While all this was going on the NPMC, W APMC and MDCN withdrew accreditation for postgraduate training in the departments of chemical pathology, medical microbiology and PSM. At its meeting on 15 February 1994, the court of governors of the College of Medicine noted the decision of the UCH Board of Management to:
… fulfil its obligations to resident and supernumerary doctors in compliance with the regulations of the registering body in Nigeria and the examining colleges of the fellowship diplomas inclusive of the appointment of heads of clinical departments where necessary.
At its meeting of 18 February, the Council of the university noted this when the court of governors presented its report and resolutions. Since then, the Department of Chemical Pathology has had two HODs one appointed by the university and the other by UCH. At its meeting of 28 July 1994, the Council approved the creation of a Faculty of Public Health with five departments and directed that a request should be forwarded to the National Universities Commission (NUC) to that end. The Council further approved that the Department of Community Medicine and the Institute of Child Health should be granted membership of both the Faculty of Clinical Sciences and Faculty of Public Health but, for budgetary purposes, the former should be their base faculty. Therefore, I wrote a letter, Ref. VC/GN.5, dated 8 August 1994, to the executive secretary of the NUC, to request for the creation of a Faculty of Public Health in the College of Medicine, consisting of five departments/units, namely: Department of Community Medicine, Department of Epidemiology, Medical Statistics and Environmental Health, Department of Health Promotion and Education, Department of Human Nutrition and the Institute of Child Health. The first three departments were carved out of PSM. The NUC duly granted approval, and the new faculty emerged in 2002.
The MDCN saga was curious and most unfortunate. The perceived problem could have been tackled in a less dramatic and confrontational manner. It was strange that the acting registrar’s letter and threats were directed at only PSM. There was no mention of the Department of Chemical Pathology, which had been headed by a non-medically qualified academic since 1990. A professor and HOD at a sister university, who had written in May 1993 to accept nomination to serve as external examiner for MPH examinations in the department of PSM, wrote to Professor Adeniyi in January 1994 to withdraw the acceptance because: “the Association of Community Physicians and the Faculty of Community Physicians have instructed us not to act as external examiners for the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine.” It was later that the MDCN teamed up with the NPMC and W APMC to widen the net and include the departments of Chemical Pathology and Medical Microbiology. About the same time, at the University of Benin, a medically qualified professor who lost a bid for re-election as provost, College of Health Sciences, petitioned the MDCN which then wrote to the vice-chancellor of that university to threaten withdrawal of accreditation. The outcome was the dissolution of the College of Health Sciences which comprised the faculties of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry.
At Ibadan, the orderly evolution of the Faculty of Public Health was disrupted, an evolution which the Senate had approved in 1978, but which successive administrations at the College of Medicine had not taken steps to implement. It was not a surprise that the whole thing attracted comments nationally, including editorial comments by The Guardian and Nigerian Tribune newspapers. Because of their historic importance, those editorial comments as well as the correspondence with the MDCN and NUC are reproduced as appendices to this book.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE UNIONS
A vice-chancellor spends so much time on matters relating to the welfare and problems of the staff and students, including interaction and dialogue with their unions. Apart from the student union, there were unions for each of the academic, senior non-academic and junior staff. The contributions of the unions to the welfare and progress of the university could be positive but, in my experience, were far too often negative and adversarial On many occasions the union leaders demonstrated scant regard for truth, deliberately fed their members/ followers with wrong and misleading information and behaved like people who had no interest or stake in the effects of their actions on the institution. They often reminded me of the biblical story of the woman who urged King Solomon to cut the baby in two and give half each to her and her rivaL Sadly but unavoidably, the local activities of the unions were influenced not only by the quality and character of their extant leaders, but also, and usually quite significantly, by forces external to the university, including their national bodies, politicians and the various governments. In this connection, it is relevant to state that the secretariat of the national organization of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was, and remains, located on the campus of the University of Ibadan. The national secretariats for the senior non-academic and the junior staff were, and remain, located in Agbowo, separated from the campus only by the Oyo Road.
In addition, what may be described as municipal matters – especially the supply of water and electricity-regularly caused or aggravated the problems with the unions. Indeed, at a meeting of the Council of the university, I suggested that the post of vice-chancellor should be re-designated ‘Mayor and Chief Security Officer’ because most of my work was devoted to the provision of electricity, water and security, as well as the clearing of refuse on the campus. The members of the Council treated my suggestion as a joke; however, it was intended to draw attention to a very unsatisfactory situation. Some of my experience and interactions with the various unions are recorded in this section.
Related article: ‘How I transformed UI alumni body’
The Students
By the time I assumed office as vice-chancellor, I had acquired over two decades of close interaction with the undergraduates and my three daughters had graduated from university. Therefore, I was familiar with the boisterous idealism and occasional extravagant behaviour of the young men and women which constitute the overwhelming majority of Nigerian undergraduates. Despite this background, I was disappointed at the behaviour of the students and, especially their leaders during my tenure. There were unnecessary, avoidable, unfortunate and, sometimes, tragic incidents virtually every year. The vast majority of students are rational, peace-loving and focused on their studies but, somehow, vocal minorities are allowed to hold sway and cause trouble, especially at the approach of examinations. The picture is complicated by the unsavoury influence of groups and forces within and outside the university, including cultism. At a meeting of the Senate on 27 January 1992, I drew attention to the fact that, during convocation ceremonies, the degrees of the university were awarded to persons ‘found worthy in character and learning.’ While learning was being evaluated by our examinations, ‘character’ was not being addressed. I challenged the Senate to set acceptable standards of behaviour and establish procedures for monitoring and evaluating character. That challenge is yet to be taken up. Meanwhile, I directed that Staff/Student Liaison Committees should be resuscitated at departmental and faculty levels. Cultism constituted a serious menace and posed a major challenge during my tenure. One cult clash on campus resulted in the death of a student. Another clash on 23 November 1993, involving students from UI and the neighbouring Ibadan Polytechnic resulted in the death of two students, one from each institution. Of course, cases of homicide are the remit of the police. Unfortunately, my efforts to deal with cultism were unsuccessful due to widespread fear among the students and, it seemed, some staff. Necessary information was not forthcoming. On one occasion, I received a report that unmasked members of a cult, armed with dangerous weapons, caused mayhem in a hall of residence in broad daylight. However, even in strict confidence, none of the witnesses could provide information on the identity of any of the perpetrators! Many years later, an initiative led by Professor Emeritus Muyiwa Awe yielded significant beneficial effect but, sadly, cultism remains a major problem in our tertiary and other institutions of learning.
Initially, I perceived the judiciary as another constraint to the maintenance of discipline on campus. However, shortly after my assumption of office, a family friend and high court judge saw me at a social function and asked how I was getting on in my new assignment. In my reply, I complained that the judiciary was a problem because, when students were caught in wrongdoing and punished, they would go to court and get the punishment quashed because it was ultra vires. The judge then gave me a short lecture on why the courts were right. The university is not empowered to try students or anybody for offences listed in the criminal code. They could and should be tried for misconduct using rules and regulations which were appropriately worded. Careful wording was also necessary in all correspondence and the minutes of the proceedings of the disciplinary committees. I derived great benefit from the lecture. Moreover, I insisted that the university solicitor must attend or be represented at all meetings of the disciplinary and other important committees to provide guidance as necessary. We also revised and updated the Students Information Handbook, which was last revised in 1982. The first students’ crisis I encountered started in the second month of my tenure. It was quite serious and, I believe, masterminded by people who were aggrieved by my appointment. The students demanded:
1 . Drastic reduction in intra-campus cab and bus fares, examination fees, add and delete fees, and annual fees paid for medical care at the Jaja Clinic.
- Lifting of the suspension of students who were still facing criminal charges in court for cult membership and activities.
- Out-of-court-settlement within 72 hours at a case which they had instituted against the university and which had arisen from a disgraceful incident on 2 August 1991, when they hurled missiles at the entourage of President Babangida, who had come to commission the water treatment plant built for the university by his government.
- Approval of a proposal for the students’ union executive to operate a transport system within the campus.
- Reversal of the rejection of their request for a university bus to convey their executives to Port Harcourt for a meeting of NANS, an organization which had been banned by the government.
On 29 April and 5 May 1992, I led a team of university officials, including Prof. Akinyele and the dean of students, to discuss the demands and other pertinent issues with the student leaders. During the discussions, they denied security reports that students were planning unrest in various parts of the country, and that’ observers’ from other tertiary institutions had been invited to a meeting in UI scheduled for 6 May 1992. I appealed to them to them to maintain peace, avoid any action that could result in damage to life property, and refrain from any demonstration outside the campus.