I flushed out bad eggs from Uniben — Oshodin....See his statement

Past Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin, Professor Osayuki Oshodin

Past Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin, Professor Osayuki Oshodin, speaks on the performance of his administration and other issues, in this interview

Your tenure as VC ended on November 30, 2014. How was the journey so far?

I think it was very successful. I will ascribe the success to the guidance and wisdom God gave to me and the administration.

What were the deficiencies in the university which your administration sought to correct?

There were infrastructural problems, academic programmes not developed, salaries not being paid on time and promotion arrears not paid. There was also the problem of promotion; which had been on for a period of five to 10 years. There were so many things we met on ground which needed to be attended to.

How did you reverse the trend?

When I assumed office, I had no handover note. It was that bad. But when I was leaving I wrote my own note and distributed it. What I did when I assumed duties was to set up task forces to help look into all the areas of the university and they came up with reports. I read all the reports and created another committee to help me come up with a white paper. When the white paper was submitted, I started implementing it one by one.

In your terminal report, you stated that your administration executed over 300 projects through internally generated revenue. How did you do it?

I had to dissolve some committees which I believed should be generating money but were not. For instance, there was a shuttle committee which I thought could be generating money but didn’t. I dissolved the committee and set up a task force to be in charge. I looked for three responsible, steadfast and straight-forward human beings and put them as members of the task force. In the first month, they realised over N1m. The previous committee used to give about N200,000 per year. That was when I realised that there was money in these committees. I did same for all the committees. A similar thing happened in the water factory. I replaced the people there. I did the same for the university farm. Hence, the university was raking in revenues left, right and centre. That was how I was able to do over 300 projects. I did over 400 projects out of which, over 100 were done through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.

Why did your administration’s policies face resistance from some members of the university who ordinarily would be beneficiaries?

They did not want the policies because they were stealing the university’s money. All those who were fighting me from day one to the end had been stealing.But they were few in number, thus, I ignored them. And some of them were sacked. They were stealing at the expense of every member of the university community.

Those who were sacked by the university for alleged misconduct were reported to have protested that they were unduly dismissal. Why?

Did they not go to court? Why have they not won in the court? Some of them were collecting money from students. Some of them were stealing from the bursary. They went to court and they lost out. Some of them were caught red-handed, taking money from a 100-level student. Is that good enough? Maybe that student’s mother fries akara (bean cake) in one village so that her child can get a bachelor’s degree yet some people are demanding money from them. Is that good enough? I have a copy of the concluded cases.

Did you have a hand in their dismissal?

The Vice-Chancellor cannot sack people on his own. I do not have that power and I never sacked anyone. I was not a member of the disciplinary committee. I was also not in the faculties because all these things happened in the departments and faculties. One of the people sacked is my cousin. I did not care whether he was my blood relation or not; if you do bad, you go. All the claims that they were axed because they were members of cults which they joined as students were just flimsy excuses. I make bold to say it now because they had made several attempts to eliminate me and I am no longer afraid of them. They tried all sorts of ways to eliminate me and these included poisoning. I was poisoned. But I did not die because the Almighty God preserved me.

Was due process followed?

Due process was followed. A committee was set up to investigate them. The security department of the university also investigated them before they were sent to the disciplinary committee which was an independent body made up of council members and I was not a member. The council looked at the papers and passed its own judgement. What has the VC got to do with that? The students blew whistle on them too. The students are very much alert now; they are politically aware that nobody is supposed to be taking money from them.

What was your administration’s relationship with the various staff unions?

Our relationship was cordial. I incorporated them into the administration. They were active participants. They were in all the committees. When the money (TETFund and IGR) came, they knew about it. Every union was involved in the monitoring of on-going projects. Everything was transparent. That was why the unions honoured me when I left office; it has never happened in the history of the university or any Nigerian university.

How did you manage staff welfare?

I paid all the allowances of the staff. I paid all their arrears.Before my tenure, there were so many unpaid outstanding allowances which spanned around 10 years. For a long time before I came on board accounts were not audited.During my tenure, I audited everything including mine.

The people who were stealing the money were against me right from day one. First, they did not want me to be a Vice-Chancellor because I was never sponsored. I was chosen by God. There were various groups which invited me to join them. But I refused because if you feel you are qualified, you should just apply; you do not have to canvass. I do not believe in that.

How did your administration impact on the academic upgrade of the university?

Now we have academic programmes that were not in the university before I came on board, I brought them. For example, there was no university in the South South geo-political zone that had Veterinary Medicine. But I created one here. Before my administration, there were no courses like Environmental Science, Estate Management and Marketing. But they are all in the university now. The National Universities Commission did not want double-barrel departments. So, I broke such departments into two and all our programmes were virtually accredited. Our nursing programme today is a state of the art. People come from other universities to see and wonder how it became possible. The programme is also fully accredited.

What is your assessment of the standard of tertiary education in Nigeria?

We are moving up. If everybody has to do his or her own beat when they are in position, with a mission and vision, the standard can be improved. With the support of the government and with whatever the government provides, we can move faster, if the resources were well utilised. In my own case, all the funds I received were judiciously utilised. In fact, I left behind billions of naira which my successor would use to develop other projects.

How would you describe the emergence of the new VC?

It was the handiwork of God. My appointment was surprising like his and these surprises are better. While people were fighting, going here and there, writing petitions, engaging in character assassination, God picked the one that nobody expected