Evil spirits disrupt university academic calendar

IN his one-year stint as acting vice-chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Professor Anthony Adebolu Elujoba has chalked up new experiences he never had, despite his long sojourn at OAU – first as a student and later as a teacher. Getting to the pinnacle as VC was never his will or wish, to quote ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, but it was divinely-inspired. As he leaves in a couple of weeks, he goes a fulfilled man. He has come, he has seen; and he has conquered. I am sure he will say “God did it.” For many, Elujoba’s greatest achievement is seeing through the appointment of a substantive vice-chancellor in a transparent manner that has been widely hailed by the OAU community. Going by the shenanigans that these days attend the appointment of VCs, this, no doubt, is no mean achievement. Of greater significance, however, is that Elujoba came, cast in the mould of those great VCs of old, whose tribe has become not only endangered but also extinct – the likes of the Ade Ajayis, Ojetunji Aboyades, Oritsajolomi-Thomas, Tekena Tamunos, to mention but a few. These were men of honour, integrity, and candour who carried themselves with dignity and respect. Those were the days when vice-chancellors were vice-chancellors; not hustlers and rustlers, businessmen and politrikcians. In his brief moment as VC, Elujoba brought back that era to the Ivory Tower. For me, therefore, that is his greatest legacy.

It is easy to see that Elujoba’s backbone is God. It is also reassuring to note that in this wise, the out-going VC is comfortable with VC-elect Prof. Eyitope Ogungbenro Ogunbodede, when he said: “I thank God that the person that is coming, the person that God has chosen, is also a believer in God and in the power of God. I have met him since he came on board as the VC-elect and I saw it clearly that he was God-given to this university”. Then, we can echo William Shakespeare: ‘Let the music play on’ as we conclude Elujoba’s many ‘fires’ and admonitions which, I believe, will be beneficial to his successor: “About electricity, the panel that we have here was the first panel ever and it gives problems regularly; not to talk of the natural problem we have from the supplier of electricity; sometimes it also breaks down. The major problem inlet, which I have also tried to highlight to Prof. Ogunbodede, is the amount of money we pay for electricity. Incidentally, certainly it is an advantage, we have a large expanse of land that we cover; the students’ hostels also, they don’t pay any special money for electricity and they consume a lot, not only by leaving their bulbs on 24 hours but also by cooking in the room. Almost every student has a hot plate and we don’t really know what to do. It is not just that; it is also dangerous for them because you get to their rooms and you have to bend down and electric cable will be over your head and several students will be tapping electricity from a single point. There is hardly anything the former VCs have not done but I have put it down in my handing over note and have made a number of suggestions that may help. So water and electricity are the major problems and when I took over, I wrote a lengthy epistle to the Minister that we needed so, so much to be able to remove some of those problems. Up till now, no kobo came.

“The third challenge is unrest by the Unions. You will remember the history that brought me here; it started with the issue of pension demand, pension double deduction illegally, 15% salary increment, two steps salary differential. It is always a slogan. Occasionally, they will just come and say they have held congress and wanted solution to some problems. I would call them to roundtable; we would discuss and I would show everything to them and ask them ‘Where is it?’ The first one that put us into the trouble of EFCC was when they wanted to kill the Bursar. They said, ‘No, Bursar had that money but she didn’t want to reveal it to the new acting Vice-chancellor, and that she was hiding things from me’ and we were locked up in Floor O. I got out, I appealed to them; they didn’t listen. They were going to lynch the woman and I said ‘Upon my dead body’. Before I took over, when there was crisis, the crisis was at its peak, nobody died. So why should I be brought in to bring peace and somebody dies? So I said ‘No; upon my dead body’; I would do whatever it takes to prevent this woman from being killed. So I had to sign what I shouldn’t have signed; I signed what I shouldn’t have signed to save lives but after that one, I used it as reference to say, ‘you see, the one that I thought was safe, it wasn’t safe. Do you want to send me to EFCC the second time?’ Any time we were doing round table interaction, once I mentioned that, they would come low. And you will remember that very recently, they even locked up the whole Governing Council. So that is a major challenge. The last one that we had was terrible – against this Council, which I have always told them that as far as I am concerned, by my long experience here, has been the best Council, potentially, and I am sure that it is God-sent. When you hear a few things they have proposed in Governing Councils, you will know that this is the best Council for this university and that they should not discourage it; but there are always bad eggs amongst people in any organisation; they caused that trouble, we had to bring in the police to save all of us on that day.  So the new administration that is coming will probably not have much of that challenge – the challenge of the Unions. I am sure that many of them by now have had a re-think about their action, that it was excessive.

“The other one is on the side of the students; luckily we never had any successful riot from the students; there was no successful unrest but it was not that there were no agitations. There were agitations but we would bring them together, we would resolve; we would run around; they would see us running around and trying to do something, and that is the most important thing. When they see you are not seated when they have problems; when they see you running around, the problem of agitations always comes down.   I want to give an example of the one we had recently when there was neither water nor light. For that of electricity, we wanted to pay money but TSA would not allow network and PHCN just cut us off. Throughout the campus we didn’t have electricity for about three or four days and this was really terrible. And when we don’t have light, there can be no pumping of water; so there would not be water. But again God did it. We cried unto the local supplier of light and they allowed light to come and we paid the money later. Right now, the average money we pay per month is about N50milion. The one that created the last problem was N61million, the highest ever. And like I said before, it was because of cooking in the students’ hostels with hot plates. Hot plates consume a lot. So, if we take these challenges one after the other, I will zero in more on municipal facilities because there is really no money to remove them right now.

“The second-in-command would be the present Union agitation because the issues are still there unresolved. Council is doing something to set up a committee to begin to look at it. Part of the task forces that I set up at that time also looked at the issues and the reports are there before Council; they have passed through Senate.  And I am sure Council will find time to look at them gradually to resolve them. My prayer is that the union members will be patient enough to let Council resolve all of these gradually. Rome was not built in a day. Unfortunately, it is the opposite with unions; they want things to happen immediately. And things are not like that; the money is not there to do everything on an emergency”.

Elujoba would want to be remembered for two things in particular. “One: That God brought me in to launch a campaign that we should do things right; and secondly is that by the grace of God, I came into this position carrying along the cap of evangelisation. On a number of times, I have used situations to win souls for Christ. A number of times I have gone into the hostels telling students to work and pray. The last appearance that I had with the current set of orientation student; I told them categorically that if they want to succeed here, two things are important: Do things right at all time; and work and pray. Also, that the years of ‘aluta’; the years of crisis-image of OAU should be gone and gone forever; and finally, that they should raise up the hand of prayer. They should not allow themselves not to pray; they must pray because there are evil spirits even on this campus that have been creating problems of calendar instability. There are some spirits behind it and I gave them examples”.

Told he had helped stabilise the calendar, Elujoba interjected: “God did it! I have all hopes that when the new VC comes on board, that will be maintained. I don’t see us remaining in irregular calendar within the next two or three sessions. And I am absolutely in trust of God that no crisis will happen that will make the university to shut its door against the students any more. That is the major thing that extends sessions and destabilises calendar – if staff don’t riot; if staff don’t go on strike; that is another one”. And so help us, God!