According to Concerned Enugu Citizens, a civil society group, a long shadow is being cast over the ongoing, celebrated revival of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, (UNN). The group is raising an alarm over an alleged sinister plot by certain individuals to launch a coordinated smear campaign against the university’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Simon Uchenna Ortuanya, and his administration.
This was not merely a disagreement over policy, but a calculated attempt to derail progress out of sheer bitterness and vested interests.
Comrade Davidson Eze, the group’s Public Relations Officer, told our reporter the architects of this plot are a familiar clique from within the university system, aided by external collaborators. Their weapon of choice is planned series of sponsored press conferences to commence in a few days time designed to tarnish the hard-earned integrity and reputation of the Vice Chancellor.
Eze said they could not stomach his successes that are already being celebrated so soon after his take over.
“The motivation is as clear as it is petty. Don’t forget these are individuals who believed the leadership of UNN was their exclusive birthright. We know them, and having lost out in the race, they have never forgiven Professor Ortuanya for his emergence. To them, he remains an ‘outsider’ who must be cut down to size for daring to succeed where they had monumentally failed.”
Eze who referred to them as “the vicious old guard” also accused them of, “presiding over a staggering decay through the decades which left Africa’s pioneer indigenous university in a state of heartbreaking disrepair. Professor Ortuanya has brought vision and vigour. For over four decades, this group watched as student hostels crumbled, staff quarters deteriorated, lecture halls faded, and the very landscape of the great UNN withered.”
He said the new VC encountered a university on its knees, and instead of bemoaning the challenge, he embraced it wholeheartedly. He recalled how he had visited every dilapidated structure, faced the staff and students and made a vow to reverse the decay.
Speaking further he said “The enthusiasm was electric, the commitment genuine. The entire university community, for the first time in a long time, had a reason to hope.”
It is this very hope and tangible achievements, according to him, that have apparently sparked panic among the old establishment who he said benefited from the status quo. He said that as they see their legacy of neglect being erased by a tide of renewal, understandably their response is not to join the rebuilding effort, but to sabotage it.
He therefore called on the public, stakeholders, and every member of the UNN community who cherishes the institution to be aware of their programmed, poisonous propaganda about to be unleashed. He said the people must understand this was a fight for the soul of the university.
He also had a word for those behind the plot. He told them to stop as the time for the politics of succession was over, noting that their personal grievances must not be allowed to hold a national treasure like UNN hostage.
He reminded them there was only one Vice Chancellor at a time. Therefore, rather than dissipating energy planning malicious attacks, they should key into the Vice Chancellor’s noble task of restoration and mission to bring back the lost glory of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
