criteria for promotion. This assertion is a falsehood and a smear campaign. Opoola obtained a PhD in Linguistics in 1999 (26 years ago). The Linguistics programme had no quality staff at the beginning and there was the need to attract quality academics into the department. Mr Opoola became a Chief Lecturer in 2007 in a College of Education and served as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics in FUOYE from the inception of the programme. He applied for the post of a Reader in 2017 (ten years after he had been a Chief Lecturer). The position of a Chief Lecturer in a College of Education is rated to be equivalent to that of a Senior Lecturer, subject to the quality and quantity of publication. He was offered the Post of Senior Lecturer, pending the assessment of his publications by internal and external assessors. He was appointed a Reader in September 2017 after a positive external assessment. Three years, one month after that, i.e. 1st October, 2020, he was promoted to a professor of Linguistics. The appointment and promotion of Mr Opoola went through department, Faculty, Appointment and Promotion Committee and Council. Mr Fasina was not a vice chancellor in 2020. How could the professorship of Opoola be attributed to abuse of office or cronyism by Mr Fasina who became vice chancellor a year after Opoola had become a Professor? Such reasoning is, to say the least, ridiculous.
Mr Opoola has over 40 publications, 20 of which are indexed in Scopus, MLA and IBSS. His Google citation is 53.
The coalition went over drive in making unsubstantiated claims about how the issue of the allegation of sexual harassment against the Vice Chancellor was rested. First, an anonymous petition sent to the Inspector General of Police way back in 2023 made the allegation of sexual harassment. The Police invited the alleged victim, Mrs Folasade Adebayo and the Vice Chancellor. Early in 2024, the Police gave a report that there was no evidence of sexual harassment. The second time the matter of sexual harassment came up was when the SSANU Chairman and Secretary in FUOYE made the allegation against the Vice Chancellor in their publication of 25 November, 2024, which went viral on the internet. This was five days after Senator Ndoma-Egba was appointed as chairman of Council of the institution. SSANU did not investigate the complaints nor give the Vice Chancellor fair hearing. It mischievously wrote two different reports of its Congress of 25th November, 2024.
In the official edition sent to the Management, the issue of sexual harassment was not included. The union wrote another edition in which sexual harassment was the subject matter, and it was sent to the press and the Minister of Education. One fundamental mistake of the SSANU-FUOYE leadership was its failure to communicate to the chairman of Council before writing to the Minister and before spreading news of an un-investigated allegation to the press. The other issue, which is a big one, is the fact that SSANU’s primary aim appears to be political. From day one, the argument has been that the Vice Chancellor should be removed. It is clear that its sponsors do not like the peace and progress in FUOYE. They want a way, however illegitimate, to cause a break down of law and order in the University; and thereby scuttle the trajectory of development in the institution. The evidence SSANU had is an audio recording, which has no scintilla of evidence of harassment or sexual misconduct. The acclaimed victim told the Police and put it in writing that she was not harassed. Besides, she denied ever writing a petition to the Police or knowing anything about it. Prior to the placement of the SSANU petitioners on suspension by Council and commencement of investigation, Mrs Adebayo did not report formally to the Authorities of the institution that she was being harassed sexually by the Vice Chancellor.
The evidence of harassment that SSANU was flaunting was the claim that she was removed as acting director of works, and that she was issued queries. The third was that the Vice Chancellor walked her out of a meeting. Mrs Adebayo was not removed. As at today, FUOYE has four Deputy Directors in Works, Maintenance and Physical Planning. Engr Adebayo is the third in order of seniority. Two of the individuals have been Deputy Directors more than five years before her. All of them have acted as Ag Director at one point or the order. The regulation about the acting position is that you hold it for six months, subject to renewal once, except the individual becomes substantive.
Mrs Adebayo acted for two tours of six months each and she was given a third tour. She was on the third six-month tour when, on 4 September, 2023, a female 200-Level Nursing student got killed by some miscreants working on a construction site on campus. An investigative panel set up on the matter indicted the Works Department for not clearing pockets of bushes around the campus. The panel also blamed the Security department of lapses. It was in reaction to this that queries were issued a couple of times to many people, including Mrs Adebayo. It was in one of the strategic Management meetings held to manage the situation that the Vice Chancellor walked her out of a meeting because she was becoming argumentative, when everyone was in agony, not knowing how to manage the parents of the deceased student. The Vice Chancellor waited for the third tour of Mrs Adebayo’s tenure as acting director to end, a few months after the death of the student, before appointing another of the Deputy Directors to act. Incidentally, the new Ag Director was the one who handed over to Adebayo earlier. The Chief Security Officer who was indicted alongside Mrs Adebayo quietly resigned his appointment.
On SSANU discrediting the resolutions of Council on the issue of sexual harassment, no one with insider’s information could not be surprised. From the word go, SSANU objected to the membership of the Committee. They wanted to draw membership from the moon to investigate the allegation. The Council Chairman made a woman the Chairman of the panel; include all other women on Council as members and added representatives of the alumni, Senate etc. An angel will do no more. It is a committee of Council. SSANU, a trade union of workers, wants to determine how the employer (the Governing Council) handles its complaints. SSANU wanted to be the accuser and the judge. It wanted to petition and decide the truth of its petition, all by itself. It went as far as discrediting the Report of the Police. Now, it wants the Minister to decide. It wants the National Assembly, EFFC, ICPC etc., to decide. The question is: Will it believe the report of these organs if the outcome does not go its way?
Whatever the intentions of the SSANU leadership in FUOYE are is not clear. What is clear, however, is that the management of FUOYE under the Vice-Chancellorship of Mr Fasina runs the university as a shining model of sustainable growth, professionalism and academic excellence, which is the hallmark of the President Bola Tinubu policy direction in public education.
●Justina Nwankwo is a public policy analyst and post graduate student of Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
