•Fingers Deputy Vice Chancellor of injustice
•Seeks intervention from Gov Umo Eno, Education, Police commissioners
A lecturer at Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU), Dr Eyoh Etim, has alleged years of victimisation, withheld salary arrears and deliberate obstruction of his career progression by officials of the institution.
In a live Facebook broadcast on Thursday, 4 December 2025, Dr Etim recounted what he described as a decade-long ordeal beginning with unpaid salaries upon his employment in 2014, and culminating in his exclusion from the 2025 promotion appraisal exercise.
He stated that despite meeting all academic requirements for elevation to Senior Lecturer, his name was neither appraised nor considered, a development he said left him distressed when he visited the university’s Establishment Division to check his promotion status.
Dr Etim specifically accused the former Dean of the Faculty of Arts and now currently Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), Prof. Iniobong Umotong, as well as Dr Monica Udoette, of orchestrating actions aimed at stalling his promotion and undermining his academic work.
He alleged that his appraisal form was withheld without explanation and that comments made in faculty meetings regarding his journal, PLANJAH, were misrepresented in official minutes.
The lecturer further stated that he had been queried over the journal and faced what he described as selective disciplinary actions, contrasting his treatment with that of other staff members in similar situations, clearly alleging tribal sentiments in the way the faculty administration was being run.
Eyoh Etim, the 2023 winner of Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism, also disclosed that tensions worsened following disagreements over financial arrangements linked to the faculty’s affiliation with his journal.
He alleged that subsequent panels set up to address the dispute were compromised and that he feared for his safety after an official committee setup in the faculty suggested meeting in a public bar to discuss the matter.
Amid the unresolved issues and his recent removal from the Faculty of Arts WhatsApp platform, Dr Etim has called on the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, the Commissioner for Education, Prof Ubong Essien and the Commissioner of Police, CP Mohammed Azare to intervene.
Dr Etim insisted that his experiences reflect a broader pattern of victimisation and administrative injustice within the university system.
Read the full broadcast below….
Delayed Destinies: A Statement on my Ordeal over the Years in Akwa Ibom State University
At this point, it is important that I address the public on the victimisation and oppression that I have been facing in Akwa Ibom State University all these years. I started work in Akwa Ibom State University on May 2nd, 2014 as an Assistant Lecturer. The first ordeal that I faced was that our salaries were not paid for over a year after we began work. As I speak, I am still being owed not less than 14 months in salary arrears since 2014. This has made life difficult for me. Indeed, try as I would, I cannot catch up with my mates who received their salaries when they started work. We were a group of staff called 279. I started work with my Master’s degree as Assistant Lecturer. I was promoted to Lecturer II in 2017. When I completed my PhD in 2021, I was promoted to Lecturer I. I was due for promotion to Senior Lecturer in 2023, but was denied because Prof Iniobong Umotong, then the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and currently Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic, Akwa Ibom State University, set up a Panel of Enquiry for me over results in the Department of English, as I was the Examination Officer in the Department of English then.
Arising from the issue, I opted to resign from the University because I foresaw what was coming: a future of torture and trauma. Once the system has marked you for victimisation, you can hardly escape it. I was prevailed upon by senior colleagues they talked to in other institutions to withdraw the resignation letter and the petition I wrote of my ordeal in the Department and faculty. Copies of the letters are still available and will be made public when and where necessary.
Today, being Thursday, 4th December, 2025, I went to the AKSU Establishment at the main campus of the university, Ikot Akpaden, to check my promotion letter. Once again, I was disappointed. My name was not among those promoted, neither was it among those appraised for promotion. This means that I was not even presented for promotion. It should be noted that the culture in Akwa Ibom State University is that every member of staff should submit themselves for appraisal. It is compulsory.
What surprises me is that even though my appraisal form was not found at the Appointment and Promotions Committee (A and PC), I was not queried, neither was my attention called to it. I remember some members of staff being asked by Professor Iniobong Umotong, then the Dean of Arts, to pick up their appraisal forms by themselves to submit to the University because they were omitted or forgotten when others’ were being conveyed to the main campus. I was never asked to do the same. Professor Iniobong Umotong had the penchant of threatening members of staff in the faculty that their appraisal forms would not be signed if they did not pay their faculty dues or other sundry fees. Even though this is not ethically right, I AM NOT OWING THE FACULTY any money.
Another thing I need to note about the 2025 appraisal exercise in the faculty is that Professor Iniobong Umotong did not allow members of staff to see their appraisal forms after they had left the Department to the Faculty. We were made to sign and accept the comments by the Faculty A and PC even when we did not know what those comments were.
This is one of the many administrative rascalities that Professor Iniobong Umotong is guilty of as Dean of the Faculty of Arts. I am calling on the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, His Excellency Pastor Umo Bassey Eno, PhD, the Commissioner of Education, Akwa Ibom State and the Commissioner of Police, Akwa Ibom State, to look into this case of victimisation and oppression against me in Akwa Ibom State University.
From all indications, I have met the criteria for promotion to Senior Lecturer, with 17 publications, 51 citations and 4 h-index and 2 i10-index. For Senior Lecturer, the University needs 30 citations, 2 h-index and 2 i10-index. My citations are genuine citations, not self-citations or clannish citations that most of them have there.
Let the whole world ask Professor Iniobong Umotong and Dr Monica Udoette what happened to my appraisal form. I cannot continue this way. I know that they have ganged up against me and vowed that I will never be promoted, that lecturers junior to me would come and pass me by. And it has already happened. Both Jackson Etuk and Dr Kufre Akpan are now Senior Lecturers. I am still Lecturer I.
In 2023, I won the Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism. I used the prize money to start Planeyo Publishers and Planeyo Journal of Arts and Humanities (PLANJAH). To show that I had no enmity towards Professor Iniobong Umotong (an Annang Man) despite the fact that he set up a panel of enquiry for me and looked for every way to get me terminated in the University, I made him Editor-in-Chief of PLANJAH. I also made Dr Monica Udoette (an Annang woman) Deputy Editor-in-Chief. The journal was in affiliation with the Faculty of Arts, Akwa Ibom State University, on a 40/60 percent agreement on the cost of each paper published by the journal. This means that 40 percent goes to the faculty and 60 percent goes to Planeyo Publishers. I accepted this despite the fact that the faculty did not contribute monetarily in the setting up of the Journal. I set up the journal with my money. For the maiden edition of the journal, this sharing formular was followed.
When I got a N3.5 million Naira donation for the journal, Professor Iniobong Umotong wanted me to give him 40 percent of the whole money: that is, N1.4 million naira. I told him no and that I would pay the faculty whenever we published a paper on our website as earlier agreed. He stonewalled and that impeded the progress of the journal. Because we were close to publishing our second edition, I had to get a new Editor-in-Chief for the journal and that was how Professor Iniobong Umotong ceased from being on the editorial board of the journal.
In early May, 2025, shortly before we published the second edition of PLANJAH, Professor Iniobong Umotong declared at the Faculty Board meeting that PLANJAH was a scam and predatory journal and that the faculty should cease to have affiliation with the journal. He said that he did not like the name of the journal: Planeyo, meaning that he did not like my name. He claimed that the money meant for the journal had been misappropriated by the Managers of the journal, referring to me. I argued there and then that PLANJAH could not be said to be a scam journal simply because Professor Iniobong Umotong was not given the money he asked for. That is not what makes a journal scam. I told the Board that PLANJAH carried out peer review and had its best practices as contained in our policy statement.
When the minutes of the Faculty Board meeting were published, I noticed that my statements were not reflected. Only Professor Iniobong Umotong’s statement was reflected. I raised objection. I was ignored. The Dean queried me over the issue of PLANJAH, citing the crime of owning businesses as a lecturer, owing the faculty its share of PLANJAH money and mismanaging the PLANJAH finances. I responded that other lecturers had their businesses including Professor Umotong himself; he is the owner of Ifiok Journal. I also explained that since I published the second edition of the journal without the name of the faculty, I did not owe the faculty any money. I did not mismanage PLANJAH funds because I used the money for what it was meant for: to sustain my businesses for 2025. We also published four volumes of PLANJAH in 2025, including a Special Issue on Akwa Ibom Indigenous Literature. Not many journals can achieve that in a year.
I asked that the offending and reputation-impugning statement be removed from the minutes of the faculty. When this was not done, I filed a defamation case against Professor Iniobong Umotong. The deadline for him to retract the statement had since passed and we were at the point of charging him to court when there was an intervention by the new Dean, Dr Jacob Udofot, who offered to resolve the matter.
It is because of the above issues that Professor Iniobong Umotong in collaboration with Dr Monica Udoette have oppressed and victimised me in Akwa Ibom State University. There is a cultural pattern observable among our people that shows that some elders do everything to put down aspiring young people. And that is why our society has remained underdeveloped. Despite all the positive things that I have done, I have received no commendation or meaningful support from the leadership structures in our society. Instead, they do everything to put me down. This is the same script that Professor Iniobong Umotong is playing. He had never said anything good about PLANJAH at the Faculty Board meeting when he was Dean and Editor-in-Chief. He never said anything good about me in any meeting in the Faculty. Instead, he was looking for fresh evidence from Dr Monica Udoette to ensure that my appointment was terminated in the University when he realized that I might not be terminated over the results.
However, when a similar case on results misconduct came up in the Department of English involving two Annang lecturers, Dr Susanne Udoka and Dr Vero-Ekpris Urujzian, Professor Iniobong Umotong became blind, deaf and dumb. He refused to set up a panel of enquiry for his Annang lecturers even when his attention was drawn to it through a letter written by Dr Eventus Edem. Professor Iniobong Umotong even ordered Dr Monica Udoette to query Dr Eventus Edem for raising the issue. This is the kind of selective justice system that operates in Akwa Ibom State University.
Following the query on PLANJAH, Professor Iniobong Umotong set up what he called a Conciliatory Committee comprising Dr Peter Ekwere from History, Dr Asukwo Oko from Religious and Cultural Studies and Dr David Udoinwang from English Department. As everything panned out, their intent was not reconciliation but money recovery at all cost. That explains why they suggested that we should meet at bar at Atiku Abubakar Way in Uyo to resolve the matter. I refused to attend the meeting because I was not comfortable with the meeting venue. Why would an official committee of a faculty meet in a bar? It is apparent that their intention was to harm me or poison me on the instructions of Professor Iniobong Umotong. Perhaps, he wanted to take over my journal by force or recover the N1.4 Million Naira he wanted by force.
Eventually, I met the Committee in school and I answered their questions and left. This was sometime in August. For a matter that hinged on someone’s reputation, let me state that as I speak, the report of the Committee has not been seen or brought to the attention of the Board. Eventually, Professor Iniobong Umotong was appointed DVC Academic in AKSU and Dr Jacob Udofot became Dean. Still that matter has not been resolved. Why? Because Professor Iniobong Umotong knows how to appropriate the culture of silencing and oppressing subordinates in the University. I am not his victim and will never be.
PS: I am making this public statement because I have been evicted from the Faculty of Arts WhatsApp Platform where I was airing my frustration over the promotion issue.
Dr Eyoh Etim,
Department of English,
Faculty of Arts,
Akwa Ibom State University.
4th December, 2025.
