Nigerian govt reverses illegal VC appointment after PREMIUM TIMES report

The Nigerian government has reversed the controversial appointment of Christopher Ogbogbo, a professor of African History at the University of Ibadan, as the Vice-Chancellor of the Admiralty University, Ibuzor, Delta State.

The government has also approved the appointment of Lucian Chukwu, a professor, who emerged first in the recruitment process.

This is contained in a statement by the Ministry of Education spokesperson, Folasade Boriowo, which was shared with PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday.

“In line with the principle of merit being upheld by the federal government, the Honourable Minister of Education, Maruf Tunji Alausa, has approved the appointment of Lucian O. Chukwu as the substantive Vice-Chancellor of Admiralty University, Ibuzor. The appointment is for a single tenure of five years, effective 28 February 2025,” Mrs Boriowo wrote in the statement.

The pro-chancellor, Dele Ezeoba, a retired vice-admiral and Nigeria’s former Chief of Naval Staff, has also released a statement announcing the appointment of Mr Chukwu.

“The Governing Council of Admiralty University of Nigeria, Ibusa, Delta State has approved the appointment of Lucian Chukwu as Vice Chancellor.

“Chukwu was appointed following his emergence as the best candidate in the selection interview conducted by the Joint Selection Board,” he wrote.

“This appointment is in tandem with the policy of merit based leadership of our tertiary institutions, which is one of the cardinal policies of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.”

Illegal appointment

PREMIUM TIMES had exclusively reported on how Mr Chukwu emerged as the top candidate after the selection process that involved KPMG, a global human resource advisory company, and an interview session by the university council’s joint selection board.

According to the report of the joint selection board reviewed by this newspaper, the top five candidates were interviewed between Monday, 24 and Wednesday, 26 February and ranked based on their performances.

While Mr Chukwu emerged first with 83.41 percent, Mr Ogbogbo emerged second with 72.5 percent.

However, some university council members held a meeting without the pro-chancellor, Mr Ezeoba, to appoint and announce Mr Ogbogbo as the VC.

The pro-chancellor described the meeting as a kangaroo and filed a report with the education ministry, leading to the reversal and appointment of the candidate who emerged first in the selection process.

About appointee

Until his latest appointment, Mr Chukwu, a professor was the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Management Services at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

Mr Chukwu is a specialist on Ecotoxicology and Environmental Risk / Impact Assessment Strategies and Integrated Coastal Area Management.

He was trained at the University of Lagos where he obtained his doctorate degree in Ecosystem Health and Pollution Management and later proceeded to the Coastal Resources Institute, University of Rhode Island, USA for his post doctoral training in Integrated Coastal Management.

He has been teaching at the University of Lagos for over 30 years.

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He has been a Consultant to many national and international bilateral and multilateral agencies including: the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Experts Group on Environment and Development in West and Central Africa; Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO Ocean Data and Information Network in Africa (ODINAFRICA) Project; United Nations Pool of Experts of the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment.

He has participated in key projects in developing frameworks for coastal resilience and watershed management in coastal ecosystems in Nigeria.

Mr Chukwu has also had Visiting Fellowship Programmes at Harvard University, Massachusetts Boston, USA; Darden Business School, University of Virginia, USA; University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia; University of Newcastle, Australia, and Soochow University, China.

He has participated and served as resource person in several national and international conferences, workshops and training programmes in Europe, North America, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia.

He belongs to several professional associations and is a Fellow of Society for Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Mitigation (FEnv) and Fellow of West African Society of Toxicology (FWASOT).