FLASHBACK: The Tongue of An Uncivilized Academic: A Response To AUU Public Relations Publication, The Whining Of A Rabid Dog: Ambrose Alli University’s Response To Professor Fred Esumeh’s ill-Conceived Press Conference
Consequent upon the above subject, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma Chapter is constrained to join issue with Professor Asomwan Sonnie Adagbonyin, the current Acting Vice Chancellor of AAU, Ekpoma who is the Head of the AAU, Ekpoma Public Relations Department. To be sure, Professor A. S. Adagbonyin is certainly a senior member of ASUU in Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, having put in no fewer than 35 years as a member of the academic staff of the University.
Though failed, Professor A. S. Adagbonyin had at a time in the history of the University and our Union aspired and vied for the Chairmanship position of ASUU. Even in his failure and unfulfilled ambition, one would have thought that his desire to lead the Union was driven by requisite experience in the activities of ASUU, its ideological underpinnings and avowed commitment to the protection of the sanctity and tradition of the University system. In fact, many had hitherto perceived Professor A. S. Adagbonyin as sufficiently abreast with the workings and leadership structure of a Union he aspired to lead in the time past.
Alas, Professor A. S. Adagbonyin confirmed his ignorance of the nature and workings of our Union by his consent to the outburst and resort to use of uncouth language as well as personalization in the University Administration’s rejoinder to the well-thought-out press conference on the crisis in AAU, Ekpoma by our Union. It is not difficult to observe that the said rejoinder clearly exposes the intellectual bankruptcy of the administration of the University by Professor A. S. Adagbonyin. It is, at best, an unguided reasoning from a deluded mind of the writer who must be suffering from a “profusely diffusing verbal diarrhoea.”
It is disheartening to note that the said rejoinder received the imprimatur of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin, a supposedly refined academic of the twenty first century and a sitting Acting Vice Chancellor of a university. Rather than intellectually address the issues raised in the press conference by the Benin Zone of ASUU, the University Administration of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin chose to malign an individual, characteristic of a clueless, deceitful and destructive Administration.
We wish to assure the University Administration of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin that Professor Fred Esumeh will not respond as a person to the insults on his person, because the text of the press conference was anchored by Professor Fred Esumeh on the basis of the structure of our Union, ASUU, as the Zonal Coordinator of Benin Zone, to which AAU, Ekpoma along with six other branches belong. Professor Fred Esumeh is a true scholar, an alumnus of AAU, Ekpoma who obtained his postgraduate trainings at the University of Lagos and University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, through scholarship. As a person and as an academic, Professor F. I. Esumeh was raised on truth and the civilized side of the society, as opposed to those who call names and continue with their marketing of lies as a rejoinder.
It is a pity, and perhaps, a road transport worker would have handled this matter better than the uncivilized and intellectually-bankrupt approach by the ,University Administration of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin. We operate in an academic environment. A true academic would not engage in an abusive contest when interrogating issues. He would not debase an argument to insults on a union to which himself and his so-called Lecturers of good conscience belong. He would not be deluded by the present position he is occupying and the temporal circumstance of today. He would not degenerate to the level of calling his fellow lecturers from other universities “shameless renegades”. He would not be boisterous that he has broken ASUU, AAU, Ekpoma as a stronghold of ASUU. He would not go so low to insulting ASUU National Officers and Leaders. He would not struggle fruitlessly to defend abnormalities and abuses, and engage in frivolities and innuendos lacking in truth, fairness and justice.
In its unacademic arguments, the University Administration of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin presented to the public many illogicalities which rather than convince people have actually dissuaded them. Come to think of it! Is a biometric verification exercise an examination or a test? How can a Professor of a university be said to have failed an inconclusive exercise that is not an examination? How can people on strike be selling books to students? How can a statement that the present management structure of AAU, Ekpoma is an aberration in the management of universities in Nigeria and the reduction of subvention to the university from 270 million naira to a paltry sum of 41 million naira by the State Government be said to be degrading? What is the motive of the University Administration of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin in attempting to drag the Special Intervention Team (SIT) and the Edo State Government into its clueless and unintellectual arguments?
It is baffling that a true intellectual would engage in of blatant lying, falsehood and misinformation. The University Administration of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin claims that salaries of returning workers have been paid. A lie from the pit of hell and a huge joke! The Union’s sympathy goes to the returnees. They must truly be enjoying the system. Bravo! Professor A. S. Adagbonyin also claimed in the said rejoinder that the University is fully back to academic activities, yet he admitted that two academic sessions, 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 are on-going. If this indeed is very normal, let the University Administration of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin tell the public any other university in Nigeria where such is presently the situation.
Our Union refuses to be distracted by the inherent sinister motives of the said rejoinder – for us to either forget or relegate the germane issues and nagging problems of the present day in our dear University – by a University Administration that is driven by ego, inordinate ambition and selfish interest. The Union is not unaware of the diabolical compromise entered into by Professor A. S. Adagbonyin to secure the Acting Vice-Chancellorship position to himself. He agreed to serve as Acting Vice-Chancellor to run a tyrannical administration to administer State’s agenda by accepting the impossibility of managing and running the University on self-sustenance ideology of the Nigerian capitalist elists/leaders, thereby working against the general interest of the University, the people of the State in particular, and that of the country as a whole.
Little wonder that the University Administration of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin is in experimental mission to emasculate the workers’ Unions, enslave workers, blackmail their leaders and use propaganda machinery dangerously, to misrepresent facts and misinform the general public. The Administration of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin was the sponsor of students/provision of logistics to Government House, to request the suspension of legitimate Union activities on campus and militarization of the University campus/workplace in his desperation to administer the university against all rules of civilized and democratic conduct. His desperation to administer the university to win the heart of the State Government, is manifested in the militarization of the University campus, selective payment of staff salaries and deductions, personal phone calls to staff laden with ethnic appeals, intimidation and blackmail, harassment and promises of appointments. Should a competent and intellectually-minded academic and administrator go to this extent?
In addition to the desperation to decimate the Unions, the Administration of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin has resorted to appealing to and whipping up ethnic and religious sentiments; calling academics in other universities to come and take jobs in a university where he has failed to pay salaries and deductions up to date, and whose global competitiveness has declined and is in deficit since his appointment. Indeed, the Union recalls with sourness the anti-union activities of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin in recent past. His power hungry nature is being exposed. As already alluded to, he once contested to lead ASUU-AAU Ekpoma Chapter. He lost, due to his arrogance and lack of confidence in him by his colleagues. He played very ignoble roles during the trying days of Professor Dennis Agbonlahor’s tenure as Vice Chancellor during the struggle against revalidation of staff appointments which earned him and his co-travelers then, the toga of “ABN.” He was among those who signed a petition to Edo State Government during Professor Agbonlahor’s tenure requesting that sacked Union leaders should remain sacked. He also played inglorious roles during the tenure of Professor Ignatius Onimawo as Vice-Chancellor of AAU, Ekpoma. He alienated himself from Professor Onimawo’s Administration towards the end of the tenure, because he could not secure endorsement as Deputy Vice-Chancellor and the ultimate successor.
The Union insists and challenges the University Administration of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin to respond to the critical issues raised in the press conference of Benin Zone of ASUU rather than engage in character assassination and personality attacks. He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. Our Union has the dossier of each and every member. Let Professor A. S. Adagbonyin know that at the appropriate time, his dossier and those he has blackmailed to break the strike will be unveiled for public scrutiny. Perhaps, our Union would want to use this press release to ask the University Administration what is happening with the fire outbreak at the records section of School of Postgraduate Studies (SPS) after a student who had not presented the mandatory seminar in his department, was processed for graduation? We know that the Dean of SPS now doubles as the Acting Vice-Chancellor in our dear university, or should the Union “off the mic”? We may not also want to revisit the incident in the then Department of Languages and Literature during the headship of the late Dr. Frank Mowah, or should we?
For now, the University Administration of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin should directly address the public on the following:
1. Is it not true that workers in the University are owed monthly emoluments amounting to twenty one (21) months, with effect from September 2020 to date? Is it true that of these, fifteen (15) months are unremitted sundry deductions to staff Unions (including ASUU), Workers’ Cooperative Societies, Welfare Organizations, etc. and six (6) months of unpaid gross emoluments? Why were many staff members unjustly denied of their January and February 2022 payment of salaries? Is there arbitrary selected payment of salaries in the University?
2. Has Professor A. S. Adagbonyin as Acting Vice-Chancellor been able to comply with Edo State Government directive to pay all outstanding salaries, and deductions of workers as contained in government special announcement dated June 8, 2022, even with the collection of school fees?
3. Is it not true that the University is having a defective administrative structure anchored on ad-hoc basis, where all Principal Officers are in acting capacity?
4. Does the organogram of a University (locally and internationally) include the establishment of a Governing Council or Special Intervention Team (SIT)?
5. How many weeks of lectures should be observed as approved by the NUC for a semester?
6. Who set the examination questions in courses allocated to lecturers who were and are still on strike in some Departments for the so-called concluded examinations?
7. If lecturers were on strike, who then invigilated the examinations?
8. All through Professor A. S. Adagbonyin’s years as a Lecturer and now a Professor and Acting Vice-Chancellor, has he observed any ASUU strike or strikes? If so, was he paid salaries during the period of the strike or strikes? Can he morally justify implementation of the policy of ‘no work no pay’ when he has collected salaries all his years in the University, for periods of legitimate strikes embarked upon by the Union?
9. All through the 35 years of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin as a Lecturer and now a Professor, has he ever taught a course and without his authority students are examined in same and purportedly graduated?
10. If examinations were not forced on students, what informed the protest/petition by some students to National Universities Commission (NUC)?
11. Is it not true that the University Administration under Professor A. S. Adagbonyin, is currently running two academic sessions simultaneously with some departments in 2020/2021 and others in 2021/2022?
12. Who moderated final year questions before they were administered?
13. Has Government released the White Paper on the Visitation Panel?
14. Are workers’ rights and freedom of association in the University not suppressed, through suspension of union activities as orchestrated and masterminded by Professor A. S. Adagbonyin as Acting Vice Chancellor?
15. Is it not true that under Professor A. S. Adagbonyin’s watch as AVC, academic staff are being recruited from Government House without the input of experts and Heads of Department?
16. Is it not true that whereas Professor A. S. Adagbonyin has been in office for over 6 months, selfishness has made him to combine his current position with that of the Dean of Graduate School (the position he last held)?
17. Is it not also true that his Acting-Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Professor Marshall Azeke also combines his position with that of the Dean, Faculty of Life Sciences (the position he last held), while the Acting-Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration), Professor Theophilus Agweda used “mercenaries” to conduct examination in a course allocated to him, in flagrant disregard to the authority of the Head of Department and the regulation/rule that requires course lecturers to submit questions to their Heads of Department as the Chief Examiner? Were his final year questions moderated by External Examiners as required by law before the examination?
18. Were students of the 2019/2020 academic session not graduated without Departmental/Faculty Boards’ considerations/approval as required by law?
19. Is it true or not that some Heads of Departments were removed and examinations were conducted for students who were not taught, but hurriedly called to campus few days after the appointment of the new Heads of Departments?
20. Is it not true that such departments even examined students on courses, by lecturers in such departments that refused to be part of such betrayal and aberration?
The argument by the University Administration of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin that it loves the students, is spurious and baseless as students are disillusioned under it, not certain about their future and certificates, extorted with reckless abandon under the present administration while the incoming ones are being made to pay increased school fees in the face of other increased charges, such as transcript processing in its new commercialization of education agenda.
Finally, let the University Administration of Professor A. S. Adagbonyin be assured that our Union will not waiver in its struggle to ensure a good university system in AAU, Ekpoma. No measure of campaign of calumny and denial orchestrated by Professor A. S. Adagbonyin as Acting Vice Chancellor will deter us. It will interest the University Administration led by Professor A. S. Adagbonyin to note that the solidarity rally was a huge success with the attendance/presence of National Officers of ASUU and very many Zones and Branches. It is on record too that the rally held successfully, peacefully and was well attended. How else does he want to measure the success, despite the campaign of calumny and denial of the University’s facilities orchestrated by him to scuttle the event? We know that the Professor A. S. Adagbonyin prides himself on having connections with those in the corridors of power, but we wish to appeal that AAU, Ekpoma is an institution of higher learning and must be administered as such.
For the avoidance of doubt, this release is written and issued for and on behalf of ASUU, AAU, Ekpoma.
Aluta Continua Victoria Acerta!
Released by:
The Secretariat of ASUU, AAU, Ekpoma Chapter.
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