OPINION: When Incompetence Hides Behind Accusations of Corruption In UNICROSS

Each time I resolve not to respond to reckless posts concerning UNICROSS so that I too can be in the good books of management, one of the self-appointed messiahs of this institution will come out from nowhere and publish something so careless that I must rescind that decision.

I graduated from this university at a time when results were computed manually. The process was so seamless that I completed my project defense in February, Senate approved results shortly after, and I proceeded for NYSC in July. 

Your constant attempt to make result processing look like rocket science is not only an affront to our sensibilities but an indictment on the very management that keeps you in a job that you have failed spectacularly at performing. Why haven’t you graduated a single student since last year?

Let us stick to the issues. What is the correlation between lecturers allegedly collecting "sorting" and your inability to graduate students?

 Each time sorting is mentioned, it is as if people should start running and hiding under rocks. I have worked in this university for ten years, and I am proud to say I have never collected sorting from any student in cash or kind. Neither have the majority of the hardworking staff of this institution. We take our professional duties seriously, upload results promptly, and fulfill our academic obligations without compromising integrity.

The problem is not "dirty lecturers" fighting the system. The problem is your inability to perform the basic administrative function you were hired to perform. 

When genuine concerns are raised by worried parents, staff, and colleagues about why we have not graduated students since you came on board as Director, your response is always the same: "It is the system of corrupt lecturers fighting back." This is not accountability Sir, it is deflection.

Sorting is not fought on the pages of newspapers or at press conferences. Those carrying it out are not aliens, I’m sure you know them, and some of them are your friends. If you have evidence of lecturers manipulating results, prosecute them according to the extant laws of the university. Present the evidence. Name names. Take them before the appropriate disciplinary committees. That is how institutions address misconduct, not through vague allegations at press conferences designed to cover administrative incompetence.

What I and every genuinely concerned member of this university community are tired of is your desperate attempt to dodge responsibility by blaming non-existent forces "fighting back." Those celebrating your disparaging comments against lecturers should pause and ask themselves: Why, before the creation of a Directorate of Exams, could we graduate students with the system you now claim was flawed? Why can we not now graduate students with your so-called perfect system? 

Go back and learn from the experienced hands who previously managed this position and delivered on their tasks without so much noise and fanfare. They did not hold press conferences to explain why they could not do their jobs. They simply did the work. They graduated students on time. They maintained records with diligence. They did not blame lecturers for their failures. At this point, the silence of your incompetence is deafening.

 Data migration is not a two-year project. Portal transitions are not insurmountable technical challenges. Other Nigerian universities have migrated systems without grinding graduation to a halt. The issue is not the technology, it is the operator.

ASUU UNICROSS has more serious issues to contend with concerning management and the state government, particularly regarding our welfare and the chronic underfunding of this institution. 

We will not allow our members to be used as scapegoats for administrative incompetence. We will not sit quietly while a Director who has failed to graduate students attempts to salvage his reputation by smearing the hardworking lecturers who actually do their jobs.

At the appropriate time, the union should issue appropriate sanctions to any member who continues attempting to start smear campaigns against ASUU or our members who sustain this institution despite inadequate facilities, delayed salaries, and insufficient support.

No one will come for you Sir. The bible says that only the wicked run when no one pursues them. You will recieve commendations if you do your job and also criticisms if you fail to deliver. Every system needs people to keep it in check, without which it will crumble. I have decided to take the unpopular job of being that voice.

 I agree with you that change does indeed look like a threat to those who profited from dysfunction, but so does incompetence dressed as reform. 

Truth and consistency strengthen systems, but so does basic administrative competence, which you have failed to demonstrate. And untill you start showing tangible and verifiable results, I will keep questioning your competence.

The rest, as you say, will sort itself out. But not through your deflections or scapegoating your colleagues but through accountability.

UNICROSS is our project.

Obun Cletus (Comrade)

ASUU Branch Assistant Secretary