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OPINION: ‘Our Doc, Who Art In The National Palace’

Published

9 months ago

March 30, 2025

On April 23, 1971, the New York Times did a feature on Haitian tyrant, Francois Duvalier, infamously known as Papa Doc. It reported Duvalier as getting Haitian children indoctrinated with a political catechism which parodied Christians’ The Lord’s Prayer, thus: “Our Doc, who art in the National Palace for life, Hallowed be Thy name by present and future generations. Thy will be done at Port‐au‐Prince and in the provinces. Give us this day our new Haiti and never forgive the trespasses of the anti patriots who spit every day on our country; let them succumb to temptation, and under the weight of their venom, deliver them not from any evil . . .”

Since the antonym of democracy is autocracy, is Nigeria sliding into autocracy? Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo didn’t explicitly say so but believes democracy is dead in Nigeria. Peter Obi shared same view. At a symposium to mark the 60th birthday of former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Emeka Ihedioha, Obasanjo proclaimed the death of democracy, not only in Nigeria but Africa. In 2008, in an assessment of the state of democracy in Africa, Larry Diamond, American political sociologist and scholar who specializes in democracy studies, submitted that, “the statistics (of the practice of democracy in Africa) tell a grim story.” I will visit these grim statistics presently. Argentine economist, Danielçccc Kaufman and his colleagues at the World Bank, developed six measures with which we can assess the quality of democracy in any country. Africa, Nigeria recorded dismal failure in virtually all of them.

One of the measurements is, voice and accountability. Voice entails freedom of expression and citizen participation in governance. In other words, governmental tolerance for dissent is a major kernel of democracy. In the fawning stampedes by Delta State government apparati last week to defend federal power, you can glean the enveloping tyrannic character of the current Nigerian state. Officials of government had earlier fought mere Nursing school girls’ tantrums in the “See your Mama” viral video against First Lady Remi Tinubu in Asaba. You would think it was a world war. Though minute and seemingly insignificant, but for immediate massive responses on social media, threats to deal with the students would have been activated. I will cite a historical example of tolerance for dissent that showcases the Asaba attempt to silence voices as indicative of undemocratic attitude.

At the Adeseun Ogundoyin Polytechnic convocation lecture I delivered in 2022 with the title, Re-inventing polytechnic education for 21st-century Nigeria, I cited the example of the first civilian governor of Oyo State, Chief Bola Ige. Sometime between 1979 and 1983, Ige had visited the Ibadan Main Campus of the polytechnic. In their characteristic tantrums, the students became rude and uncontrollable. In an unsparing tongue-lash characteristic of the man widely credited for his lingual exceptionalism, the governor landed the students a fusillade of vitriolic attack. He said: “I am happy your Rector is a holder of a PhD in Animal Science; he will apply it on all of you!” Decency will not permit the reproduction here of the vile and insulting reply, laced with thunderous howls and delivered as a song, with which the students replied Ige. Not long after, some primary school pupils paid Ige a courtesy visit. He ostensibly saw it as an opportunity to even the score. So, in advising the pupils on their life trajectory, the governor told them that whilst walking towards Sango, a street in the capital city, (as metaphor for furthering their education) rather than make a detour towards Ijokodo, (where Ibadan Polytechnic is located) they should rather go straight to Ojoo. Ojoo is the route that leads to the University of Ibadan. That was where it ended. No institutional sanction against Ibadan Poly students.

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Last week, Nigeria erupted in discussions on whether the practice of democracy in Africa, Nigeria had failed. Though concerns about democracy in Nigeria predate Bola Tinubu, they have reached feverish pace today. As we speak, the name Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan is almost becoming a legislative history in Nigeria. In our very before, a dalliance of senatorial leadership impunity, in cahoots with Kogi government’s democratic irreverence, is about to produce a sour broth that Nigerians will be forced to swallow. The only recourse the people have is to look skywards, with tears coursing down their cheeks and mutter, “Let them cover themselves with the shroud of a thick mortar after shooting an arrow into the sky; if the king of this earth does not apprehend them, the King in heaven surely will.”

In the same vein, a few weeks ago, an NYSC member who complained about the deteriorating state of Nigerians’ well-being was threatened into submission. I submit that the Asaba event and an earlier Seyi Tinubu’s quest to turn his father into the father of Nigeria in Adamawa State are fatherlizing and motherlizing attempts which are no happenstances. It is the beginning of the mutation of the cells of the opposite of democracy. Duvalier pioneered this seemingly benign misbiology in Haiti. At the beginning of his tyranny, he got his own Villaswill Akpabio-led rubber‐stamp legislature to proclaim him as “Spiritual Father of the Nation.” In the capital city, Port‐au Prince, Duvalier ordered “spontaneous” demonstrations of affection towards him, as it is done on the social media today where thousands of largely illiterate and desperately poor Haitians were tricked to frenziedly scream, “Du‐val‐yeah!” and “Viva Papa Doc!”

The federal government’s infamous odyssey in Rivers State in close to two years now is perceived by watchers of Nigeria’s tottering democracy as a manifestation of a totalitarian tendency. Its cells will spread presently. When they do, we will all be in trouble. The recent tactic was to make a Bukar Suka Dimka of Rivers’ ex-Head of Service, George Nwaeke and claim that he was a witness to suspended governor, Siminalayi Fubara’s alleged treasonable plan to bomb oil installations. The ultimate script is to finally try Fubara for treason. Dimka, you will recall, was the coup plotter who, after his capture in March, 1976, sang like canary to implicate, among others, Major General Illiya Bisalla. His claims were never corroborated, leading to Bisalla’s execution. The viral video of Nwaeke’s wife which affirmed a guerrilla capture of her husband by federal forces so as to incriminate Fubara must have let Nigeria into the window of a frightening re-calibration of Duvalier in Nigeria. Robert Mugabe didn’t just leap into tyranny; he grew, like a mustard seed, into it.

A cartoon which went viral last week explains the configuration of Nigeria’s present “democracy”. A man with huge double pockets, depicted as “executive,” had inside the pockets castrated urchins tagged as “legislature” and “judiciary”. To explain this unholy matrimony, ex-vice President Atiku Abubakar did away with niceties and diplomatese that are the handmaidens of Nigerian politicians. The Senate President and the National Assembly, he pronounced, are compromised and corrupt. To corroborate Abubakar and the newspaper cartoon, a little over a week ago, taciturn President Goodluck Jonathan drew his own cartoon strokes of the current state of Nigeria’s “democracy”. He accused the three arms of government as being a tripartite axis of evil who were complicit in the Rivers imbroglio. He said: “No businessman can bring his money to invest in a country where the judiciary is compromised; where government functionaries can dictate to judges what judgment they will give.” Jonathan deployed an Indian version of a Yoruba anecdote that illustrates a Nero fiddling while Rome was burning. It tells the story of someone falsely simulating sleep who the Yoruba call Apiroro. The Apiroro is always difficult to wake up. Jonathan’s summary of the power calculus on the Rivers crisis is that, “They are pretending to sleep and waking up such a person is extremely difficult.”

While the typhoon of illicit relationship between the three arms of government was yet raging, a photograph of Supreme Court Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, at the University of Calabar’s Golden Jubilee Special Convocation surfaced on the social media. Immediately I saw it, my mind went to Justice Olumuyiwa Jibowu (1899 – 1959). Jibowu was a fierce judge. The first African to serve in the Supreme Court of Nigeria, first Nigerian High Court Judge and one-time Chief Justice of the Western Region, Jibowu demonstrated that there must never be any unholy concourse between a judge, a lawyer who has matter before him and litigants. He once demonstrated this while he was Judge in the Ondo High Court. Counsel in a matter before him and Federal General Secretary of the Action Group Party, Ayotunde Rosiji, was slated to appear before him sometime in the early 1950s. They were both acquainted as Jibowu had paid Rosiji a visit when the latter came back from his legal studies in Britain. So, the evening before he was to appear before him, Rosiji decided to visit Jibowu in his home. Renowned for his uprightness and probity, though Justice Jibowu attended to Rosiji, when he was to deliver his judgment, he lifted up a sheaf of papers for all to see, which he said was a copy of the judgment he had stayed all night to write. Then, to the shock of everyone, the judge tore the papers into shred. All because counsel to one of the parties had come to see him in his house.

Former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (Nigeria), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, in his anger at this anomaly, cited an earlier pronouncement of such public togetherness as incestuous by Justice Niki Tobi. In his ruling in Buhari vs. Independent National Electoral Commission & Ors (2008), the late Supreme Court Justice warned that “The two professions (law and politics) do not meet and will never meet at all in our democracy… If they meet, the victim will be democracy, and that will be bad for sovereign Nigeria.”

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Let me illustrate the calamity that Justice Tobi foretold with the market. Like any human endeavour, the market has a philosophy. It is constituted by a tripod: the brick and mortar stalls (Oja), marketers (pate-pate) and traders (Onina’ja). On market days, when merchants advertise their merchandise, the soul of the market is not the merchants nor their merchandise. It is the market, which is the people, the traders or the Onina’ja. So, when the market is over, you may see merchants and their merchandise or even the stalls but the soul of the market is gone (oja ti tu). So it is in a democracy. The moment a democracy harbours a complicit judiciary, an adulterous legislature in bed with the executive, the way President Jonathan painted it, the market is over. What is left are mere wares and merchandise (T’oja ba ti tu, a ku pate-pate). When you look, you see democracy on paper, the way you see a mass of quills and feathers on a masquerade, when, in actual fact, the masquerade is long gone. Late dramatist Hubert Ogunde verbalized this flight of democracy when he sang in Yoruba, “Iye l’e o ma wo l’eyin eye o….”

Nigeria’s situation today can be compared to Senegal’s under Abdoulaye Wade. With Wade, rather than rule of law, it was rule of person, otherwise called personal rule. A longtime Senegalese opposition leader, when Wade won the presidency in 2000, as many did in the current government, hopes were quite high for democracy in Senegal. Rather than this, however, Wade drew power and resources to himself and those of his family. By 2007, criticisms from journalists, political activists, singers, and marabouts (Muslim spiritual leaders) or any word from the opposition earned physical intimidation from his goons. Last week, as riposte to Peter Obi’s criticism of present slide towards autocracy, Nigerian presidency told him that, that he could talk freely was a presidential grace. Today, Nigeria grapples with a lackluster economic performance just like under Wade. The Senegalese leader also, like here in Nigeria, mobilized support, according to Larry Diamond, by corrupting and co-opting “religious figures, civil society leaders, local administrators, military officers… with money, loans, diplomatic passports, and other favors.”

Said a responder to Diamond, “He has destroyed all the institutions, including political parties. He has taken opposition with him and manipulated the parliament. People are so poor and Wade controls everything. If you need something, you have to go with him.” Nigerians must see themselves in that Wade mirror.

Apart from the above indices, there are other measurements of the state of health of a democracy. They include political stability (absence of violence), government effectiveness (of public services and public administration), quality of government regulation, the rule of law. Recourse to violence as means of settling social discord has risen in Nigeria and governments are absent in the lives of the people, leading to self-help. The Uromi, Edo State incineration of travelling northerners is on my mind here. Though another famous theorist of democracy, Richard Sklar, in his “Democracy in Africa” (1983): African Studies Review, Vol. 26, No. 3/4, said “democracy dies hard,” he also submitted that it could “bleed and die” on the altars of repressive rule and lack of accountability. He concluded by saying, “The true executioner of democracy has neither sword nor scepter, but a baneful idea.”

In Nigeria today, democracy might not have died but its balance sheet is scary. Democracy is not in periodic elections, appointments into offices or its persistent mouthing like a refrain. Democracy is about the people. Obasanjo made this known at the Ihedioha colloquium. When, rather than the people, a small clique of politicians are sole beneficiaries of democracy and there is this mass of misery, what we have can better be described as politicians-cracy. There is a regression of democratic culture in Nigeria and hunger is blanketing Nigerians. Human development statistics regress daily, life expectancy is nosediving while dismal level of governance and violent conflicts seize our country by the jugular.

The good news is that, Larry Diamond said that democracy cannot die. He, however, imputed that it could suffer fatal seizures. It is obvious that today, the Nigerian democracy is gasping for breath.

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OPINION: Time For The Abachas To Rejoice

Published

5 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Editor

By Lasisi Olagunju

General Sani Abacha was a great teacher. He pioneered the doctrine of consensus candidacy in Nigeria. He founded a country of five political parties and when it was time for the parties to pick their candidates for the presidency, all the five reached a consensus that the man fit for the job was Abacha himself. Today, from party primaries to consensus candidacy; from setting the opposition on fire, to everything and every thing, Abacha’s students are showing exceptionally remarkable brilliance.

Anti-Abacha democrats of 28 years ago are orchestrating and celebrating the collapse of opposition parties today. They are rejoicing at the prospect of a one-party, one-candidate presidential election in 2027. Abacha did the same. So, what are we saying? Children who set out to resemble their parents almost always exceed their mark; they recreate the parents in perfect form and format. Abacha was a democrat; his pupils inherited his political estate and have, today, turned it into an academy. Its classes are bursting at the seams with students and scholars. Aristotle and his Lyceum will be green with envy, and very jealous of this busy academy.

Like it was under Abacha, the opposition suffers from a blaze ignited by the palace. But, and this is where I am going: fires, once started, rarely obey and respect their makers.

My friend, the storyteller, gave me an old folktale of a man who thought the world must revolve around him, alone. One cold night, the man set his neighbours’ huts on fire so he alone would stand as the ‘big man’ of the village. The man watched with satisfaction as the flames rose, dancing dangerously close to the skies. But the wind had a scheme of its own. It hijacked the fire, lifted it, and dropped it squarely on the arsonist’s own thatched roof. By dawn, all huts in the village had become small heaps of ash.

Fire, in all cultures, is a communal danger; whoever releases it cannot control its path. The Fulani warn that he who lights a fire in the savannah must not sleep among dry grass, a wisdom another African people echo by saying that the man who sets a field ablaze should not lie beside raffia in the same field. Yet our rulers strike anti-opposition matches with reckless confidence, believing fire is a loyal servant that burns only the huts of opponents. They forget that power is a strong wind, and wind has no party card and respects none.

When it is state policy to weaken institutions, criminalise dissent and have rivals crushed with the excuse of order, the blaze spreads quietly, patiently, until it reaches the bed of its maker. Fire does not negotiate; it does not remember or know who started it (iná ò mo eni ó dáa). In politics, as in the grassland, those who weaponise flames rarely die with unburnt roofs over their heads.

The folktale above is the story of today’s ruling party. People in power think it is wisdom to weaken, scatter, or destroy opposition platforms outright. They have forgotten the ancient lesson of the village: When you burn every hut around you, you leave nothing to break the wind when it blows back. A democratic system that cannibalises opposition always ends up consuming itself. Our First Republic is a golden example to cite here. History is full of parties that dug graves for their rivals and ended up falling inside.

Literature is rich with warnings about the danger of lighting fires; they more often than not get out of control. In Duro Ladipo’s ‘Oba Koso’, Sango is the lord of fire and ultimately victim of his fire. In Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’, we see how a single spark of regicide grows into a blaze of paranoia and bloodshed that ultimately consumes Macbeth himself. In D. O. Fagunwa’s Adiitu Olodumare, we see how Èsù lé̟̟hìn ìbejì is consumed by the fire of his intrigues; Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ shows a similar pattern with Macbeth: Okonkwo’s role in Ikemefuna’s death ignites a chain of misfortunes that destroys his honour and his life. In ‘The Crucible’, Arthur Miller’s characters take turns to unleash hysteria through lies, only to be trapped by the inferno they created. Ola Rotimi’s ‘The Gods Are Not to Blame’ and even Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ echo the same lesson. Again and again, literature insists that those who start dangerous fires whether of ambition, deceit, violence, or pride, should never expect to sleep safely. Always, the tongue of the flames turns and returns home.

Abacha must be very proud that the democrats who fought and hounded him to death have turned out his faithful students. From NADECO to labour unions and to the media, every snail that smeared Abacha with its slime is today rubbing its mouth on the hallowed hallways of his palace.

Under Abacha, to be in opposition was to toy with trouble. Under this democracy, all opposition parties suffer pains of fracture. Parallel excos here; factional groups there. Opposition figures are in greater trouble. It does not take much discernment before anyone knows that Tiger it is that is behind Oloruntowo’s troubles; Oloruntowo is not at all a bad dog. But how long in comfort can the troubler be?

In 1996, Professor Jeffrey Herbst of the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, United States, asked: “Is Nigeria a Viable State?” He went on to assert – and predict – that “Nigeria does not work and probably cannot work.” He said the country was failing not from any other cause but “from a particular pattern of politics …that threatens to even further impoverish the population and to cause a catastrophic collapse…” That was Nigeria under Abacha. We struggled to avert that “catastrophic collapse”; with death’s help, we got Abacha off the cockpit, and birthed for ourselves this democracy. Now, we are not even sure of the definitions of ‘state’, ‘viable’ and ‘viability’. What is sure is that the “particular pattern of politics” that caught the attention of the American in 1996, is here in 2025. As it was under Sani Abacha, everyone today sings one song, the same song.

Abacha died in 1998; Abacha is alive in 2025. It is strange that his family members are not celebrating. How can you win a race and shut yourself up? My people say happiness is too sweet to be endured. The default response to joy is celebration but we are not seeing it in the family of the victorious Abacha. Because the man in dark goggles professed this democracy, this democracy and its democrats have apotheosised Abacha; he is their prophet. They take their lessons from his sacred texts; his shrine is their preferred place of worship.

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“As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will confess to God.” – Romans 14:11. Our political lords copied those words and, in profaned arrogance, read it to Nigeria and its terrorised people. Now, everyone, from governors to the governed, bows; their tongue confesses that the president is king, unqueriable and unquestionable.

When a man is truly blessed, all the world, big and small, will line up to bless him and the work of his hand. Governors of all parties are singing ‘Bola on Your Mandate We Shall Stand.’ In the whole of southern Nigeria, only one or two governors are not singing his anthem. Northern governors sing ‘Asiwaju’ better and with greater gusto than the owners of the word. In their obsessive love for the big man’s power and the largesse it dispenses, they assume that ‘Asiwaju’ is the president’s first name. They say “President Asiwaju.” The last time a leader was this blessed was 1998 – twenty-seven years ago.

Our thirst for disaster is unslaked. All that the man wanted was to be president; he became president and our progressive democrats are making a king out of him. And we watch them and what they do either in sheepish horror, complicit acquiescence or in criminal collusion. We should not blame the leader for seeing in himself Kabiyesi. That is the status we conferred on him. Even the humblest person begins to gallop once put on a horse. True. Humility or simplicity disappears the moment power unlimited is offered.

The chant of the president’s personal anthem is what Pawley and Müllensiefen call “Singing along.” It is never a stringless act. Worse than Abacha’s Two-Million-Man March, we see two hundred million people, crowds of crowds, move together in one voice, bound by an invisible script and spell. We feel a ‘terrorised’ democracy where citizens learn, through bowing, concurring and context rather than conviction, to sing the song of the kingly emperor. People who are not sure of anything again discover that synchronised voices create safety, and belonging. They proceed to stage it as a ritual for economic and political survival.

The popular Abacha badge decorated the left and right breasts of many fallen angels. Collective chanting signalled loyalty and reduced individual risk. Under this regime of democrats, the badge will soon come, but the chant is louder and wider cast. Unitarised voices have become instruments through which power is normalised, and by which dissent is dissolved.

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Two years into this democracy in 2001, Nigerian-American professor of African history and global studies, Raphael Chijioke Njoku, warned that “new democracies often revert to dictatorships.” He was a prophet and his scholarship prescient. We are there.

There are sorries to say and apologies to drop. On September 8, 1971, Nigeria killed Ishola Oyenusi and his armed robbery gang members because they stole a few thousands of Nigerian pounds. Why did the past have to shoot them when it knew it would stage greater heists in the future? It is the same with Sani Abacha and his politics. Why did we fight him so viciously if this grim harbour was our destination? I do not have to say it before you know that the spirit of the dead is out celebrating its vindication.

American political scientist, Samuel Huntington, in his ‘The Third Wave’, lists four typologies of authoritarian regimes: one-party, personal, military and racial oligarchy. The last on this list (racial) we may never experience in Nigeria but we’ve seen military rule and its unseemly possibilities. The emergence of the first two (one-party and personal dictatorship) was what we fought and quenched in the struggle with Abacha. Unfortunately, the evil we ran out of town has now walked in to assert its invincibility. What did Abacha’s sons do that today’s children of Eli are not doing ten-fold? Democracy is a scam, or, at best, an ambush.

Politicians have borrowed God’s language without His temperament. They have restructured the Presidential Villa into Nigeria’s Mount Sinai where commandments descend on tablets of gold bars. The whole country has become an endless Sunday service; the president sits on the altar, ministers and party chieftains swing incense burners, emitting smokes of deceit and self-righteousness; the masses kneel in reverence and awe of power. They look up to their Lord Bishop, the president, as he dispenses sweet holy communion to the converted – and dips the bottom of the stubborn into baptismal hot waters. We were not fair to Sani Abacha.

We cannot eat banana and have swollen cheek. But we can eat banana and have swollen cheeks. What will account for the difference is the sacrifice we offer to the mouth of the world. The words of the world rebuke absolute power. By choking the space for alternative voices, my Fulani friend said the ruling party is setting the whole political village ablaze, including the patch of ground on which its own structure stands. No parties or leaders survive the inferno they unleash on others. The flame of the fire the ruling party ignites and fans today will, inevitably, find its way home tomorrow.

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Ex-Nigerian Amb., Igali, To Deliver Keynote Address As IPF Holds Ijaw Media Conference

Published

6 hours ago

December 15, 2025

Editor

…invites general public to grace event

A former Nigerian ambassador to Scandinavian countries, Amb (Dr.) Godknows Igali, is billed to deliver a keynote address at the second edition of the Ijaw Media Conference, scheduled for Wednesday, December 17, 2025, in Warri, Delta State.

In a statement jointly issued by Arex Akemotubo and Tare Magbei, chairman and secretary of the planning committee respectively, said the conference, with the theme: ‘Safeguarding Niger Delta’s Natural Resources for Future Generations,’ speaks to the urgent need for responsible stewardship of the region’s land and waterways.

According to the statement, the conference will feature
Dr Dennis Otuaro, Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, as the chairman while a former president of the Ijaw Youth Council, Engr Udengs Eradiri, will deliver the lead presentation.

The statement described Otuaro’s chairing the event as a reflection of the conference focus on policy, accountability and sustainable development in the Niger Delta.

According to the statement, both the keynote speaker and the lead presenter are expected to shape discussions on environmental protection, governance and the role of the media.

According to the statement, the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Hon. Emomotimi Guwor, is expected to attend as Special Guest of Honour.

The statement further list Pere of Akugbene-Mein Kingdom, HRM Pere Luke Kalanama VIII, first Vice Chairman of the Delta State Traditional Rulers Council, as Royal Father of the Day, while Chief Tunde Smooth, the Bolowei of the Niger Delta, as Father of the Day.

Others include: Mr Lethemsay Braboke Ineibagha, Managing Director of Vettel Mega Services Nigeria Limited; Prof Benjamin Okaba, President of the Ijaw National Congress; Sir Jonathan Lokpobiri, President of the Ijaw Youth Council; Hon. Spencer Okpoye of DESOPADEC; Dr Paul Bebenimibo, Registrar of the Nigerian Maritime University, Okerenkoko; Chief Boro Opudu, Chairman of Delta Waterways and Land Security; and Chief Promise Lawuru, President of the Egbema Brotherhood.

The organising committee said the conference is expected to bring together journalists, policymakers, community leaders, and researchers to promote informed dialogue and collective action toward protecting the Niger Delta for future generations.

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Okpebholo Pledges To Clear Inherited Salary Arrears, Gratuities At AAU

Published

7 hours ago

December 15, 2025

Editor

Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, has assured the management of Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, of his administration’s commitment to addressing accumulated unpaid salaries, gratuities and other critical challenges inherited from past administrations.

In a statement, Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Dr. Patrick Ebojele, said the governor gave the assurance when he received the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor (Mrs.) Eunice Eboserehimen Omonzejie, and members of her management team on a courtesy visit to Government House, Benin City.

Okpebholo, who congratulated the Vice-Chancellor and her team on their appointments, noted that their presentation underscored the depth of challenges confronting the institution.

“From what you have outlined today, it is clear that Ambrose Alli University was on life support. I must commend the progress you have recorded so far since assuming the office,” the governor said.

“I am impressed by your efforts, and I want to assure you that in any way possible, this administration will support the university to reposition it and restore its lost glory.”

Addressing the issue of accumulated salary arrears, the governor described the non-payment of staff salaries over several years as unfair and unacceptable.

“It is not right for people to work and not be paid. The issue of unpaid salaries, pensions and gratuities running into billions of naira is something I will take as a project,” he said.

“These are issues inherited from the past government, and we will address them.”

Okpebholo also acknowledged other concerns raised by the university management, including hostel infrastructure, accreditation-related challenges and facilities required for programmes such as Medical Laboratory Science.

“This year’s budget is already at an advanced stage, but I expect that these critical needs will be properly captured in your budget proposals. Once that is done, we will see how best to move the institution forward,” he added.

Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Omonzejie, explained that the delay in paying a courtesy visit to the governor was due to a recently concluded accreditation exercise and the need to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the state of the university.

She noted that the university she inherited was in a moribund state, plagued by infrastructural decay, unpaid salaries and accreditation challenges, among others.

Omonzejie expressed profound appreciation to Governor Okpebholo for what she described as “life-saving interventions” since his assumption of office.

According to her, the governor’s approval of an increased monthly subvention, restoration of affected staff to the payroll, support for graduating backlog medical students, improved security logistics, and the facilitation of road construction through the Niger Delta Development Commission have significantly revived the institution.

She also formally presented pressing needs requiring urgent attention, including accumulated unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities and union deductions, as well as the construction of lecture theatres and hostels to enhance accreditation and expand student intake, particularly in the College of Medicine.