By SEBASTINE EBHUOMHAN
Copyright independent
The search for a substantive Vice Chancellor at the Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, is almost concluding. Although it commenced immediately after the Vis-itor, Governor Monday Okpebholo, ap-pointed a Governing Council for the fore-most state institution of higher learning, it took a dramatic twist however when some groups and individuals with vested interests rejected the results and names of three recommended successful appli-cants after a committee of experts had conclusively conducted an interview for all the qualified applicants.
During the inauguration of the coun-cil, Senator Okpebholo was very clear about his expectations when he told the Chairman, Chief Daniel Osikheme Or-bih, “Your appointment is not based on party affiliation, but on your merit, your capabilities, and your capacity to attract benefits that will elevate our university to global status.”
“I am humbled by your choice, despite our party differences. If your goal is to foster partnership in growing the state’s sectors, you have found reliable partners in us. I speak for myself and fellow coun-cil members when I say we will work tire-lessly to rejuvenate the university, correct past errors. And drive excellence,” Orbih vowed.
In March, Orbih exclusively disclosed to this journalist his plans to lead AAU to greater heights.
A successful businessman, a founding member of the People’s Democratic Par-ty (PDP), ex-Chairman of Edo State PDP and present National Vice Chairman of the PDP (South-South Zone), Orbih leads the Legacy Group, the largest caucus of Edo PDP, without which tactical support Okpebholo’s ruling-All Progressives Con-gress (APC) would not have won the Sep-tember 2024 governorship election easily.
As Orbih vowed, the council accelerat-ed in tandem with the Acting Vice Chan-cellor, Professor Sunday Olowo Samuel, against the gigantic challenges in AAU. One of such most important tasks was the appointment of a substantive Vice Chancellor and some other principal management positions including: Reg-istrar, Bursar and Librarian. Backed by relevant laws, the council placed adver-tisement in three national newspapers, formally declared the offices vacant, and invited applications from qualified candi-dates, as required.
Underlining rule of law, due process and transparency, the council received all applications, collated same, shortlisted qualified applicants, conducted an inter-view, released the result timeously and painstakingly considered observable issues as at the time. Finally, it recom-mended three candidates to the Visitor for consideration as substantive Vice Chancellor. With the exception of the post of Registrar, declared inconclusive, interview results for the other positions were also released.
As approved by the General Assembly, the council recommended: Frederick Ug-besia Igene, a Professor of Animal Nutri-tion and Biochemistry in the Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agricul-ture, Natural Resources and Food Scienc-es; Marshall Aregboje Azeke, a Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences; and Sunday Olowo Samuel, a Professor of Medical Microbiology in the Depart-ment of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Clinical Sciences.
The council followed with a letter to Governor Okpebholo dated 29th April, 2025, formally conveying the shortlisted names for substantive AAU Vice Chancel-lor. But hardly had the governor received the council’s letter than petitions began to pour against the nominees: with more petitions allegedly against Marshall and the most allegedly against Igene.
Recalling how the controversy began, AAU Principal Assistant Registrar and Head, Information, Public Relations and Protocol, Otunba Michael Aladeni-ka, said, “As the university community awaits the Governor’s appointment of a substantive Vice Chancellor, a flood of petitions emerged, challenging the pro-cess, outcomes, and candidate eligibility of qualified and interviewed applicants for duly advertised vacant positions.
“The process of appointing a substan-tive Vice Chancellor is a nuanced and in-formed exercise, prioritising competence and ability to drive the Visitor’s vision. It is crucial to note that social media crit-icisms are often designed to heighten tension and create disaffection. A cau-tious approach is warranted to navigate this process effectively,” the spokesman added.
Worried by the barrage of destructive petitions, Edo State Government replied in a letter titled, Re: Presentation of Can-didates for Appointment as Substantive Vice Chancellor, signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Barrister Umar Musa Ikhilor, dated 30th July, 2025, ad-dressed to the council’s Chairman.
The letter commended the appoint-ment process, noted the emergence of petitions against nominees, and directed a review of the process, contrary to the false narrative of a cancellation.
“I want to sincerely commend the council for its commitment and untiring effort in repositioning the University in line with its mandate. The council may wish to recall that ever since the letter we received, there has been a series of petitions against the persons nominat-ed by the council for consideration for appointment as substantive Vice Chan-cellor of the University. We have realised that these petitions were never brought to the attention of the council, which we believed, would have considered them during the process of recruitment. In view of the foregoing, considering the weighty nature of issues raised in the pe-titions, it is pertinent to refer the petitions back to council to review and carry out necessary actions as it may deem appro-priate to enable His Excellency, the Gov-ernor, make informed decision on a most suitable candidate for appointment as the substantive Vice Chancellor of the Am-brose Alli University,” the letter stated.
Even though the petitions are report-edly unverified, the petitioners would rather Okpebholo cancelled the free and fair recruitment that threw up the three nominees for one of their own, the lovable Mrs. Eunice Ebioserehimen Omonzejie, a Professor of French and Francophone African Literature in the Department of Modern Languages, Fac-ulty of Arts.
Following Orbih and the council’s un-willingness to play ball by adopting eth-nic sentiments and emotions to accede to the demand for cancellation, dissatisfied groups and individuals sought to force the Chairman’s resignation if Okpeb-holo refuses to dissolve the council. An indigene of Ogbona in Etsako Central Local Government Area, Afemai Land, Orbih is ably, capably, and undoubtedly leading the council on a successful path-way carved beyond AAU’s inglorious past. Indeed, every dog has its day. But the call against Orbih is about giving a dog a bad name…
Omonzejie, an Ewu-born intelligent, quiet, unassuming, brilliant and peaceful teacher, who began her career at AAU as a graduate assistant, refuses to glorify the sentiments of ethnic militias.
“It is not a do-or-die affair for me to be the Vice Chancellor of Ambrose Alli Uni-versity. I know anything I put my heart succeeds at the right time. Except if God does not support it. If you look very well, you will see I have come a long way since I started as a graduate assistant. I do not really feel like talking on this matter now. When everything is concluded, you can return for an interview with me,” she stated when this reporter phoned her.
In a related analysis, a university lec-turer who ventured into politics, winning election twice into the Senate of the Fed-eral Republic, and rising to the exalted position of President of the Senate and ex-presidential running mate of the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP), the late Dr. Chuba Wilberforce Okadigbo (1941— 2003), condemned the mentality of ap-proaching life with ethnic parochialism.
“If you are emotionally attached to your tribe, religion, or political leaning to the point that truth and justice become secondary considerations, your educa-tion is useless. Your exposure is useless. If you cannot reason beyond petty senti-ments, you are a liability to mankind,” Okadigbo stated unforgettably.
In essence, human beings must think above tribe, religion and association to expedite social development. Sadly, in Nigeria, inclusive of Edo State, today, sentiment, bias, sectionalism, nepotism, segregation, association, religion, eth-nicity, tribe and godfatherism subjugate equality, equity, justice, fairness, law, or-der, diligence, transparency, accountabil-ity and merit. No thanks to the above, the AAU, a citadel of learning, knowledge, exposure and enlightenment that should lead eradication of nepotism is seen as a place cultivating it.
A pioneer of state universities that once attained “Top 10 Ranking” in Ni-geria, during which time it graduated numerous great students like the global investment and banking giant: the Chair-man of United Bank for Africa Plc as well as founder of the Tony Elumelu Founda-tion, Mr. Tony Elumelu and the current Minister of Aviation, Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN), AAU steadily declined from the combination of cultism, fraud, corrup-tion, violence and dilapidation.
To state that AAU fell to its lowest height during the reign of SIT, the il-legal vehicle cobbled by ex-governor Obaseki, is stating the obvious. Obaseki created SIT to ‘rescue’ AAU. But SIT left the school in the worst state before Prof Samuel assumed office as Acting VC in September 2024. Obaseki stamped AAU’s rots with an abysmal N41 million from an initial inadequate N270 million month-ly subventions, leaving tales of woes of unpaid salaries, staff victimisation, selective payments, non-remitted deduc-tions, lack of promotion, total neglect, fall of standard, absence of researches, and high corruption rate among others. His recent allegation from abroad was carefully designed to manipulate and hoodwink Edo people.
Obaseki alleged that AAU was plagued by cultism. He added that the au-thorities sold degrees to individuals who resided abroad and who never attended the university. He concluded that it would require a miracle for AAU to survive the next 10 years.
Considering the integrity deficiency of the ex-governor’s personality and administration, analysts say his words should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Compared with the past administra-tion, Okpebholo, in less than a year of assuming office, has implemented key decisions that have revived AAU and planted the management, council, staff and students firmly on successful path-way. The governor raised AAU’s monthly subventions to N500 million, which has taken care of many of the things that were abandoned under Obaseki. The gov-ernor appropriately retained the Acting Vice Chancellor. He has appointed a Gov-erning Council. He is about constructing new infrastructure after approving a new 600-bed hostel, a new 1,500-seater lecture theatre, twin 300-capacity lecture theatre and a 1.5 megawatts alternative energy facility to improve and boost learning at AAU. He is upgrading and revamping other dilapidated facilities.
While petitioners are busy planting petitions in social media blitz targeting the Chairman, the council, and the Act-ing Vice Chancellor, verifiable records show the school’s measurable progress under the authorities’ leadership, begin-ning with relative peace and stability the institution enjoys today.
Following the increase in funding, pension and salaries, the N70, 000.00 New Minimum Wage has not only been implemented but paid regularly at AAU.
The staff members Obaseki sacked politically have been recalled, reinstated and restored to the school payroll thanks to Okpebholo’s spirit of love, humanitari-anism, equity, justice and fairness.
Under Olowo and Orbih’s leadership, the AAU is actively exploring collabora-tions with international institutions to-day as exemplified in the Memorandum of Understanding signed with Jilin Insti-tute of Chemical Technology and Mutu-al Commitment Company Limited last year for Student Exchange Programmes, Faculty Exchange Programmes, Joint Research and Academic Projects, and Internships and Joint Seminars, all ex-pected to start bearing fruits soon.
While the issue of regularisation of AAU graduates has been resolved, allow-ing students of the school to participate in the National Youth Service Corps programmes, the new school policy as adopted by the Senate is that all gradu-ates now receive certificates immediately after graduation just as the long-standing issues with transcript application are be-ing tackled. The same applies to the old issue of missing results: students now access their results in all registered cours-es before registering for a new session.
Importantly, AAU’s past TETFund ban has been lifted with Sponsorship Access restored. Now, several academic staff secure TETFund research grants, unlike in the past.
The intractable problems at the College of Medicine are almost fully re-solved, resulting to the successful swear-ing-in and Oath-taking Ceremony of Set 18 Medical Doctors (2020/2021 Session), induction of 810 nurses, and a resolution of MLS students challenges caused by excess admissions in the past.
As a matter of fact, AAU management approved the promotion of 57 staff to the rank of Professor and 56 to Associate Pro-fessor. The management further released the 2022, 2023 and 2024 promotions for all categories of staff (academic, non-aca-demic and junior), a renewed commit-ment never enjoyed under Obaseki’s eight wasted years.
Relative to the stability in AAU under Olowo and Orbih, the university com-menced the first semester examinations for the 2024/2025 session without any disruption.
Furthermore, the university is part-nering Edo State Government and NEL-FUND for student loan to indigent stu-dents just as it continues its crackdown on cultism, yahoo-yahoo and darkness to enhance internal and external campus security.
