For the second time in the 42-year history of the University of Uyo, it has not been possible to produce a substantive vice chancellor for the university at the end of a tenure. The first time was during the vice-chancellorship of Prof Fola Lasisi when the law permitted a second term of four years.
Last week, the hand of the clock appeared to have ticked and stopped at the point of making the final decision. The selection process was stalled by the fact that the Governing Council was unable to constitute the Selection Board, comprising members of Council, Senate and Congregation. There was no official reason to support this apart from the rumoured decision of the incumbent VC not being able to provide resources to fund the meetings.
Last week, the Senate of the University met and endorsed the proposal of the Vice Chancellor to have an Acting VC. The lot fell on the Catholic Sister and Professor of Religious Studies who was at the time also a contestant for the position of vice chancellor. Her name was sent to the Chairman of Council, Dr Muiz Banire, who is the universitys 10th Pro-Chancellor.
On Friday, 28 November 2025, there was another Senate meeting tagged, emergency senate; this time to reconsider another nominee of the Senate to the Council since Prof Anthonia Essiens nomination was said to have been rejected by the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council. This meeting was held immediately after the 2025 matriculation exercise for freshmen. The then outgoing Vice Chancellor, Prof Nyaudo Ndaeyo, had a flurry of activities after that, which included the inauguration of projects and a send-forth ceremony, midwifed by the Akpan Hogan Ekpo Centre for Public Policy, at the University of Uyo. This latter programme, initially scheduled for 11am did not kick off until 2pm. For the VC, whose day started at about 9am with the matriculation ceremony, activities finally came to an end at about 5.30pm with a cynical observer quipped that the only event left for the VC to conclude the day was a convocation!
The trouble with the Uniuyo decisions in the last days of the VC is that Prof Anthonia Essien who had applied for the job was said to have withdrawn her application in order to serve as Acting Vice Chancellor. But the refusal of the Council to accept her nomination poses another challenge because the substitute, Prof Aniekan Offiong, is still a candidate. It would be awkward and unfair to hand over the Acting VCship position to him as he is still in the race.
The order of succession in most federal universities follow this order: the VC, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration), the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), the Chairman, Committee of Deans, and Provost, College of Health Sciences, but in this years race, the two deputy vice chancellors are candidates as well as the Provost of the College of Health Sciences.
At the moment, it is difficult to know which direction the university will be going in the days ahead as there seems to be a silent psychological war, and a war of attrition among some of the candidates and godfathers, especially those who have the ears of senior officials in the state and Abuja.
When the position was advertised in the universitys website in May, nobody thought that it would come to this.
At this point in time, we should be addressing the policy options of the new VC by outlining the various tasks before him or her.
So, which way Uniuyo? Are we going to be trapped by unfolding political battles of giants which would expose the university to the harmful manipulations of political generalissimos in the state and Abuja.
WatchmanPost believes that the university system should be insulated from the unconscionable politicking of the APC-PDP type which has bedeviled the nation since 1999. Let us return the ivory back to the tower, so that we can have a respectable town gown crown engagement, which could make our universities to breath again.
Uniuyo will be inheriting an outsize baggage of public distrust, allegations of sale of admission spaces, poor performance by contractors appointed from Abuja, inadequate facilities for staff and students, abandoned projects as well as uncompleted, ones, insecurity on campus largely fueled by its porous boundaries, thieving staff, robberies by shady community youths posing as students, and disoriented youths who have become like youth wings of political parties, a restless workforce roiling from failures by the federal government to implement agreements reached with varsity unions, and greedy community members who sell university land to persons who wish to take advantage of the housing deficit in the area. We will revisit these issues when the university finally appoints its new helmsman.
