Varsity administration must be pristine

When a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Benjamin Disraeli, said “A university should be a place of light, of liberty, and of learning,” most Nigerian universities were absent. News reports have it that on Thursday, 17th March 2022, the Governing Council of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife announced the appointment of a professor of Agricultural Economics from the university’s Faculty of Agriculture, Adebayo Bamire, as the new Vice-Chancellor. It was noted that out of the 19 other applicants who vied for the post, Professor Bamire with 84.6 per cent defeated others to emerge the 12th vice chancellor of the university. Sadly, upon his announcement as the new vice chancellor, some indigenes of Ile-Ife who had been pushing for the appointment of an indigene as the new vice chancellor with charms and other occultic/dangerous instruments have continued to disrupt the peace of the university community.

First, the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor of a university should be based on both academic and administrative merits that are steeped in character. Second, a federal university, regardless of its location, is a property of the Federal Government and every Nigerian who has the requirements of any opening in the institution has the right to get it without any fears or intimidation. It is disappointing that the newly appointed Vice-Chancellor, Professor A.S. Bamire, is a Yoruba man from, Oyan, Osun State, the very state where the university is located, yet there were protests. This further disapproves the reproachable attitude of the protesting Ife indigenes as needless, divisive and ethnocentric, all of which are against the ethics of academia and development.

The fact that a university is a centre of excellence for thought and a laboratory of intellect for the larger society condemns the attitude of the protesting indigenes of Ile-Ife, where it is believed that all Yoruba people of the world hailed from. Consequently, their protest against the appointment of a fellow Yoruba man without minding the nexus between Ife and other parts of Yorubaland is both primitive and divisive. Re-orientation, which may be backed with sanctions if broken, need to be done. And I hope our traditional leaders step in to douse the smouldering situation in Ile-Ife

Folorunso Adisa, folorunsofatai03@gmail.com

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