UI female lecturer Adenike Ogunshe of the Department of Botany and Microbiology petitions Jonathan, NUC over alleged victimization. In her petition,she claims that she is a victim of unjust victimization, dehumanization,oppression and discrimination. According to her 'at a point in time,the laboratory door to my office was locked' The institution's Registrar,would not want to lower the reputation of the institution by joining issues with the aggrieved lecturer.She said that the petitioner had earlier been summoned by the disciplinary committee of the institution. We have attached the recent correspondences from the aggrieved lecturer and the University authorities below.
Dear Sir / Madam,
Dear Sir / Madam,
compliments of the season and how do you do?
As far back as 2006, I have been subjected to series
of inhuman victimisation and oppression, while the University Administration is
currently involved in injustices flagrantly displayed against me, and at the
same time partake in adversely affecting my career. Therefore, as a member of
the current Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ibadan
Branch Executive but with every sense of responsibility to you and myself, it
is very important to personally inform you, of certain protracted but life and
career threatening events. It is ethical and mandatory that ASUU Members are
aware of these actions, so that there would be misunderstanding when I have to
take certain actions.
Shortly before the controversy of Head of
Microbiology Department in 2006, I started to receive some dreadful text
messages (S.M.S.), wherein I was threatened to be killed and my intestine to be
used to turban me, etc. I also received a blood-written letter. Ultimately, I
overheard Dr. Onilude swore that he would deal with me as he dealt with Dr.
O.N. Odebowale but he would not make the same mistake of not sending me to the
SSDC and that after being sacked, I would also be fighting the university from outside.
Shortly after the appointment of Dr. A.A. Onilude as
Ag. HOD in 2006, he alleged me of entire missing departmental results but when
the allegation was faulted, he then wrote to eject me from my office for a
newly appointed technologist whom he designated as Resident Technologist. He did not get the support of the immediate
past Vice Chancellor, Prof. O.A. Bamiro to that effect, so electricity to only
my office was disconnected for about eight months, until an External Member of
the Governing Council, Late Dr. Funsho Adetiba came to the Department to
instruct re-connection of the electricity. Dr. Onilude also instructed that the
final year students should start using the Final Year Laboratory for their
project but when the students did not obey such unethical instruction, he
instructed one out of his final year undergraduate students to work with
typhoid samples on the final year laboratory table that I was using after
electricity had been disconnected in my office. Shortly after and for several
years, I was hospitalised for typhoid. Late Prof. O. Omole, the former Dean of
Technology had to heavily subsidise my hospital bills.
When I got discharged from the hospital and resumed
work, Dr. Onilude insisted that I should hand over the Departmental money in my
custody to him but considering some alleged mismanagement of ASUU funds and a
donation from an ASUU member against Dr. Onilude, I suggested that I would want
to hand over the money at a Departmental meeting as usually done, so he
constituted a committee, alleging that I sold fifty naira hand-out to students.
According to the report presented by Dr. Onilude, the chairman of the one-man
committee, Dr. E.A. Ayodele without inviting me to his committee claimed that I
sold fifty naira hand-out to over three hundred (200 Level) students that I
spent more than thirty five thousand naira to conduct more than seven practical
topics to with each student using various sets of practical materials.
Having escaped series of schemes to send me to SSDC,
so that I could be sacked, I was to have been given topics to teach in three
postgraduate courses (in addition to five undergraduate courses that I thought)
in 2007/2008 session in September 2007 but was not given the topics until
February 28, 2008. However, Dr. Onilude lied to the immediate past VC that the
topics were given to me in September 2007. I was eventually sent to SSDC. Dr.
S.G. Jonathan who initially informed the SSDC Panel that he gave me topics to
teach in a course he coordinated but when I implored members of the Panel to
request for the topics’ distribution list he prepared for the three lecturers
that were to have taught the course, he then told the Panel that he did not
prepare any topics because he was on approved accumulated leave and therefore,
could not do anything official but that Dr. Onilude told him that I was told
the topics to teach. However, the other lecturer who was to have taught the
course with us was not sent to SSDC for not teaching the course. Even the then
Dean of Faculty of Science who assumed office on August 1, 2007 was at
the SSDC to testify against me that he called me to the Dean’s office (on March
3 or 4, 2007, as dates provided by Dr. Onilude, which he claimed he kept in
his head) and appealed to me to teach the courses. It is important to note that
the topics of the postgraduate courses, which were eventually made available to
me five months after I was to have had them, were the ones I was instructed
to teach the same day, the following day and four days they were made available
to me.
I was punished for an offence that I never
committed. I appealed to the Governing Council but the former Deputy Registrar
(Establishments) kept my appeal for about a month and returned it to me. My
second appeal submission was also not considered by the Appeals / Petitions
Committee before a verdict of guilty and strong reprimand was slammed on me
without due process by the Governing Council.
Dr. Fagade kept results of a course for over one
year before submitting the result, so, three students who did not know that
they failed the course did not register for the course nor attended a single
class of the course. I did not allow the students to write the examination
because they did not satisfy minimum 75% attendance for eligibility to write an
exam but in order to cover Dr. Fagade, the then HOD, Prof. O. Osonubi made the
students to write the examinations and because I did not mark their scripts in
accordance with the University regulations, Prof. Osonubi did not recommend me
for the 2008 promotion, contrary to the recommendations of the Departmental
A&P.
Neither the recommendations of the 2010 Presidential
Visitation Panel nor the comments from the NUC appropriately addressed on my
issues had been addressed by the University Administration. As a sign of
respect to the current VC, I attend two meetings of the Senate Truth Committee
not knowing I was walking to the slaughter slab. I was informed that I would be
re-invited to meet the committee but to my dismay, the committee had submitted
a report, possibly forwarded by the University Administration to the NUC.
Prof. Fagade issued me a query of refusal to sit
down during the 2012 ASUU national strike. Although, I have not been given my
copy of the query, till date in spite of memos from me requesting for it,
however, it has been copied outside the department and must be in my file.
The HOD never replied any of my memos complaining of
not being given topics to teach in MIC 307, a course that Prof. Onilude
insisted on teaching and coordinating though not in his area of specialisation.
I made sure I copied both the Dean and VC but the Dean instructed the
Department (as contained in minutes of a Departmental meeting) to allocate the
topics to other lecturers in the Department. In addition, Prof. Fagade issued
me a query that I did not teach MIC 307 and MIC 407 (a course Prof. Fagade
insisted on teaching and coordinating though not in his area of
specialisation). MIC 307 and 407 were among the basic courses I had been
teaching since my appointment, being among the core courses in my area of
specialisation. One of the dates listed
by the HOD that I did not teach MIC 407 was a date when students were still at
for demonstrating for no electricity in 2012. Another date was a tae I taught
and took attendance, while unknown to me, the third date was the day Prof.
Fagade told the students he wanted to teach them and to avoid receiving another
query for refusal to let a Professor take
over my class, I cancelled the power point presentation preparations I had
made; however, Prof. Fagade did not teach the students,
Prof. Fagde who as the HOD did not make the topics
to teach in MIC 407 available to me, then got the class representative of the
300 Level students to re-write a
draft petition that he prepared. He later went to the first class
that I was to have with the students, instructing them to write an attendance,
which he attached to the re-written supposed petition by the students to the
VC. The Dean who had my previous memos also constituted a Panel to investigate
allegation of dereliction of duties against me. By divine intervention, I got
the draft petition written by Prof. Fagade for the students, which I showed to
only the ASUU Chainman in confidence. The Panel had not invited me since then,
neither have I been provided with the allegation documents that Chairman of the
Panel Prof. A. Abimbola of Geology promised of making available for from July
11, 2012 till date. Unfortunately, the class representative is withdrawn from
the university.
In spite of all these, the last promotion I had
in University of Ibadan was in 2005, which was made possible by the Faculty of
Science Appointments & Promotions Committee. However, although I became
a postgraduate lecturer in 2005, I have only supervised three M.Sc.
students and no PhD student. I have not been allowed to teach or supervise at
the postgraduate level in about five years. There are currently, 67 PhD
students in the Department of Microbiology but I am not supervising any. None
of my memos of complaints of not being allowed to teach or supervise forwarded
to the Dean of Faculty of Science, The Vice Chancellor or the University
Administration attracted any attention. Regrettably, the memo I received from
the University Administration was that Management showed displeasure at my
attitude to work.
The most recent event is the selective ejection from
office by the Dean of Science. There are four lecturers of Microbiology who
still have offices in the Botany block, while there are two lecturers of Botany
in Microbiology block. Similarly, there are about ten lecturers, as well as
Technologists whose offices have doors opening into adjacent laboratories.
However, in spite of the fact that my office, which was an abandoned junk room
habouring waste papers, materials, equipment and reptiles, was allocated to me
by a former HOD. Prof. I. Fasidi in 2001, the Dean re-designated my office as a
preparatory room to justify why I must leave the office for a room that a
junior faculty to me was moved out to a far better office. The expectation was that my CV would be weak,
since I have not been given students to supervise for about five sessions but
after submitting my CV for the 2011 Institutional Accreditation, the then HOD,
Prof. S.A. Odunfa and the Dean wrote to me that I should leave my office
because it is located in Botany Department. On writing the names of about six
lecturers whose office were vice versa, there was no further
communication from Prof. Odunfa and the Dean until, the Dean re-designated my
office as a preparatory room, linking my stay in the office a disturbance to
accreditation. However, I have been an Academic Staff in the same office during
three previous accreditation exercises, and even being the only Academic Staff
singled out by an accreditation team as a sound researcher, in the same office.
My name has been tarnished by the current
Administration, such that anytime my name is searched with any of the web
engines, the university bulletin that has contains the Council decision
showcase my name as an academic criminal.
My previous project students were not also spared from the
victimisation. If not for the Faculty of Science Board of Examiners, two of my
former students who graduated with Second Class Upper Division and who never
failed as single course throughout their programme would not have graduated
because Prof. Odunfa who was to have been present at the SSDC that tried me
sent another lecturer to represent him, while he was interrogating those
students to build up other allegations against me. The students did not lie
against me, so the presented offence against them was that their B.Sc. project
works were like PhD. The maximum scores given by the External Examiner for that
session was 20 out of 30 marks and he gave the two students 20 marks. I gave
the students 37 and 38 out of 40 marks but after Dr. Fagade scored the student
having 58 out of 70 marks, he ended up having 63 marks. Since then the
Department made a law that no B.Sc.
project must be more than 50 pages!
In conclusion, I would not have been promoted since
2002 if not for the Faculty of Science A&P. I was sent to the SSDC and
declared guilty without due process for an offence I never committed. However,
I strongly believe that if I had written to the immediate past VC that I was
not given topics to teach in September 2007, it would have been difficult to
expressly lie to the then VC. Unfortunately, the current Administration who has
several of my memos, complaints and distress calls has not seen anything wrong
in me, as an Academic Staff of the university being prevented by other Academic
Staff from teaching, supervising students and performing other
responsibilities, while at the same time rail-roaded me to SSDC.
Since all that the Dean has done in his 20-month
tenure is to take only actions that affect me negatively, I am expecting the
Dean to instruct the Security Unit to arrest me or break into my office, which
will be violation of the 2010 Visitation Panel Report. However, as I informed
the Dean in my last memo to him on the issue of my office, I am not the only
Academic Staff of University of Ibadan / University College Hospital, who is
domicile in another department because there is a policy
that all structures belong to the university. Also a memo emanated from the
University Administration that I should be provided with all that I need to
function as an Academic Staff, and of course my office is the most important
need to me, especially with regards to my safety as a Nigerian citizen.
I sadly observed several issues and sent a test to
the current ASUU Chairman that there is no ASUU and that what we see are just
shadows of good things ages past. Even with all the pains of being an Academic
Staff, hearts are still made very heavy with lack of basic teaching and
research facilities, while publications are now indiscriminately black-listed with retrospective
application. One may then not be surprised if unwritten laws are further used
to prevent promotions of hardworking lecturers under the ojuju conditions. As ASUU
Welfare, I am on the net most times searching for information, when not
teaching or in the laboratory. I have read some killing CVs where some
researchers publish over 400 articles, sometimes, over 20 in a year and I am
losing hope of being a Nobel Laureate. The ASUU Chairman met with some people
in the Department in January 2012 but the query issued to me for refusal to sit
down is still not withdrawn. ASUU is
aware that I have not been allowed to teach or supervise at the postgraduate
levels for about five sessions. ASUU is aware of series of victimisation I have
continually subjected to till date. Still, I am a wonder unto many because
always underneath are the everlasting arms. I therefore, hope that ASUU will
keep on being busy with amala
festivities!
Adenike A.O. OGÚNSHÉ
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