of Benin (UNIBEN), Professor Osayuki Oshodin, when his tenure expires
in November 2014, is creating tension in the university. The situation
has led to the trivialization of Oshodin's health, following his trip
to the United Kingdom for medical treatment on May 8, 2014.
The Vice Chancellor said early this year in an interview that his
health was failing due to alleged poisoning. He lamented however that
his doctors were battling with his health in Nigeria since he could
not leave the country for treatment as a result of the several
meetings being held then to resolve the strike action embarked upon by
members of the ASUU. Sunday Vanguard was informed that after the ASUU
crisis was resolved, .Oshodin was flown abroad for further medical
treatment. Now, sources said the VC has recovered fully and will
return to Nigeria this week. But while still battling with his
health, some stakeholders at UNIBEN, last week, alleged that there
was a vacuum in the running of the institution due to his absence,
saying the situation had delayed the appointment of an Acting Vice
Chancellor since the tenure of the VC will expire in November.
But the Benin National Congress (BNC), a Benin socio cultural group,
described the comments of the stakeholders whom they described as
"desperados" as suspicious and wicked, calling on security agents to
investigate the matter. The group claimed they may have been involved
in the alleged poisining of the VC.
According to the BNC statement, "From Prof. Oshodin's antecedent as an
office holder in the University of Benin, ex-students and staff of the
institution nicknamed him a workaholic because he comes to his duty
post on Saturdays and Sundays to attend to urgent and critical office
work. That a man is sick, not by any natural development, but
substantially by a deviously-infused anti-body on account of which he
was flown abroad and has substantially recovered and the hospital is
in few days away from discharging him, empathy demands that a set of
staff who claimed that they love him should treat his perceived
absence with respect. To resort therefore to diabolic moves by
endorsing such a letter and voting as much as one million, three
hundred thousand naira for its publication is to say the least
ungodly.
The constitution of Nigeria and the civil service rules envisaged
such unpredictable development and thus outlined ways of intervening
to sustain and enhance administrative standards; and we are abundantly
conversant with the sacrosanct steps that have been taken by the
Council and the Senate of the University to promote a robust academic
and administrative atmosphere; it is nauseating and self-serving
therefore, a situation where members of the same academic community
will concoct untenable crops of fallacies to poison the image of the
very man that they wish should die.
"In a recent publication, we called on the intelligence community to
take steps to clamp down on those behind the poisonous attack on the
Vice Chancellor; the authors of this petition deliberately did not
attach that publication to their malicious piece, because, it will not
serve their interest. The whole unwritten scheme about their plot is a
back door plan to install their candidate as acting or substantive
VC, and, as a vibrant host community organization with all the
apparatuses at our disposal, will resist such a destructive project.
No one, no matter how highly placed, known to be behind Oshodin's
medical predicament can succeed him either as Vice Chancellor or any
privileged office, because it took us 39 years to produce an
indigeneous Vice Chancellor, so miscreants masquerading as
academicians cannot fight him through unorthodox means, and seek to
succeed him".
Also in its reaction, the authorities of the UNIBEN, in a statement
signed by the Deputy Registrar/Public Relation Officer of the
university, Mr Henry Osarenren, described the outburst of the
stakeholders as an attempt to misinform the public about the
procedures in the running of a university. According to the statement,
"The incumbent Vice Chancellor of UNIBEN has been away overseas for
medical check-up and he is expected to resume fully any time now. In
his absence, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration) and the
Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) have, at different times before
August 5th 2014, performed the functions of the Vice Chancellor after
due consultation with the Vice Chancellor as necessary," the statement
said.
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