ASUU turns its back against lecturer unjustly sacked 22 years ago

Emmanuel Osodeke, the national president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has given a reason why the union cannot intervene in the over two decades of victimisation of Inih Ebong, an associate professor of theatre arts, who was unjustly sacked by the University of Uyo (Uniuyo) in 2002.

Mr Osodeke, a professor, told PREMIUM TIMES on 23 January that Mr Ebong was not a member of ASUU.

“Those we can easily talk about and defend are our members,” Mr Osodeke said. “The information I have from the branch is that he is not a member of the union.”

The interview with the union president was part of this newspaper’s several years of investigation into how Uniuyo ruined Mr Ebong’s career with unproven sexual assault allegations.

Why I resigned my membership of ASUU – Ebong

Mr Ebong truly resigned his membership of ASUU around 1998 when Fola Lasisi was Uniuyo’s vice-chancellor.

He explained to PREMIUM TIMES, on Saturday, 9 November, why he resigned.

“They (ASUU local leadership and members) were carrying out a campaign that turned out to become tribal agenda because when they were doing their demonstration, they were chanting ‘Before we die, Yoruba must go’.

“And I said to myself that a university is a small universe for everybody of all shades and colours and that I cannot pay my ASUU dues and then come to say that a particular tribe must go, no matter what happened. So because of that, I tendered my resignation as a member of ASUU,” Mr Ebong told our reporter.

Trumped-up sexual harassment story

Our reporter asked ASUU national president, Mr Osodeke if it was not okay for the union to intervene in Mr Ebong’s matter on grounds of humanity.

“There are issues for which we intervene and they are issues we don’t intervene. Didn’t they tell you the cause, why he was in court?”

Our reporter told Mr Osodeke that before Mr Ebong was sacked from the university, he was accused of abandoning his duty, which turned out to be false as he was authorised by his head of department and the then registrar, Peter Effiong, to go on leave.

The union president retorted that PREMIUM TIMES needed to investigate the real reason the lecturer was sacked.

Mr Osodeke was apparently referring to the unsubstantiated sexual harassment allegation against Mr Ebong which the university authorities for several years had been pushing out to the public through various channels, including courtrooms.

Justice Mahmood Namtari of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Uyo, is one of the judges who adjudicated in the over 20-year-old dispute between the University of Uyo and Mr Ebong.

The judge, Mr Namtari, said, “From the barrage of documents tendered in this case and the evidence by the parties, I cannot see where the case of gross misconduct is made out against the claimant (Ebong).

“The case of sexual harassment remained passive, with no evidence, without documentary evidence or otherwise, to make it active or give it life,” the judge said on 23 January 2020, while nullifying the university’s termination of Mr Ebong’s appointment.

To date, the university has not mentioned the name of any student or presented specific details of the sexual harassment allegation against Mr Ebong.

The several volumes of court and university internal documents reviewed did not contain any shred of evidence that the lecturer committed the offence for which he was punished.

Several high-level university insiders also told PREMIUM TIMES that the damaging allegation was simply concocted to destroy Mr Ebong for his famed principled stance against misconduct by the institution’s top officials.

Dr Happiness Oduk, former chairperson of ASUU, Uniuyo branch

ASUU’s reluctant moves, withdrawal

Because of PREMIUM TIMES persistent reporting on Uniuyo’s continuous victimisation of Mr Ebong, the university’s branch of ASUU was pressured into making moves a few years ago to intervene in the matter.

Happiness Uduk, the then-chairperson of ASUU, Uniuyo branch, had reached out to Mr Ebong’s wife, Uduak, to enquire if the lecturer would be disposed to a meeting with an ASUU delegation.

Uduak had told Mrs Uduk that her husband was willing to meet with ASUU over his travail. But nothing has been heard of the planned meeting afterwards – Mrs Uduk did not get back to Mr Ebong.

On 2 February, our reporter spoke on the phone with Mrs Uduk, who has been elevated to the office of the chairperson of ASUU, Calabar Zone, to find out what happened to her plan to intervene in Mr Ebong’s case.

Below is the excerpt of the interview with Mrs Uduk:

PT: You were trying to intervene in Dr Inih Ebong’s case when you were the ASUU chairperson in Uniuyo. What happened?

UDUK: I can’t remember.

PT: You can’t remember trying to intervene?

UDUK: I remember trying to intervene. I can’t remember what happened.

PT: Yeah, you spoke with the wife; you had asked her if Dr Inih Ebong would be open to receiving ASUU for a meeting. You remember that?

UDUK: So you know all these?

PT: Yes, we are aware of all these.

UDUK: So what do you want then?

PT: I want to find out at what point did you stop? What happened?

UDUK: Can we have this conversation later?

Prof Akpan Ekpo, former vice-chancellor, University of Uyo

Powerful forces bent on prolonging Ebong’s misery

Mr Uduk’s subsequent reluctance to intervene in Mr Ebong’s case, in addition to other happenings around the lecturer’s travail, indicates that there are powerful people within Uniuyo who are bent on prolonging Mr Ebong’s misery.

For instance, after his appointment was terminated, the University of Uyo published a disclaimer on Mr Ebong in the Punch newspaper on 26 July 2002, apparently to scare away other universities from hiring him.

Also, four successive vice-chancellors of the university have refused to reinstate Mr Ebong, despite an unbroken string of legal victories.

Mr Ebong was reputed for his resistance to and criticism of maladministration, mismanagement and corruption in the university.

Akpan Ekpo, a recently retired professor of economics, was the vice-chancellor of the university at the time authorities moved unjustly against the lecturer.

Uniuyo had filed three separate applications at the Court of Appeal, Calabar, against Mr Ebong’s victory at the industrial court. The appellate court struck out two of them and has yet to give a hearing date for the third application.

Mr Ebong, 73, was diagnosed with cardiac failure in October 2020 and was dying before a Nigerian billionaire, Femi Otedola, stepped in to fund his medical treatment, following a PREMIUM TIMES report.

Being out of job for over two decades, the lecturer can hardly feed himself and his family, let alone take care of his medical treatment.

He is now waiting for the Court of Appeal, Calabar, to fix a hearing date and dispense of the case as he continues to battle hardship and ill-health.

Des Wilson, a retired professor of communication from the University of Uyo, told our reporter on 3 February 2024 that Mr Ebong’s victimisation was based on a “biased opinion” by the authorities “propelled” by the then registrar, Mr Effiong.

“P.J. Effiong never liked Inih Ebong,” Mr Wilson said.

Mr Wilson said if ASUU has been advocating other causes even outside Nigeria, he did not see any reason why the union should not intervene in Mr Ebong’s matter.

He recalled that the local branch of ASUU made moves to assist the lecturer in the matter. “I can’t remember how it ended,” he said.

“He left the union, yes, but we have fought for causes, for people who were not members of ASUU,” he said.