An angry law graduate of Nigeria’s premier university has opened a can of worms, leveling wide-ranging allegations against the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Isaac Adewole.

Bello Olusegun Kayode, until lately of the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan in Nigeria’s South-West, tore Prof. Adewole into shreds in an open letter which is still trending on Facebook more than two months after it was posted on the Official Group of the Students’ Union, University Of Ibadan.

Dated March 03, 2013, the letter focused on what the writer called “THE USE OF INSTRUMENTALITY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AS A MEANS OF PERSONAL VENDETTA, VICTIMIZATION, OPPRESSION, AND DESPOTISM?” In it, the writer, who appeared to have gone underground at a time, detailed his travails and that of students of the university, dismissing Adewole’s tenure as a failure. He also likened the VC to a combination of late Nigerian despot Gen. Sani Abacha, late Libyan strongman Muammar al-Qaddafi and Nigeria’s crafty former Military President Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

News Express is not aware of any response by Prof. Adewole to Kayode’s allegations, close t three months after the letter started trending on Facebook and some other social media. Below is the letter, unedited:
I, Bello Olusegun Kayode, a Graduate of Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, use this very medium to write you that your policies, actions, and decisions so far as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, have been seen by me as draconian, despotic, victimizing, oppressive, totalitarian, autocratic, bourgeois, inhumane, and above all against the will of God (the Deity).

Before I fire on, let me remind you of the fact that there were people whose actions have been ‘Abachaic’, ‘Babangidaic’ or ‘Qaddafic’ in nature, but what was there their end? Muammar al-Qaddafi was disgraced, and died eventually, so also Saddam Hussein’s body must have become rotten in the grave, and decomposed then formed part of the soil later, and may be in some one hundred years to come it would be part of mineral resources, so shall every human’s body be. Then, the question is: what would be the gain of a ruler (not a Vice Chancellor) that had sent over 80% of his students outside the campus into the waiting hands of cultists (who now shoot sporadically) and House agents and land lords who now exploit students?

At first, one would think that you would do better than your predecessors, but with all these your policies, with time you might be the worst Vice Chancellor, the University of Ibadan ever produced. The Yorubas would say: “Eye ko ke bi Eye man, Eku ko ke bi Eku man, ni igba Aye Adewole.” You promised kitchenettes all in the name that it is illegal to cook in the room. How many kitchenettes are now working in my alma mater? I could see hungry students with empty stomachs going to classes, rushing down to the University of Ibadan. I could behold each time faces with hearts cursing you, and your administration. I could see queues at different eateries, cafeterias, almost begging for food. They wanted to have something in their stomachs before going to classes. Not that they would be satisfied with the foods, but they just wanted to have some energy to carry on the activities of the day.

Sir, you do not need to be in a military uniform with signs of Field Marshal before one can conclude your dictatorial tendencies and policies. I am of the opinion that you are an agent of the Federal Government with the determination to oppress, suppress, and kill any voice that may want to speak. You have deployed enough military and paramilitary personnel in your abode. You have given the security operatives called Abefele in the University that power to protect you, using the instrumentality of the Federal Government, invariably protecting the interests of the Federal Government under the Presidency of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan Ebele. There is nothing you do that will be queried by your pay master. You collect over N1 million per month, and you think you are okay with that. News is in town that you would go into politics in Osun State. I wonder when this country would be great, as someone like you ought to resign immediately despite the fact that the people are not happy with you, and they have compared you, and your predecessor, Prof. Olufemi Bamiro, and the conclusion is that he has done better than you. As much as I would not want to compare you with Prof. Bamiro, I always love to state that only time would tell, but it is glaring that you have not lived up to expectation in your days so far as the Vice Chancellor of the premier University.

Sir, it is quite absurd the way you have bought two prominent people to your side, and all your efforts to buy me over had proved abortive. It is pitiable that the fellow called High Priest spoke against the students’ agitations during the Town Hall meeting held in the mainbowl of the Trenchard Hall, in the institution. High Priest that I know would not have done better as my encounter with him at a time showed how he can be easily bought over, and my findings are pointers to this fact. Moreso, it is more pitiful as one Mr. Sunday Saanu, a Mass Communication Graduate had turned himself to your puppet all in the name that he wanted t have good life: ride good cars, build good house, travel with you whenever just as Reuben Abati would whenever Dr. Jonathan Goodluck wants to travel. Let me, through you, tell them that they have only sold their conscience. Mr. Sunday Saanu and myself attended same institution, and I quite respect him, but I expect better reportage, and critical views from him. Anyway, he needs to serve you better by writing in the dailies against the students. By so doing, you pat him on his back, and tell him he is doing a great job. You need someone like him so that you could have a smooth ride. He once praised your despotic administration, and the accolades he showered on you were nothing but pack of lies and deceits. For Mr. Saanu to have reduced himself to your puppet is a colossal waste as a product of the highly prestigious Mass Communication Department, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Furthermore, one would expect you to continually and wittily outwit anybody based on the fact that people had seen you as a clever, political and diplomatic fellow. I ask: can we conclude that Babangida Ibrahim Gbadamosi was truly a wise person when he would use arms and ammunition to threaten any dissidents or anybody with divergent views? Similarly, can we conclude that you are diplomatic or witty when you use the security people, soldiers, police, and the incompetent disciplinary committee to silence students, or perhaps others? I put it to you that you are fearful, and you do not want what occurred during the no-light protest occur. You deployed some of your ‘dogs’ to chase and arrest me. You served students queries because they marched against your no-cooking policies. You guard your own children with soldiers. You protect your kinsmen using the same instrumentality of the Federal Government: same institution that should be for the benefit of all, just as Ayo Buluma, the General Secretary-elect of the Students’ Union, would say: “This University was built with our father’ s cocoa money.” You have the link with the power that be. You hold a member card of the People Deceiving People (PDP). You report to them that you are doing a good job. They told you that what occurred during the oil subsidy protest must never occur again, as the University of Ibadan students joined in the protest against the Federal Government’s announcement on January 1, 2012, that the oil subsidy had been removed. You and our leaders say we are leaders of tomorrow, but here we are as your followers with your determination to clinch to power with your kinsmen in my own state, the Living Spring State, Osun State. I pray I don’t die before then to tell tales of your deeds to my fellow indigenes and compatriots in Osun State.

Sir, I hope you have reduced your incessant travels. I also hope you now stay on campus. I hope as well that justice is being given to those two Fisheries Department students, whom you as the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee stamped their rustication. I hope it is not true that you truly own a fish farm where some of the students from the fisheries department work hence you do not pay for labour. I hope the brand new cars you bought for Deans of Faculties and other officials are not meant to silence them. I also hope you have visited the students’ toilets and bathrooms in all halls of residence to see their stinking and dilapidated state with such miasma of smell. I hope you could work freely among students. I hope you would not think I have been sponsored to write this. I hope you would turn up a new leaf. I hope it is not true that you threatened the chicken-hearted Edosa Ekhator, the Students’ Union President, not to join any protest against your no-cooking policy. I hope you did not bribe the ‘Toronto’ parents you called together to ratify your no-cooking policy and other self-imposed policies. I hope you did not bribe the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) President whom students thought would come to their rescue, as he said he would give you 48 hours to accede to students’ demands. I love to tell you that it is now over four weeks the NANS President came, yet you have sent more than six students to the disciplinary committee, over your no-cooking policy. You have threatened me with your Abefele security people. You have sent Prof. Alada, the Dean of students, to bring me to your disciplinary committee.

Then, I ask: is it Graduate Disciplinary Committee or Students’ Disciplinary Committee? You have sent the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to be on a look-out for me. You have asked Prof. Oluyemisi Bamgbose, the Dean of Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, to chair the panel to discipline students because you know she can deliver. But at times I ask: is it Faculty of Law or Faculty of Victimization? You have told the Unions on campus not to listen to the students when they are agitating against no-cooking policy, yet no adequate measures on ground to ensure hygienic condition of foods sold. You are forcing the University of Ibadan bread down the throat of students and the inhabitants alike of the University community, such bread that is adjudged by many to be unpalatable. The fencing project has been abandoned in some places: the fences looking like Walls of Jericho. You have cut down the trees, and the heat level had increased in some parts of the institution. You have cajoled the in-coming Students’ Union executives that they would be sent abroad so that they would not protest against your draconian policies. You have threatened that you could withhold my certificate. Then, I say go ahead and do that for the legal battle line to be drawn further.

Additionally, if what I have heard was true that you are claiming that I benefitted more in your administration, then I love to ask: did you pay my school fees or have I been coming to your office for feeding allowance or for my daily upkeep? University of Ibadan’s grant to me had always been based on the fact that I proceeded for academic or scholastic endeavour. For instance, my colleague, John

Bamgbose of the Faculty of Law, in the institution, and myself wrote a paper on Climate Change, delivered at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom in 2011. Why not mention other person’s name and why my name only you could mention? Four students of the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan were supported by this institution to participate in a competition in France, a year before we went, though they were denied visas. Later on, another four students of the Law Faculty were supported by the University to participate in a contest in France on Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Lecturers, students continue to travel for one academic programme or the other, and who is shouting their names that they have benefitted from your administration? Also, when I travelled, in whose name did I go? Has it not been in the name of the University of Ibadan? Many would love to write a paper, and be accepted for presentation on an international platform, so that they could have international exposure and write the name of the University in gold. My last trip to Switzerland was co-sponsored by the authorities of the University of Ibadan and myself bearing the bulk of it. Such trip had been based on academic pursuit, and I am glad to announce that another student that applied to same Graduate Institute in Switzerland had been admitted this year to attend one of their short-course programmes.

Interestingly, the ex-Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, is an alumnus of the Institute. And that is the little contribution I could make to engage in academic excellence, and inspire others, while you believe that once one is not in your support you look for how to pull the person down by all means.

On this note, should one conclude that those that wrote petitions against you that you were not fit and proper to become the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan were right for you have turned the instrumentality of the Federal Government to means of personal vendetta, victimization, oppression and despotism?

•Photo: UI Vice Chancellor, Prof. Isaac Adewole.

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