Vice Chancellor (VC) of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Prof. Francis Otunta, has assured that no student would be sacked from the institution on account of the scrapping of some programmes hitherto offered by the school by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

There has been tension in the agric varsity over the scrapping of some programmes offered in the College Of Management Sciences (COLMAS) of the school as it was feared that students and staff in the faculty would be dismissed from the university; just as speculations were rife that the programmes were being scrapped because the VC had refused to “grease the palms” of officials of the National Universities Commission for the purposes of getting them to accredit the courses.

But the VC dismissed the speculations as entirely naïve as the powers to approve or cancel any programme or course offered by any university lies within the purview and powers of the NUC.

“Determination of standards of programmes of any university is left solely to NUC, which determines and approves programmes to be run by each university. And now, like I said earlier, my administration is to right all wrongs that have been going on here. We met three programmes that were not approved at all by anybody.

“Senate can say approved, and at the end of the day, members take it to Abuja (NUC) and Abuja says don’t ever start and then the system went ahead and started the programme that was not approved. That is against the law, that is one kind of unwarranted level of impunity.

“So, we came and said Okay, let us write again to NUC and NUC said don’t start that programme, it is outside your mandate. And if you have started, stop.

“What will a wise administration do? Follow the right path. The system was led in the wrong path and NUC insisted it cannot go on: don’t do Conflict Resolution, Don’t do Mass Communication, don’t do Philosophy; do agricultural-related programmes and the science subjects that will lead into proper research in agriculture that have been approved by NUC and so, we are trying to limit ourselves to what have been approved, while we struggle to establish programmes in line with our mandate.

“I am a slave to the law and whosoever follows me, must be a slave also to the law. When they said close, we have to obey because we are slaves to the law,” the Professor of Mathematics explained.

On the fate of the students, he said: “The management sat and decided that we must obey the law but we a have human face. We can’t throw our children out of school to the streets. All we did was to take up their school certificates and studied the subjects they took and decided to shift them to programmes where they were qualified to do.

“Senate went ahead to decide what happens to them, should they be taken purely as Direct Entry students, should they be taken as people who have finished Year One and come into year two.

“If you take them as Direct Entry, it means they must pass A level papers. Somebody moving from Mass Communication to, may be, economics or whatever, Social Sciences, not Arts, you see that that person may not have passed some A Level papers that are necessary. So, Senate on Wednesday, January 25, 2017, drew a line that would be comfortable for everybody.

“Even those who failed and are to repeat, they will go to the area that they are qualified for to be, approved by NUC, to repeat. So, they do not have enough credits to go year two, but they have already come into the university, instead of repeating year one in Mass Communication, they will go and repeat year one in a course they are qualified to run and is approved by NUC,” he explained.

The VC who called the bress briefing to react to a statement credited to one Chinonso Obasi who claims to be President of the National Association of Nigerian students (NANS), and accused him (VC) of “maladministration, incompetence and overwhelming gross corrupt practices,” while issuing him a seven-day ultimatum to resign from office, described the statement as malicious.

“Mr. Chinonso Obasi, just happened to be a student in Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Uwana when I was Rector.

“And as I became rector on June 12, 2006, I made it clear to everybody that I have zero-tolerance for examination malpractice and cultism.

“And along the line, Mr. Chinonso Obasi, who was then Students Union President, was caught cheating in an exam and my decree was already on. Whether you are my mother, whether you are a small god or any kind of god and you are caught cheating in exam, appropriate sanctions must be taken.

“Therefore, we didn’t mind his position as SUG president, he was adequately punished. He lobbied all over this country and on a certain day, the then serving Minister of Education, came to my office to appealed that we should temper justice with mercy and allow the boy to return the next year.

“Academic board, after serious deliberations, agreed that that boy had failed and should come in and repeat. The letter conveying this to him is very clear and can be found at Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic. And so, he did not come back, may be, possibly out of shame or whatever, and up till today. Therefore, Mr. Chinonso Obasi never graduated from Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic.

“Only God knows where he graduated from or where he is now schooling; and reports reaching us also indicate that he is impersonating the person of the President of NANS. Clear evidence can be found that he is not the president,” he narrated

“Therefore, he is a malicious liar and he is hired or contracted by other people of his kind to attempt to disrupt the peace that we are trying to build in this university,” he said, adding that both Obasi and one other Danladi Isaac who published that the management of MOUAU has taken him (VC) to court for “incompetence, maladministration, dehumanisation and autocracy” should be arrested and prosecuted without delay.

He said the duo has been reported to appropriate quarters and that investigations were ongoing.