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Tell Ibanga -By Sesugh Akume

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In the last week Idris Abdulaziz and Abu Ammar both Islamic clerics were arrested and detained in Bauchi and Katsina respectively, by the State Security Service (SSS), Nigeria’s secret police for simply stating their opinions on Buhari’s misgovernance and the consequences thereof. A persuaded Idris Abdulaziz said he couldn’t do otherwise despite the intimidation. That he was critical of ex-president Jonathan, why not of Buhari? He says Islam teaches equity and fairness. He won’t do otherwise.

In Akwa Ibom, a young lady, a second-year undergraduate student of performing arts at Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU) has been suspended indefinitely. Joy Ufot Nkanang, had wondered on her Facebook wall exactly what was going on in AKSU? There has been an unchallenged rise is campus cult gang activities in the school and off-campus leading to killing, rape, burglaries and so on. The post had numerous others complaining, another suggested that there should be a protest to which Jadel Nkanang (her name on Facebook) advised on against it as it could make the school look bad and ended with ‘. . . .foolish vc’. For this she was summoned by a school disciplinary panel a kangaroo court of sorts, where she was asked if she had said the school vice chancellor was foolish, to which she answered in the affirmative. She was asked whose daughter she was, and where she was from? That was all. Next she was suspended indefinitely for ‘gross misconduct’ and ‘violation of her matriculation oath’ whatever that nonsense means.

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Professor Eno James Ibanga

What the foolish vice chancellor, Professor Eno James Ibanga doesn’t know is, it’s none of his business listening-in on what people say in their personal spaces. Absolutely none of his business. The incompetent, tyrannical ruler of the university isn’t bothered about the loss of lives, rape, robbery, fear, insecurity, and the atmosphere of terror around the school, what he’s interested in is the view people hold and their freedom to express same.

Some deluded fellow said, she deserves it. How can she call ‘a whole VC foolish’? That universities train graduates in character and learning. Clearly this one doesn’t have character, she’s unworthy; in fact universities can withdraw graduates’ certificates on this basis; a view some share. I asked the confused fellow, does this mean if someone says the president is foolish, their universities should withdraw their degrees seeing as clearly they imbibed neither character nor learning? After all the rambling and heehawing I got no concise no answer. Only unsolicited advice and insults, the usual end for people who don’t know what they’re saying.

This isn’t about the clerics or Ms Nkanang, it’s about the rest of us and how our society functions. The despots ruling us have a grand plan. It is a regime of fear and intimidation. Their intention is to further strip everyone of the last tinge of any sense of freedom of thought, of conscience, of expression. Buhari is incompetent, but you can’t think, much less say it. You’ll be arrested. So his little protégé in AKSU, adopts same techniques. He’s known and actually has a track record of sadistic oppression in his career, when one confirms from places he’s worked prior to AKSU. So, in his usual modus operandi, the best way to address his incompetence and maladministration leading to the insecurity is by way of suppression. The hope for both of these rulers is, if they succeed with one, the rest of us would take cue. For universities and other schools of higher learning, it benefits the oppressor now and in the long term to produce automatons who can’t think independently, aside from what they’re programmed to, much less speak out. The clerics are to be at hand to offer us their usual religious Kool Aid, defending the oppressor/tormentor, explaining away and justifying incompetence, asking us to be patient and to leave things to God, that’s the way he wants it.

Tell Buhari to stop arresting clerics, citizens, and women in Abuja for instance simply because they’re female. Tell Ibanga, Buhari’s mentee to face the issue and leave the courageous young woman, Joy Nkanang alone. She isn’t the problem, his incompetence is. Tell Ibanga to mind his business and stop listening-in on what others are saying. If he must, then it has to be with the aim of taking cues and fixing problems. Then he has to develop, grow, and have a thick skin, the maturity, sentience to understand meaning and nuance, to separate the wheat from the chaff, and ignore comments he doesn’t like and focus on the real issues. If the foolish VC weren’t idle and listening to people having  discussions in their own spaces, he wouldn’t have known what they were saying. He wouldn’t have felt slighted that ‘a whole VC’ was said to be foolish, as if being a professor or VC immunes one from being foolish, and/or being said to be so. He wouldn’t have had Joy Nkanang indefinitely suspended. I, for instance wouldn’t have heard of him being the vice chancellor now. Maybe when I, as other did, it’d have been for his great leadership and administrative ability to have made cultism history, and AKSU a haven for learning, known for its high rating in academe, sports, and so forth; his having taken feedback, especially the unpalatable, and worked on it. He’s doing particularly AKSU and Akwa Ibom great disservice. He’s being a menace to our society. Someone, tell Ibanga.

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1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Uwem Essien

    May 24, 2019 at 1:21 pm

    I thought AKSU is state owned, what concern Buhari in this one, The Vice chancellor is appointed by the state governor

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