‘I cherish the privilege of working with Oba Erediauwa, Ciroma’

Other Statutory Officers of the University

When I assumed office on 1 December 1991, His Royal Highness, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Erediauwa, Oba of Benin, was the chancellor of the university, while Alhaji Liman Ciroma was the pro-chancellor and chairman of the Council. They were seasoned and highly-experienced administrators. Before ascending the throne of his forebears, the chancellor had served meritoriously in the federal civil service, where he rose to the position of permanent secretary. I first met him when, as permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, he was chairman of the board of the University College Hospital, Ibadan. Alhaji Ciroma too had a distinguished career in the federal service, where he not only rose to the position of permanent secretary, but also served as secretary to the federal government.

I first met him in 1990, when I took my seat with the university Council. I cherish the honour and privilege of working with these two great leaders. They were kind, wise, very understanding and supportive. I learnt a lot from them and enjoyed a close rapport with them. I had the privilege of visiting the chancellor in Benin during and after his tenure and was graciously received. I also visited Alhaji Ciroma at his home in Kaduna, where I was warmly received by his family. A highlight of my last year in office was the conferment of an honorary degree on Alhaji Ciroma and the first honorary fellowship on Professor Adetokunbo Lucas. Professor Iya Abubakar became the first alumnus to be appointed pro-chancellor and chairman of the Council in 1994. He brought into the assignment, his experience as the former vice-chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University. It was a pleasure for me to attend the wedding of his daughter at his home in Yola in April 1995. In 1994, His Royal Highness, O. A. Akawe Torkula, Tor Tiv IV, succeeded the Oba of Benin who had relinquished the position of chancellor at the end of 1992, after eight years of distinguished service. I led a delegation of the university on a courtesy visit to the Tor Tiv in his palace in Gboko. Later, it was my privilege to formally confer on him the honorary degree of LL D, before his installation during the founder’s day ceremony on 17 November 1994. The Tor Tiv and Professor Abubakar were still in office when I completed my tenure. When I assumed office, the other four principal officers had been in their respective positions for several years. They were Professor Olusola Akinyele (deputy vice-chancellor), Chief Ita Ekanem-Ita (registrar), Mr. Philip O. Omoregie (bursar) and Mrs. Olufunmilayo G.Tamuno (librarian). It was a great pleasure to work with these experienced, competent, hardworking and loyal-colleagues. We achieved a lot together, including significant computerization of the bursary and library and initiation of a similar process in the registry. I particularly appreciated Professor Akinyele’s decision to remain as DVC and work loyally with me, although he had been a co-contestant and it had been widely rumoured that he would be the first Ibadan indigene to head the institution. We got on together very well, to the chagrin of many people. On the expiration of his tenure as DVC, he went on sabbatical leave to the USA, where he later settled. Several years after I left office, we had a warm and happy re-union when, during a visit to Ibadan, he came to see me in my office on the UCH campus. Chief Ekanem-lta served the university continuously from 1963, when he was appointed a graduate assistant, to 30 September 1994, when he retired as registrar. He was in his tenth year as registrar when I became vice-chancellor. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the rules, procedures and traditions of the institution. After retirement, he granted an interview which was published in the August 1995 edition of The Premier, a University of Ibadan magazine. During the interview he commented on my leadership as follows:

I think it will be too early to pass any judgment. That will be left to my successor and not me. But what I have noticed is that he has come to office in the era of great turbulence in the system, not only in Ibadan. Everything is tied to funding. But how he has handled them, only time will tell whether he was able to cope properly or not. But one distinguishing feature I noticed in his style of administration is this frequency of meetings and writing minutes. He set up a management committee and has an informal consultative committee, because of the era of turbulence and crisis. We had to meet frequently under great tension, mostly in the Vice-Chancellor’s Lodge. Sometimes it is NASU, sometimes ASUU or Senior Staff Association.

Mrs. Tamuno was very efficient and hardworking. She was soft-spoken, calm, wise and had no airs about her – the uninitiated would not know that her husband, Professor T. N. Tamuno, had been the vice-chancellor of the university sixteen years earlier. Under her leadership, the library made significant progress. This is attested to by the following excerpt from the opening address delivered by the NUC executive secretary, Professor Idris A. Abdulkadir, at the NUC Workshop on CD-ROM Technology /TINLIB Software Applications in Nigerian University Libraries.

The University of Ibadan Library has made tremendous achievements in automation and has upgraded its Tinlib license from 4 users to 20 users system. With this upgrade, the library now has an on-line public access catalogue (OPAC). The library has also acquired a large number of databases on CD-ROM. So in terms of CD-ROM technology and TinLib applications in library operations, the library is ahead of other libraries and has the capability to provide leadership and training to other university libraries. It is my sincere belief that our libraries will learn more from the practical experience of Ibadan in the application of CD-ROM technology and TinLib operation, than would be gained from a commercial outfit. The only occasion I saw her ruffled was sometime in September 1995, when she came to see me in the lodge. She showed me an article titled” ASUU Sets for War” published in Friday, 15 September to Sunday, 17 September edition of a journal, Weekend Frontline. The article stated that a panel of enquiry set up by ASUU-UI to look into the operations and management of the library revealed that about N22 million of the money allocated between 1992 and 1994 were not used for the “purposes for which they were originally meant. The report indicted the management style of the incumbent librarian, Mrs.Tamuno, who is said to be throwing in the towel by going on a terminal sabbatical leave for which she had since applied.” The publication stated that ASUU resolved to make copies of the report available to the VC, UI Council, library and other organs and interested parties. It went on to claim that the said ASUU report had earned the librarian a query.

After reading the publication, I told Mrs. Tamuno that I was very sorry, saddened and disappointed by the scurrilous lies therein because, as she knew, there was no truth in the claims and statements in the ASUU report, which I had not even heard of. In particular, no funds had been misused or misapplied by the library and she had not been issued any query. Moreover, as far as I was aware, she had not thrown in any towel and had no cause to do so. I added that I was disappointed but not surprised at the publication because, in my view, it was just another example of the persistent irresponsible behaviour of its authors. It was sad that they had sunk to the level of concocting lies against a highly-respected lady and dedicated officer. I advised that she should not take it to heart and that I would instruct the public relations officer (PRO) to issue an appropriate rejoinder. Then, prophetically, I said it would not surprise me if they proceeded to accuse me of fiddling with funds. I was proven right when an article titled “UI stinks – In N66m Mess” was published with my photograph, in the Monday, 18 September to Thursday, 21 September 1995 edition of Frontline News. The publication claimed that UI had lost N66 million trapped in banks and financial institutions, which had been forced into liquidation by unfavourable economic forces. It claimed that I had admitted investing the money in the banks. Needless to say, the publication was a concoction of lies and fabrications. I felt great contempt for the two articles, the authors and the journal which had made no effort to seek my comments before publication. I asked the registrar, Chief Arowolo, to deal with the matter. He wrote to the chairman of ASUU-UI, Dr. Jimi Adesina, on 21 September 1995, to request for his comments on the two publications. He wrote a reminder to him on 26 September and then wrote a fulsome rejoinder three days later. The matter of funds deposited and lost in financial institutions, which offered juicy interest upfront was raised at a meeting of the Council by one of the representatives of the Senate. The Council setup an ad-hoc committee headed by a Senate representative who was a former chairman of ASUU to look into the matter. The committee concluded its work and submitted a report without bothering to interview me because documentary evidence showed that the money in question was sourced externally by the affected department, which requested the bursar, in writing, to deposit it in a named financial institution of its choice! Although my experience with the various staff unions is addressed in a later part of this book, it is appropriate to relate here another example of ASUU’s disrespect for constituted authority and procedure during my tenure. By a letter, Ref. UI/Senate/95-091, dated 7 September 1995, Dr. Adesina wrote to the registrar and secretary to the Senate to request that ASUU Congress resolution for postponement of the start of the 1995/96 academic year from Monday, 25 September to Monday, 16 October 1995, should be included in the agenda of Senate meeting scheduled for 11 September 1995. Chief Arowolo replied appropriately that: “it is unprecedented for the secretary to Senate to take resolutions of unions to Senate.”

I first met Philip Omoregie when I became VC. It was a blessing to have had him as bursar during most of my tenure. He was very knowledgeable, competent, highly-organized, hardworking, loyal and of great integrity. I placed great reliance on his efficiency and counsel. We became and have remained close friends. Philip’s reputation as a highly competent accountant and administrator with integrity was widely acknowledged among his professional colleagues.

In 1994, the Institute of Chartered Accountants (lCAN) ‘poached’ him from the university to become their first registrar. I was in two minds about this development. I was happy for Philip because it was a deserved recognition and an opportunity for him to render unique service to lCAN; lCAN’s gain was the university’s loss. Philip gave excellent and highly regarded service to lCAN – I know this from the comments of several past presidents of lCAN who are my friends. In 2000, Philip represented lCAN at a meeting of East African accountants held in Nairobi, where I was then working and domiciled. I insisted that he should be my house guest rather than lodge in a hotel. We were chatting one evening when he suddenly asked whether I had heard from’ the Visitation Panel’. I did not know what he was talking about, so he explained.