A drama of the absurd has unfolded in one of Nigeria’s prime universities, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, where indigenes wielding objects of black magic took on the school authority talking merit and use of computers in the choice of a new vice chancellor.<\/p>\n
The indigenes of the ancient city in Osun State and cradle of Yoruba civilisationare were unhappy a ‘son of the soil’, was not picked as the school’s head, though the choice\u00a0 is a Yoruba man.<\/p>\n
In what is bound to be an embarrassment to all those who have passed through the university in its over five decades of existence, the protesters in full traditional regalia of the Ife traditional institution, closed the university\u2019s two major gates as early as 6.00 a.m on Monday, preventing vehicular movement from coming into the campus, while those inside the campus were disallowed from leaving.<\/p>\n
Staff members, students and other stakeholders were also prevented from either coming into or leaving the university, according to an agency report.<\/p>\n
Recall that the University Governing Council led by its Chairman, Chief Owelle Udoji, had on Thursday, shortly after the council\u2019s meeting announced a Professor of Agricultural Economics, Adebayo Bamire, as the 12th substantive Vice-Chancellor of the institution.<\/p>\n
Mr Abiodun Olarewaju, the Public Relations Officer of the university, in a statement made available to newsmen on Monday evening, narrated the bizarre drama that greeted Bamire’s choice.<\/p>\n
According to him, determined to forcefully install an Ile-Ife indigene as the next Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, some indigenes of Ile-Ife have invaded the campus of the university with charms and other fetish objects.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, Monday, March 21, 2022, things took more dangerous dimensions as the indigenes beat up some OAU students whom they met at the gate, blocked the two major gates as early as 6.00 a.m, coming into the campus with charms, and other fetish items.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey assembled at the Motion Ground of the University Secretariat, dressed in all-white spiritual traditional attire, chanting incantations while performing rituals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe protesting indigenes closed the university\u2019s two major gates, thereby preventing staff members, students and other stakeholders from either coming into or leaving the university.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe protesters, who initially blocked the main gate of the university on the first day and threatened staff and students to stay away from campus, became very violent the second day as they beat up workers, particularly the staff of the Security Unit, and vandalised their office at the Main Gate.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the security staff had to be taken to the University\u2019s Health Centre for treatment,\u201d Olarewaju said in the statement.<\/p>\n
He said that the Joint Council and Senate Selection Board shortlisted 16 candidates for the interaction for the post of Vice-Chancellor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe candidates whose names were arranged in alphabetical order were called in for interaction and each was scored by each member of the Selection Board.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe score sheets of each Assessor for individual candidates were dropped into an envelope and sealed, with the signature of the Chairman of Council on each one.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the interaction, the sealed envelopes were opened one after the other and announced to all the members.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe score sheets were thereafter passed around for sighting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen, the scores of the candidates were collated with Microsoft Excel and ranked from the highest to the lowest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe candidate with the highest score was eventually announced as the Vice-Chancellor by the Governing Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the avoidance of doubt, no member of the Board had foreknowledge of each candidate\u2019s score before the final collation at the end of the interaction,\u201d Olarewaju explained.<\/p>\n
He said that the university was aware of the false presentation of the alphabetical arrangement of the applicants as the authentic list of applicants\u2019 performance where unfounded allegations have been made of changing the \u201cleading\u201d candidate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe university hereby affirms that due processes were followed and merit was the basis for the appointment of the new Vice-Chancellor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe University Management implores the leadership of Ile- Ife to please call these protesters to order to ensure that the cordial relationship, which has been in existence, between the university and Ile-Ife communities is not jeopardised.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u25aa\ufe0e Report by NAN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A drama of the absurd has unfolded in one of Nigeria’s prime universities, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, where indigenes wielding objects of black magic took on the school authority talking merit and use of computers in the choice of a new vice chancellor. The indigenes of the ancient city in Osun State and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":56690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5783],"tags":[3806,2372,2269],"class_list":["post-56689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-education","tag-ile-ife","tag-merit","tag-vc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}