UNIPORT: That Protest For VC’s Appointment

About 10 days ago, staff and students of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) who are of Ikwerre extraction disrupted all academic, business and social activities of that institution in protest against what they perceived to be a plot by the university’s Governing Council to prevent their kinsmen from contesting the position of vice chancellor of that institution.

  During this protest, they were said to have been joined by members of youth bodies of Ikwerre ethnic nationality with whom they barricaded the busy East-West Road axis of the university chanting war songs. They were obviously protesting the advertisement in some national dailies two weeks prior, for the position of Vice Chancellor, and particularly the requirement that all those interested in contesting for the post must be professors with not less than eight years experience.

  Also they were disatisfied and  further aggrieved that their hope of having an Ikwerre indigene replace  the incumbent VC, Professor Don Baridam, at the expiration of his tenure, in June this year, may come to naught.

  We gathered that the protesters, apparently not done with their rampaging within and around the university community, a few days later, carried their protest to Government House, Port Harcourt, though in a more peaceful manner.

  Their main grouse was that in the 35 years existence of the university, no Ikwerre man has been appointed as VC even when the institution is situated on Ikwerre soil, whereas the other ethnic groups in the state, according to them, have had their turns at occupying this office. The institution’s Governing Council, they suspect, is using the eight years professorial policy to scheme out Ikwerres from the contest, knowing that all the Ikwerre professors possess less than this requirement.

  While The Tide is not against the demand of Ikwerres, or any other ethnic group for that matter, to have one of their own occupy an exalted position like the VC’s, we insist that such demands should be based on stipulated rules. UNIPORT is a federal institution where anybody is entitled to aspire for whatever office based on already established rules. And if for any reason (s), anybody or group feels short-changed or suspects any foul play, there are more civilized ways of expressing grievances to the appropriate authorities which, of course, includes seeking legal redress rather than resorting to street protests that can easily be hijacked by hoodlums to cause public mayhem.

  We also believe that expressing grievances through such violent methods is even counter- productive to the cause being pursued as it is capable of rousing suspicion towards a possible hidden agenda. What’s more, the said protest is capable of sending the wrong message to an already gullible populace to think that a people on whose land virtually all the tertiary institutions in the state are situated should be agitating against a mere eight-year minimum professorial requirement when in fact they should have been the ones asking for the raising of the requirements. To be sure, people are wont to wonder why after 35 years on Ikwerre land, UNIPORT is not already awash with Ikwerre professors of more than eight years standing, including those who would have relocated from other universities, both local and foreign.

  Perhaps, the Ikwerres embarked on their protest following experiences in some other universities where groups or even states agitated for their sons and daughters to be appointed as vice chancellors. But while our Ikwerre brethren are seeing the eight years minimum requirement as being on the high side, a certain group which is routing for a particular vice chancellorship candidate at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, is insisting that since “the Federal Ministry of Education stipulated a 10-year professorial qualification,” such must be strictly followed. Even so, their protest came in the form of a petition against the ABU Governing Council and certainly not as a disruptive street demonstration.

  If the present ranks of Ikwerre lecturers in UNIPORT cannot boast of an eligible VC candidate based on the Governing Council’s stipulated requirements, all that will be expected of them is to exercise patience. After all, there is no indication, as yet, to suggest that the Federal Government wishes to close down or relocate the institution. Whoever emerges VC now has a maximum of two tenures of eight years at the expiration of which the aggrieved Ikwerre professors will have been more eligible to contest even if the authorities decide to raise the minimum qualification above the now controversial eight years.

  Just as we think that it  is unnecessary for groups to begin to agitate for laid down rules to be bent in order to serve their purpose, we also wish to state that it is high time the Federal Ministry of Education and its subordinate agency, the National Universities Commission (NUC) insisted on having the best quality appointment of VCs in all universities irrespective of sex, state of origin, ethnicity, religion or whatever.

The most paramount consideration The Tide believes, ought to be merit, and nothing more.