By Charles Otu
The dusts stirred in the premier Nnamdi Azikiwe University over the dissolution of it’s Governing Council and the consequent removal from office of the Seventh substantive Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Professor Benard Odoh may not settle anytime soon despite all we have to heard and read on the now highly-contentious matter.
I am compelled to write, not in any official capacity as a media aide to the embattled Vice-Chancellor, an insider to some of the happenings during the imbroglio but only as a concerned Ebonyian, lover of Igbo nation and to the rest of the extent and intent, an average Nigerian. This clarification becomes very important in order to disabuse the minds of any reader and also clear any form of bias whatsoever on the minds of readers and watchers of events.
In the beginning, is Odoh – the intelligent, strong, mighty but highly envied…
Like a shining star, Umuezeokoha-Ezza North, Ebonyi State born Professor Benard Ifeanyi Odoh has something about his destiny that even his enemies admire. His exemplary courage is so infectious that even those around him wonders how this moment, he is about to be utterly slayed. And before his sympathizers finishes pouring in their litany of words of encouragements, like a Joseph, he has put his past episode and background behind him and he is already dreaming again for the future he envisages.
And so it was for him when he graduated from Geological Sciences in UNIZIK in 1999 and I’m sure that the petty jealousy some of his contemporaries in Awka may have had towards his fast rising career must have buoyed him into considering returning to his home varsity, EBSU to begin his teaching career as an Assistant Lecturer. Thinking he was settled and better at home with his kinsmen, the same Joseph’s envy among his brothers soon arose.
There were insinuations he was not getting the cooperation a bright Adamu in Kebbi would have easily gotten, the moment his kinsmen realizes he can spell, write and pronounce his name. And so, it took a visit to EBSU by his erstwhile Boss, Professor Egboka of his same Geological Sciences in UNIZIK as a Vice-Chancellor to cause him to return to help him as a Personal Assistant to the Vice-Chancellor. This was a few years after ‘Joseph Odoh’ returned to Awka, after bagging his Doctor of Philosophy Degree through the guidance and mentorship of Prof. Egboka who heavily regretted that Ebonyi people in EBSU didn’t know or value what they had in Odoh.
During Senate Council meetings, Odoh- the Ebonyi-born bright and brilliant Personal Assistant to Egboka – the then Vice-Chancellor will be asked by his boss to preside over sensitive committee meetings often to the angst of some indigenous academics who feel he was being over-favoured by the VC. And Professor Egboka will in his defense insist that if as a PA he can attract a whooping N150M and $1.7 from firms into his administration, why will he not continue to place him on merit above others?
Perhaps, sensing also that the tenure of his boss was over and a Pharaoh who know no Joseph may take over, Odoh decided after taking stock of his impacts even in his Ebonyi enclave in the little opportunities he has had so far in life decided to try plying his trade in politics. He consequently proceeded on leave to vie for the Ebonyi Central Senate in 2015 and clearly ‘won’ that election even under an unknown APGA.
I vividly recall that it was in the course of his electioneering campaigns a decade ago that someone like this writer who had taken time to study his blitzkrieg academic records and other accomplishments at such a young age decided to support his ambition even if only in the media as he was not of my Ebonyi South Senatorial zone. I recall interviewing him in his Umuezeokoha-Ezza North village in December that year and rejecting any transport fare he had offered. I later published that interview in my CONSCIENCE newspaper days after and sent some copies which he asked that I keep for him in a hotel in Abakaliki hence he was not around. Out of love for his daring courage, I never accepted any remuneration or gratification for that job till date!
Feeling his tremendous impacts in the election and with advices from those who knew he actually made it but was denied for “PDP’s bullish sake”, then newly-elected Governor David Umahi- a man his predecessor-boss warned Ebonyians not to support or vote for approached Odoh to become his SSG on the strong counsel of the academic who came as Returning Officers in the election and actually knew the truth about what transpired.
In a meeting I later learnt took place in Enugu, Odoh was reported to have boldly told Umahi that he may find it difficult working with him because all the testimonies and allegations suggested he was a wicked, callous and tyrant leader. Of course those who know Umahi truly well would attest to his claims to Odoh in his reply that he was merely being blackmailed by Elechi and other losers who laboured in vain in Labour Party. Odoh however accepted his offer of a Secretary to the State Government but with cautious optimism. His academic competitors in Awka ironically became even more jealous that at 39, they have pursued Odoh into fame as SSG of his State.
Those conversant with his 30 months stay in office as SSG under Umahi during which some of us stayed completely away from him because we knew the character he accepted to work for and with would attest that it was all roforofo fight between the two ‘wise men’. Umahi and his brothers would want SSG to sign and release funds for unbudgeted and unaccountable spendings which was a common feature of his government. An Odoh as SSG would request for a formal memo in writing, signed and properly documented. The Umahis will decline and Odoh will call a bluff of them, insisting that such is not how public funds are spent.
And so it was that for nearly 30 months beginning from May 29th 2015 to April 2nd 2018, that there was no peace in Jerusalem between the SSG and his Governor boss simply because Odoh held his heads so high with every circumspection. He had to resign when Umahi least expected it and was perhaps plotting his sack and handed over everything he made from government to the same government he served, including his official vehicle that he had almost completed payment for just to be free from Umahi.
But that was not to be. Umahi soon ‘rented’ his people to protest and call him ‘the devil’. He would go ahead to probe his stay in office with 32 auditing of accounts and every record books he handled as SSG. It was the most desperate attempt to indict a public office holder in history and yet, nothing, absolutely NOTHING was found on Odoh. For he was very careful to dine with the devil with a very long spoon. Every transaction he made, Odoh had his personal records intact. And that was why when Umahi eventually thought he had got him with allegations of diverting N2Bn CBN Agric loan, Odoh soon flooded the media with evidences of the roles played by the Umahis, not him. He consequently wrote the EFCC to come and probe him and everyone involved in the committee. Umahi quickly ran to block it, preaching a gospel that Ebonyi was very united in brotherly love and no funds were never missing nor stolen!
Some months later, Odoh surprisingly appeared in an APC National Convention in 2018 ahead of the 2019 elections. He later officially decamped to the APC to vie for the Party’s ticket and narrowly lost it to Umahi’s desperate shemings. The later wanted a weaker opposition candidate to make his re-election easier and that he exactly got in Ogbuoji. Odoh, again left to focus on his classroom and other engagements for survival.
Shot eight times at different places in 2023 but God still spared ‘Joseph Odoh’…
Three years later in April 2022, Odoh returned to the boxing ring and got the APGA ticket to vie for the Governorship election in Ebonyi. By August, Umahi had ordered that all his billboards be destroyed by his Ebubeagu militia and they strictly ensured that even his posters were not spared. Odoh was first physically attacked and rescued by the DSS at Iboko- the capital of Izzi LGA where his strongest opponent, Nwifuru hail from. His crime? He was warned by thugs never to come and campaign in Ali Izzi where incidentally his wife hails from. Of course a stubborn Odoh dared them and had his convoy vehicles shattered and some injured with gunshot wounds. Not done, he was again shot directly at and almost killed on the 5th of February 2023 while returning from a campaign in his Ezzaegu community somewhere around Rest House, Okpoto in Ishielu LGA by some hired assassins. He lost his driver and orderly in the milieu and the rest of us on his convoy miraculously escaped, some with gunshot wounds.
About a week after, he again came under heavy gunshot attack at Okposi where he had gone to commission the campaign office of his Party in his Deputy Governorship candidate’s domain. God, again saved him! Seeing his impact that saw his Party win his Federal Constituency against all odds and frightened he may also win his own election, the government used security agencies to hunt and hound him out of Ebonyi over curious allegations he killed his own Traditional Ruler.
Like Moses, Odoh, again fled Ebonyi for his dear life and never campaigned again two weeks before his election. They sent thugs who successfully burnt all election materials in his Ezza North strongholds. Yet, a run-away Odoh won the LGA and his sister Ezza South LGA landslide! He yet remained hibernated as the government still sort to arrest and try him even when confessions made by those arrested never linked him to their heinous crime.
Odoh and the UNIZIK VCship journey and matters miscellany …
Why the joke is on FUGUS!
A lot has already been said and read about Odoh and his ordeals in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. But some of us who had a hint in his interest in the race months ago understand pretty well that his rise to glory and ouster in a coup-like manner were all political tussles between his former boss who allegedly vowed he would never allow him become anything again in life after quitting his government and one of Odoh’s benefactors who has influence within the South East region. The later, knowing what was at stake lobbied to make input in the Governing Council while the former was dazed his sworn enemy would later emerge a beneficiary of that. Angered by his eventual emergence on the 29th of October, 2024, his ertswhile boss never hid his bilious feelings.
It was alleged he quickly ‘mobilized’ the Ministry of Education to oust him with a stroke of a “Null and Void” letter for and on behalf of a Permanent Secretary. But some of us roared back instantly that the Education Ministry has no powers to so act. The arrival of Dr. Tunji Alausa – a Doctor chauvinist who was allegedly backed by top echelon of the Medical profession that desperately want their West African Post Graduate College of Medicine certificate to be considered an equivalent of a Ph.D changed the game in his enemies favour.
Upon assumption of office on November 5th, same day Odoh coincidentally took over as the Seventh substantive Vice-Chancellor of NAU, the former expressly vowed to revisit the case of UNIZIK and reverse whatever had been done. Talk about having a written script from day One and you may not be utterly wrong!
And so it was as we strongly suspected that when these aggregated interests aligned, led by a more bitter enemy within, the services of ‘The Presidency’ were allegedly procured after some Anambra big spenders were brought into the game. Imagine hiring those you consider ‘enemies’ to come and fight your brother from the same house! The strongest argument is that it was all politics that produced Odoh as a VC and he was not qualified. Pray, tell me; which Vice-Chancellor in Nigeria has ever been appointed without some form of political influence? The visitor of Nigerian tertiary institutions is himself a politician!
The allegations of a gamut of gang ups and dangerous schemings against Odoh by the Umahis, including the new industry of attempting to rubbish his long-standing reputation as a fraudulent scholar reminds one of this famous quote:
He who rides on the back of the tiger to terrorize others will one day find himself in the belly of the same tiger – Umaru Dikko to Abiola.
Some powerful people in the kitchen cabinet of Tinubu were allegedly recruited to boot Odoh out of office whether lawful or illegal. The plotters travelled as far as Gusau to strangely smuggle out his staff records and succeeded in using the new administration they also put in place to achieve same. Everyone got settled and the rest you are hearing are mere defensive gibberish!
The FUGUS gaffe and it’s unpardonable shame…
The discordant tunes of politics over academics being dished out from the inglorious kitchen of Federal University, Gusau is nothing but shameful and they all add to the dangerous politics we play with everything in Nigeria. First, a Professor was elevated in your institution and people said he was not. The then VC, Professor Benchuks Okeke, the Registrar, Ibrahim Bawa Kaura and another assessor, Professor Isaac Aiyegbogun of ESUT and Edo State Universities all went to Court to swear to affidavits attesting to his assessment and promotion to the rank. He had personally written the Pro-Chancellor to clear the airs to save both his reputation and the two institutions involved and you never officially replied such an official correspondence.
What did the mugus in FUGUS do? Rush to reference a Vanguard publication in a tone that sounded more political than academic. Not done with their absurd contradictions, the VC called for a World Press Conference and further contradicted the Vanguard’s rejoinder. He said Odoh was never a staff because his records cannot be found but same Odoh received salaries and other entitlements from the University. Talk of dishing one out after serving you, then you remember FUGUS!
All these actions and decisions, including comments and write ups would be tested in Court and it will only be a matter of time before the chicken finally comes home to roost. Even the Doctor chauvinist minister who neglected pending five suits in court knows this much too. All that a not-too-desperate team would have done is to set up a committee and invite all parties in the controversy. But not when the law means nothing!
The mere fact that close allies of Umahi were joyfully sharing the news even to Professor Odoh himself without shame or wisdom tells all about their key roles in the entire process. While we leave the rest to history to judge even as we pursue the matter in court, one teary scenario for Igbos in general and my beloved Ebonyi State in particular is the question posed by a friend of mine who watched Professor Odoh speak in defense against one Professor Mohammed- National Chairman of the MDCAN on ARISE Tv:
“Editor, why are you Igbos always undoing yourselves? Watching your principal speak and hearing that Aboki Professor, it was never in doubt who amongst the duo is indeed a Professor!”
In a more mocking manner, my Yoruba friend said no wonder they allowed Buhari to govern for eight years with a questionable WAEC. “My Yoruba people have kept you quiet over Tinubu’s certificates. Has he not governed Nigeria for eighteen months and still counting? But you Igbos were quick to force Peter Obi to produce his UNN second class lower certificate just to prove he was indeed a graduate. You guys should continue to undue yourself and be claiming you would ever rule Nigeria!”, he concluded. At this point, I only fought back tears! Imagine watching the current VC of FUGUS struggling to read out a written text in a video they said they disclaimed Odoh’s Professorship and watching the same Odoh speak extempore on a National Television being grilled by Abati and the ARISE TV gang. You can just conclude that’s why Nigeria out not to have been in the first place.
Igbos Ebonyiphobia and the rest of us…
While in UNN, I heard people get shocked in my Department and Faculty that I proudly introduced myself as an Ebonyi man. Many Ebonyians, particularly from the Abakaliki bloc comprising of some eight or more out of 13 LGAs would never want to introduce themselves or identify with and as Ebonyi undergraduates. I was a Director of Socials in the National Association of Ebonyi State Students, NAESS and we had less than 20 persons from the entire Abakaliki bloc! It was more of an Ebonyi Southern affair because they never wanted the rest of their Igbo brothers to deride them as “Nwa Abakaliki”.
Leaving Nsukka in 2011, I chose to settle in Abakaliki to first understudy this my people that have become ‘rejected stones’ in their own region. For nearly a decade and half, I can beat my chest to say I have no regrets not setting in Ebonyi because I am one of the few from my Afikpo bloc that have truly mixed up, speaking and understanding almost all the various dialects. Ever wondering why the rest hate the best of us, my encounters as an editor of a National Daily in Awka opened my eyes the more and that was why Ebonyians should have all rose up in defense of Odoh. In the past two weeks that Odoh held sway, some of the staff claimed they can’t write or speak. Immediately Ikechebelu who obtained his Ph.D just less than two years ago. He only had a Fellowship from his profession was reappointed by the Doctor chauvinist, Alausa, they started churning out materials in defense of their brother. This is the same man they joined forces to fight to remove in June.
Our stakeholders, some in the academics out of envy and jealousy decided to keep mute and foolishly called it an Odoh versus Ndi Anambra war. Now that they are done with Odoh, Umahi and his co-travellers who cried wolf in the National stadium during APC Presidential primary in 2022 should wait to cry for more justice without being heard from their Anambra and the rest of their Igbo brothers. For those who were already thinking that Odoh will stall their 2027 and 2031 political ambitions if allowed to last five years as VC, I urge you therefore to weep not for Odoh but for you/ourselves because Anambra and others remain ‘Bluebloods’.
And to the rest of the Igbos touting Biafra go, Biafra come, you can peep through the Gaza that we could easily become if the rest of Nigeria decides to let us go our way. We will continue to deceive ourselves in pursuit of shadows while the rest of the Nigeria and the world laugh at our foolishness. Yes, Odoh may down, but if God spared him in all the aforementioned battles, He must have a reason for keeping and sustaining him. Umahi and his cohorts can now send the admission lists, employment quotas, contracts, influence and the rest of the perks and accoutrements that come with the Office of the Vice-Chancellor Nnamdi Azikiwe University through their rich Anambra billionaire contacts to Professor Ikechebelu while Odoh perhaps continues his fight for life’s survival amidst heavy burden to make impact in our hopeless and shattered society. For one day, the God of Odoh SHALL ARISE to fight for him his battles and he shall yet fulfill destiny
Charles Out, a Public Affairs analyst wrote from Abakaliki