BY  Tony Edike and Chinenyeh Ozor
ENUGU—Activities at both the Nsukka and Enugu campuses of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, were paralysed yesterday as more than 1000 members of the university community abandoned their offices and converged on Nsukka campus to protest the suspension of the institution’s Pro-Chancellor, Dr. Emeka Enejere by the Federal Government.

They said that they would not open their offices for academic activities until the government brought back the council chairman.
The aggrieved workers comprising members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, and the Non-Academic Staff of Universities, NASU and National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, among others, demanded the immediate reinstatement of Enejere.

Joint trade union
The joint trade union of the university noted with dismay that the Supervising Minister for Education, Mr. Nyeson Wike and the executive secretary of National Universities Commission, Prof. Julius Okojie were bundles of intrigue, maladministration and abuse of office at the detriment of Nigeria universities.
The workers further explained that the two officers had been meddling into affairs of universities through ‘’unconstitutional, and uncivilised strategies to frustrate universities,’’ and then demanded the immediate removal of the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Barth Okolo, whom they accused of masterminding the suspension of Dr. Enejere, who had prevented some fraudulent activities by the present administration on campus.

The suspension
Enejere was suspended on Tuesday by the Wike for yet to be disclosed reasons.
The workers, who carried  placards with different inscriptions including “Pro-Chancellor must come back,” “Enejere must come back,” “Batho must go,” during the protest which lasted for hours, chanted anti- Bartho Okolo slogans, demanding that he must be urgently removed to prevent the collapse of the institution.
Vanguard observed that the workers shut their offices and joined the protest in solidarity with the suspended pro-chancellor who had been championing their course since the inauguration of the council through his anti-corruption crusade.

Call for Okolo’s removal
Briefing newsmen after the protest, the spokesmen for the unions including Dr. Ifeanyi Abada, Godfrey Ugwu and Onwu decried the leadership style of Prof. Okolo and made a strong case for his immediate removal.
“We have to reiterate that the UNN under the leadership of Prof. Batho Okolo is in ruins. The history of the university today is the history of maladministration, financial impropriety and recklessness, contract splitting and money laundering,” they alleged.
The union leaders asked Minister Wike to explain the justification for the suspension of Dr. Enejere while allegedly shielding and encouraging the vice chancellor, whom they accused of engaging in acts capable of ruining the university.

Wike, Okojie challenged
“We challenge the supervising minister of education and his partner/adviser in chief and collaborator, Prof. Okojie to explain the following: Why he hastily suspended a council chairman without any form of query.
“Why he is encouraging corruption in the universities. Why he is shielding and encouraging corrupt vice chancellors and tainted officers in his ministry.”
They vowed to paralyze every activities on campus if Dr. Enejere was not reinstated immediately.
“In view of the foregoing, the unions demand the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of Dr. Emeka Enejere as the chairman of UNN governing council.
“We have had enough of this impunity, we request Mr. President to intervene and call the minister to order,” they said.
According to the joint trade unions “we have reiterate that the UNN under the leadership of Prof. Bartho Okolo is in ruins.”