Benin National Congress

Main menu:

Re; Reconstituted Governing Council of the University of Benin

Letters, Petitions, Articles and Speeches

statement on niger delta Re; Reconstituted Governing Council of the University of Benin- a diabolic design to subvert the popular will of the academic and Host communities respectively; being an open letter to president Yar Adua as honourable Visitor to the University of Benin by the Benin National Congress. 7th September 2009.

Your Excellency,

We are once again at the threshold of history in Nigeria. This time, it is not about oil revenuers or the attendant militant uprisings that has placed the Niger Delta at the front burner of national and international discourse; it is about the forty years old University of Benin. It is a well known fact that anti Benin politicians have been masterminding the emergence of a credible Bini professor as Vice Chancellor of the institution for no just course for well over thirty years and NOW they are at it again. The recent report by the visitational panel which clearly absorbed one of our own who was hitherto diabolically indicted of plagiarism is a testimony to this unprovoked assault on the Benin people. We agree that the emergence of a vice chancellor in any institution ought to be based on merit and due process but what we detest however is the criminalization and marginalization of our most distinguished academic elements in the University which we daily commit our resources for its protection as a formidable host community. This time around, not only are the anti Binis elements shocked at the calibre of Benin Professors in the race; they have in fact subverted the process that will lead to the emergence of a credible Vice chancellor.

It is a well known fact that before now, the Governing Council had three representatives from Edo State each from the three senatorial districts; until recently when the same anti-Bini club who boasts that the Presidency is at their “beck and call”, in a bid to perfect their evil design of installing a non indigene as Vice chancellor influenced the removal of the Benin representative (Edo South senatorial district) Mr. Joseph I. Idehen and the representative of the Edo North senatorial district i.e the Olokpe of Okpe and replaced them with an Edo central chauvinist and non Edo person respectively; which presents the Edo central as having TWO representatives at the council while the Binis are having none. It is to our knowledge that the plan was to ignite crisis of unmanageable proportion in Benin City. It is our belief that as stakeholders of the federal institution, we have an indispensable role to play in making the citadel of learning relatively peaceful and succeed as a centre for academic excellence, hence we organise this peaceful yet sobered-procession to register our grievances and that of all well-meaning Edo peoples and lovers of justice and equity all over the world. You may agree with us Sir, that in very hostile clime in Nigeria, no non indigene will succeed in his or her quest to be a vice chancellor, but the calmness and hospitality of the Binis for forty years has been taken for weakness and cowardice. We make bold to say that if it will take full-blown militancy to get the decades of injustices redressed, we will not fail to take full responsibilities for it because after all, no group or tribe has a monopoly of violence or armed-struggle militancy.

Our demands

As advocates of peace and social justice, we wish to make the following demands.

1. That the Vice chancellorship screening processes so far put in place by the governing council with the intent of producing a substantive Vice Chancellor for the University of Benin be suspended with immediate effect, because consequent upon the diabolic removal of the representative of Edo South senatorial district and his devious replacement by an Esan chauvinist; the process has been skewed to deny the emergence of a credible Bini man or Nigerian but an Esan Professor; as doing otherwise will be tantamount to the proclamation of jungle justice and whose consequences cannot be predicted by anyone.

2. That Your Excellency as a matter of urgency orders the replacement of the Edo South slot where Mr. Idehen was removed by another Bini man or woman of your choice as there are very credible academicians of Bini origin across the globe whose services could be enlisted for the University’s governing council.

3. That the alleged plans by some disgruntled politicians and die-hard schemers to sabotage the chances of a Bini professor from the long list of eminent Bini professors from emerging as Vice chancellor of the University of Benin be urgently investigated; and perpetrators brought to justice because it is an attempt to cause tribal disaffection, which could snowball into a full-scale tribal conflict.

4. And that as a distinguished social cultural organization with many credentials of immense contributions to Nigeria’s development, we can no longer guarantee the security and wellbeing of the University of Benin in view of the foreseen serial crises that will befall the institution IF THIS ADVISE AND PEACEFUL PROTEST IS IGNORED, because the possibilities of declaring some University of Benin Professors as persona non granta if the popular will of the University’s host community are undermined after this peaceful procession cannot be ruled out as a fall out of self-help.

Cc;

Sign.

Mr. Omowemwen Imadiyi- Vice President, Benin National Congress
Mr.Eseosa Ogbeifun- Deputy Director of Mobilization- Benin National Congress
Mr. John Aghasagbon- National Coordinator- Benin Youth Council