Emirate Interests In Ilorin Allege Bias In State Varsity Appointments, But Evidence Says No

•  What is at stake is the seat of the VC, findings show

A document currently at the disposal of DDM counters viral allegations against Prof. Shaykh  Jimoh, acting Vice Chancellor, Kwara State University, KWASU, over recent appointments he sanctioned at the state owned university. According to his accusers, Prof Jimoh sanctioned a skewed appointment that favours Kwara South, his natal constituency, to the detriment of sons and daughters of Ilorin Emirate (Kwara Central).

A three page document profiling the appointment and promotions in contention, however, says otherwise. Rather, the Emirate appear to have benefitted more from the said elevations to the detriment of other zones in the state.

The document, so far has yet to be denied by KWASU. But this may not matter to those making the allegations, according to the online newspaper’s findings.

Rather, according to the online newspaper’s findings, the seat of the VC, appears to be what is contention after same accusers say that Prof Jimoh has since overstayed the period he is meant to head the school in acting capacity.

It all started with the claim made by a certain Abdulsalami Onimago, a rather obscure writer making the allegations. In the trending article syndicated in many online platforms read by people in Kwara, the author, among many other things, claimed that Prof Jimoh, after the death of former VC, Prof. Muhammed Akanbi, began a witch hunt targeting top personnel of Ilorin extraction.

Onimago alleged that he removed them from ‘their key’ position in the hierarchical and structure of the university’s management. He accused the acting VC of making over 300 clandestine non-teaching staff recruitment which, according to him, were beyond his powers as an acting VC.

If at all any Ilorin indigene must be removed from office, argued Onimago, an Ilorin man must replace him, he said. The writer also raised questions about his tenure as VC in acting capacity which should be six month.

According to him, again, there are Ilorin born professors waiting to replace the late VC who was an Ilorin man, to help complete his tenure. In other words, reasons Onimago, VCship in Kwara State University shouldn’t be about quality of scholarship of any candidate intending to replace Late Prof Akanbi. Rather the intending candidate’s nativity to the emirate should be the deciding factor.

The writer’s claims on marginalization were not only baseless according to verifiable data on the said appointments obtained from the school, but also they have been thoroughly embarrassing to some Ilorin academics to boot.

According to a ‘ List of Directors As December 6, 2023’, a document believed to have emanated from the school, Kwara Central still maintained highest number of high ranking officials in the school.

As gathered, following the desire to follow academic traditions, the school, for the first time, resolved to democratized appointment of deans of faculties like it is done in most schools.

It was also revealed that the decision to subject the appointment of deans to election was taken jointly by the deans and the management, headed by the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Shaykh Luqman Jimoh.

In view of this, at the election held during the first week of November 2023, new deans were elected in the various faculties, with five coming from Kwara Central, none from Kwara North, and none from Kwara South.

The deans for the faculties of information and communication technology and management and social sciences were appointed by the acting vice chancellor, while the professors in the two faculties declined nominations.

This resulted in six deans coming from Kwara Central, one from Kwara North, and none from Kwara South.

Two candidates from Kwara Central were also appointed deans of the School of Postgraduate Studies and Student Affairs, respectively.

Deans from Kwara Central came to eight out of 11; one from Kwara North, none from Kwara South, and one each from Kogi and Oyo states.

In addition, of the 33 directors of centers and units in the university appointed either by the late Vice-Chancellor, or reappointed by the Acting Vice-Chancellor, 17 are from Kwara Central, 11 from Kwara South, two from Kwara North, and three from other states.

Virtually all the appointees by the late Vice-Chancellor were retained, and only 10 fresh appointments and two redeployments were done by the Acting Vice-Chancellor.

Of the 10 new appointments by the acting vice chancellor, six are from Kwara Central, three from Kwara South, none from Kwara North, and one from another state.

Two candidates who are from Kwara Central were redeployed to other centers or units after spending more than eight years in their posts. (See Documents below).

The university would however not comment officially on the matter. DDM called Dr Saeedat Aliyu, the university Spokesperson but got no response from her.

But in related development, Prof Salaman Abdulsalami, Librarian of KWASU and an Ilorin indigene had some harsh words for authors of the report. Being an academic of Ilorin descent himself, he described the allegation that he is sidelined from the school’s decision making process as ‘a fallacy that can’t be substantiated.’ He added that the acting VC runs an all inclusive administration.

See: KWASU’s List of Directors, Deans As At Dec 2023

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