"It is only a tree that has fruits that will get stones thrown at it" ”… Prof H O Edeoga, VC, MOUAU (Source: The Punch (August 8, Page 46))

Those who persecute me can’t even spell their names–Edoga, VC, MOUAU 

The Vice-Chancellor of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Professor Hilary Edeoga, in this interview with STEPHEN UKANDU, reacts to the allegation of corruption levelled against him and his administration

In recent times, there have been avalanche of allegations of corrupt practices levelled against you by some members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in your school. Why did you engage in these corrupt practices?

The person who is behind all these is the former Students’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme Director who was removed for incompetence.   Another one is the former Continuing Education Centre Director who was also removed because he stayed in CEC as Director for five years without graduating an ant. I had to remove him and put somebody who started working hard and graduated the backlog of students. At a point under the former director, students spent several years without graduating. Another one is a former Head of Department and a Deputy Director of CEC. He scored a student 40 per cent over 30 per cent and scored every other person zero. When somebody scores such outrageous marks, what do you think happened? Then the senate decided to investigate it along with other reports against him. So, an investigation panel was set up which followed due process according to the university’s laws to investigate him. When we got to a certain stage of the due process, he went to court. Let me ask you a question; if your wife takes you to court, do you still stay under the same roof with her? When that happens, our laws say that any member of staff including the Vice Chancellor that takes the university to court should be suspended pending the determination of the matter. When that happened, he claimed that he was being persecuted because he was the former chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities. But I know that ASUU cannot condone somebody mutilating results or victimising students. ASUU will also not condone a situation where your wife is not qualified and you want her to be given an employment just because you are ASUU Chairman.

NO CRISIS IN MICHAEL OKPARA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE, UMUDIKE

In every human community there are those that strive to make things happen, striving to expand the frontiers of development and make a difference in their society. This breed of progressive minds, through their personal and collective efforts, gives their best to their community and in turn derives maximum satisfaction from the attendant development. At the opposite end, however the dark minds crouch and work and even pray against the success of every enterprise embarked upon by the positive minds. The vile-minded persons neither improve themselves nor contribute to the development of their community. In fact the word development is an anathema to them hence should not be given space to blossom.

Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State has, unfortunately, found itself saddled with anti-development elements, who have sworn to see nothing good in the visionary leadership of Professor Hilary Odo Edeoga, the Vice-chancellor of the institution. The naysayers, who congregate in the name of “concerned ASUU members”, have been sowing seeds of discord among staff and students. But when they found they were not making any headway in their divisive mission they went to town and, not surprisingly, found willing tools in two local tabloids, The Eastern Reckoner and National Ambassador to propagate their falsehoods. The media practitioners (if they actually merit that noble title) in the two tabloids displayed the most reckless and unethical practice by publishing all the falsehoods fed them by the concerned ASUU members without making a modicum of effort to verify the information. Obviously the two local papers were already suffused with irrelevance and to the editors the only way out of their doldrums was to engage in sensational publication to entertain their gullible readers. What a shame!

The reaction of staff and students of our great University to the falsehoods and outlandish claims made by the dissidents have deflated the insidious propaganda. But we still deem it pertinent to put the records straight for those outside the MOUAU community who may not be familiar with the trend of events in the institution. To start with, there is need to define the so called concerned ASUU members and properly situate them in order to understand their motive in correct perspective. The people behind the malicious falsehoods are not amorphous even though they chose to hide under the veil of concerned ASUU members MOUAU chapter (as if it is national body). The MOUAU dissidents are well known to their fellow academic staff and the authorities of the University. There are not more than five lecturers that bandied together to wear the toga of concerned ASUU members, constituting an infinitesimal 0.6 percent of the total academic strength of 764 lecturers in the institution.