University of Corruption

Apart form his on-going trial for corruption by anti-corruption bodies while in office as Vice Chancellor of Anambra State University, Uli, Professor Ifeanacho Paul Orajaka is on the dot for sponsoring labor crises and nigh-anarchy that is presently threatening the continued existence of the Citadel-of-Learning. (Picture shows Prof. Orajaka, outgone VC)

Although Professor Ifeanacho Paul Orajaka has, after all, been removed as Vice Chancellor of Anambra State University, Uli, he is yet to enjoy respite of any sort.

Despite the fact that Orajaka, a Professor of Geology, has served out his stormy tenure, the duo of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices (and Other Related Offences) Commission (ICPC) have continued to probe him (Orajaka) for alleged corruption and academic fraud. Apart from mismanagement of the university’s funds, the former Vice Chancellor was accused of admission and certificate racketeering.

Incidentally, Orajaka’s probe by anti-corruption agencies is not restricted to his tenure at ASNU alone, as ICPC is, at the moment, investigating his tenure as Dean, School of Postgraduate studies, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka several years ago.

In a letter entitled: ‘Investigation Activities’ and referenced, ICPC/CH/SIT/ADT/06, addressed to the Vice Chancellor, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, ICPC requested for all records of student payment for forms in the School of Postgraduate Studies (2000 to May 2004). The anti-graft body, equally, demanded receipts, registers, internal audit report of the university of June 10, 2004, addressed to the Vice Chancellor and referenced NAU/JA/26 from the Head of Internal Audit, as well as response to the Audit Report from Professor Boniface Egboka, the then Vice Chancellor, UNIZIK, dated 5th July, 2004.

Egboka who took over from Orajaka as Dean of PG School, had in response to the internal Auditor’s report disagreed with Orajaka’s accounting system in the PG School, including the disappearance of over N4 million realized from sale of postgraduate forms.

The embattled VC whose five year term expired on March 31 this year craved for an extension to no avail, as a result of which he commenced a legal fight with Anambra state government and the university’s Governing Council. Thus on March 21, Orajaka, among other reliefs, sought the order of an Ihialla High Court to restrain the state Governor, Peter Obi and the university’s Governing Council from removing him as Vice Chancellor at the end of his five year tenure.

Convinced that the suit lacked merit, Obi’s government, on April 1, went ahead and appointed Chukwunenye Anene, a Professor of Biology, acting Vice Chancellor. Anene is to run the university pending the appointment of a substantive VC soon. Curiously, Orajaka (the outgone VC), on April 5, filed a motion of discontinuance of all his suits on the matter.

It is worthy of note that part of the spirited fights put up by the former Vice Chancellor to remain in office was an attempt to install a pliant ASUU Executive Committee in the institution to replace the existing leadership of Chike Osegbue, even against the provisions of ASUU constitution. He, therefore, shortly before the expiration of his tenure, sponsored the setting up of an electoral committee to that effect. And the electoral process ran counter to the provisions of ASUU constitution.

Therefore, Osegbue, incumbent Chairman, on April 15, took the matter before the National Industrial Court, Enugu, praying the court to interpret Rule 9 {V11} of the Constitution and Code of Practice of ASUU. Consequently, Osegbue secured the order of the court restraining the Electoral Committee, chaired by ‘Dr’ OSA Obikezie, from conducting the ASUU election which it had earlier slated for April 21 pending the determination of the motion on notice. But Electoral Committee, chaired by ‘Dr.’ OSA Obikeze, ironically, a member of the outgoing Branch Executive, snubbed the court order, and moved ahead with the election.

The magazine was told that Orajaka’s struggle to hijack the union dates back to the ASUU national strike of 2007 when he sponsored a group of lecturers, including the secretary and the immediate Past Chairman of the university’s branch of ASUU, Dr. M.N Chendo and Obikeze to secure an injunction from the Ihiala High Court, stopping Osegbue from parading himself as ASUU Chairman. And both characters are evidently deeply involved in the present crisis.

In this very circumstance, the university’s ASUU Secretary, Chendo, was said to have unilaterally convened a meeting of the branch congress on March 26, 2010, contrary to provisions of ASUU constitution. This alleged faulty congress led to the setting up of Obikeze’s Electoral Committee to conduct the poll on April 21. The contention here is that any decision taken at the so-called congress was null and void, and of no effect, as the procedure adopted in convening it was, in the first instance, a violation of the constitution and Code of Conduct of ASUU.

Insider Weekly gathered that ASUU National President, because of his alleged closeness to Orajaka, looked the other way while provisions of the union’s constitution were being violated. And it was this situation that culminated in the suit pending before the National Industrial Court. It is believed that the ASUU’s National Executive Council slated for May this year at Benue State University, Markudi as well as the reactions of the trial court vis-à-vis the snub of its order may dictate the direction of events in the crisis-infested institution.

There are instances that the university, under Orajaka’s management, was notorious for snubbing orders of court. Dr. Emma Owuamalam of the Department of Mass Communication had gone to an Ihialla High Court to challenge his suspension by Orajaka management. In its ruling, the court averred that the Vice Chancellor, according to the relevant university law, has no powers to suspend an academic staff, and ordered that the Plaintiff (Owuamalam) be reinstated. But Orajaka ignored this order till he vacated office.
In his recent handover speech, aired on the Anambra State Television, Orajaka claimed that his achievements as the university’s Vice Chancellor would never be rivaled in the next ten years, especially, in the areas of staff discipline, employment and exam malpractices.

But his critics insist that his tenure, rather, enthroned a culture of mediocrity and devaluation of teaching and learning. For instance, Orajaka was accused of, without recourse to the Governing Council, employing staff with questionable credentials.

Two of such cases existed in the institution’s Department of Political Science.
In 2006, VC Orajaka employed one ‘Associate Professor’, Nderibe A. Nderibe who ‘taught’ students of the institution’s Department of Political Science for two semesters. But reactions from the students and lecturers of the department on the quality of what Nderibe was teaching them led to investigation, which eventually revealed that Nderibe’s area of specialization (bias) was in Engineering, and not Political Science. Yet, he got employed into the Political Science Department by Orajaka without bothering to look at his credentials. Incidentally, the Governing Council threw Professor Nderibe out of the university in 2007.

There is, also, this celebrated case of ‘Dr.’ OBC Nwankwo, immediate Past Head of the Political Science Department, who got employed by Orajaka’s predecessor. Nwankwo had, in 2005, claimed that he got his M.Phil and PH.D Degrees from Karlrushe and Heidelberg-both in Germany. But investigations carried out later showed that ‘Nwankwo does not posses the degrees he claimed’.

Orajaka, it was learnt, resolved to sack Nwankwo when the burble burst, but later changed his mind on the realization that he (Nwankwo) could be a veritable tool in checkmating the university’s union officials, especially, ASUU executives, Osegbue and Obiekwe Nwanolue, Chairman and Investment Secretary respectively, who seemed like a thorn on his flesh then. Nwankwo was, actually, said to have been widely used as a tool to frame up the duo of Osegbue and Nwanolue and, indeed, other lecturers in the Political Science Department, as a result of which Orajaka chose to shield his alleged academic deficiencies till the end. But Insider Weekly learnt that Nwankwo has, curiously, changed the universities he claimed to have obtained his M.Phil/Ph.D from Karlrushe/Heidelberg to FUK/RKU. These abbreviations still remain Greek to many, as only Nwankwo knows what the letters stand for.

Orajaka’s critics maintain that his tenure as Vice Chancellor encouraged very unethical practices by his refusal to discipline academic staff implicated in selling examination marks. A case in point was that of G.C Ojimba of the Department of Computer Science. The university’s Senate had, at its 37th meeting of August 15, 2007, found him (Ojimba) guilty of charges of selling marks and altering approved examination results, leaking examination questions and graduating unqualified students among others. Strangely, rather than accordingly disciplining him, Ojimba was merely issued a warning letter, and, subsequently, appointed Director of the university’s ICT Centre.

In fact, Orajaka, often, got involved in academic impropriety as evident in the case of his niece, Sandra Orajaka, a second year Law student of the university in 2005. Sandra was found guilty of ‘being in possession of an answer script with fully answered examination questions which questions were the questions for the particular examination in progress’ by the faculty of law examination Misconduct Committee for the first semester 2005/2006 examination.

Consequently, the committee recommended immediate expulsion of Sandra Orajaka. The report was presented to the University Senate at its 31st meeting of Monday 27th November, 2007. The report was stepped down by Orajaka.

But a curious twist was to creep into the saga when, in the next Senate meeting, the recommendation of the committee was altered by Senate guided allegedly through Professor Edwin Nwogugu, the then Dean, faculty of Law.

In the altered recommendation, Sandra (Orajaka) was found guilty as charged, but was asked to repeat the course, Law 221, Nigerian Legal System. It took the protest of other expelled students in the faculty to get Sandra Orajaka out of the Faculty. Eventually, Orajaka graduated Sandra from the institution’s Marketing Department.

The outgone Vice Chancellor allegedly protected the students whom he had used to frame up former ASUU Chairman, Osegbue. It would be recalled that Orajaka’s management had a running battle with the institution’s branch executive of ASUU, a situation which led to suspension of the principal leaders.

It is alleged that a lecturer in Political Science Department, Agary Nwokoye, used Miss Adaobi Iheme and Miss Frances Olisa (whom he wrote examination for) to set up Osegbue for suspension. The students were recommended for one year rustication, but, ironically, having used them to achieve the purpose, their punishment was waived by the management.

It was gathered that Orajaka’s ‘unacademic’ tenure was such that it took some core academics in Council like Professors Azubike Uzoka, Israel Okoye, Elochukwu Amucheazi, Mercy Anagbogu and Onyechi Ikpeazu [SAN] to compel him (Orajaka) to terminate the appointment of one Reverend Father Pantaleon Umechukwu of Mass Communication Department who was said to have been indicted for plagiarism while in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Rev. Fr. Umechukwu was, subsequently, sacked by the UNN, but Orajaka found him worthy to be given employment in Anambra State University, Uli.
As th
e public anxiously awaits the report of the Anti-graft agencies on Orajaka, it is expected that the Visitor to the University (Governor Peter Obi) will, immediately, set up a Visitation Panel to review the activities of the university in the past five years of Orajaka’s management as required by the Anambra State University Law 2000.

It is, also, expected that the Governing Council of the University will fast-track the process of selecting a substantive Vice Chancellor who will have the onerous task of cleaning the rot of the Orajaka years.

‘It will take a real academic with guts to clean the mess which the University has become. This is the legacy the present crop of core and disciplined external Council members can bequeath to the University’, a political analyst told Insider Weekly.