Alvan Ikoku College CEO tenure war, fought and won
From GEORGE ONYEJIUWA, Owerri
There was war at the Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri, Imo State.
It was only wise intervention that stayed the hands of crisis as the four labour unions of the institution had made up their minds for a real showdown before the intervention that doused the tension.
The staff unions were up in arms against both the Governing Council and the management of the institution because of the extension of the tenure of the Provost of the College, Dr. Blessing Ijioma by the council to next year June, after she had attained the mandatory retirement age of 65.
Dr. Ijioma was reappointed as the Provost by the recommendations of the former governing council on June 16, 2014 when she was 62 and her current term was to expire on June 15, 2018. However, on March 3, 2017 she wrote the council notifying them of her wish to retire from the college with immediate effect, The Education Report found.
It was learnt that before she wrote, the governing council, had erroneously approved the extension of her tenure and also wrote the Federal Ministry of Education for an extension of tenure but got no reply.
But the coalition of the four staff unions of the institution had declared one week warning strike to protest the decision of the governing council to elongate the tenure of the provost beyond her retirement age.
The spokesperson of the unions, Dr Bede Onwuagboke, who addressed the media on the decision of the Joint Action Committee (JAC), said the warning strike was to compel the governing council to direct the provost to proceed on her compulsory retirement having reached 65.
Onwuagboke said then that: “We demand among other things that the governing council mandates the provost to retire immediately in accordance with the scheme of service of the College of Education system and should appoint another chief executive from the qualified academic staff in the college as acting Provost”.
However, in a power play between the JAC, Council and provost, The Education Report learnt that the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) was persuaded by the management to support the tenure extension of the provost and backed out of the warning strike earlier declared by the JAC and insisted that the Dr. Ijioma be allowed to complete her tenure irrespective of whether she had attained the retirement age or not.
The Secretary of NASU, AIFEC chapter, Mr. Eze Maduakor and Chairman of COEASU, Dr. Nkechi Wachuku, declared that their members were not part of the warning strike as they were directed by their national body not to go strike because it had nothing to do with their members’ welfare.
“The national headquarters have directed us to keep off from the politics of provost tenure. Be warned that NASU never declared any strike. Any NASU member that joins in the illegally declared strike in the college does that at his/her own risk. Remember the Federal Government policy of no work, no pay policy,” the statement cautioned.
Ijioma was to officially retire from the college on August 2, 2017 at the age of 65 while her tenure as provost would terminate on June 15, 2018 by the renewal.
In a petition to the chairman of the Governing Council by JAC comprising the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), Senior Staff Union of Colleges of Education in Nigeria (SSUCOEN), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), they argued that after completing her first tenure of four years in 2014, the Provost was wrongly reappointed when she was already 62 as against the maximum 59 years as contained in the Scheme of Service of the system.
The petition read: “For the avoidance of doubt, our conditions of service stipulates 59 years as highest age a prospective provost should attain at the time of applying for the job. This implies that no serving provost should be a potential retiree before the expiration of the four-year tenure. “It obviously means that granting the so-called completion of tenure to the Provost of AIFCE would be an illegality as it was in her re-appointment. It would also be violation of the constitution of the country and a contravention of the Civil Service Rules and Scheme of Service to allow the provost continue in office.”
Demanding the reversal of the approval by the Governing Council, the unions had said, “If the provost is allowed to remain in office beyond her retirement date of August 2, 2017, the four staff unions of the college would be forced to use all legitimate means to drive home their demand.”
Chairman of council, Mr. Alex Hart would have none of that insisting that governing council would not rescind its earlier decision to allow the provost to complete her tenure of office, despite the warning strike.
Hart explained that the decision of the council to allow the Provost complete her tenure was in line with laws of the college and Nigeria and would not renege, assuring that the representatives of the ministry of education and all the relevant education bodies were part of the decision to allow the provost serve out her second tenure in office, which he said would have terminated in July 2018.
According to him, “every decision we took was in line with the laws of the college and that of Nigeria. All the documents we laid our hands on proved that the provost has a running tenure that would expire in 2018 and it was only lawful that she finishes her constitutional tenure of office.” He swore that “the decision of the governing council is final. We acted based on the law. I hope the striking workers also acted based on the law.”
Following that decision the atmosphere in the institution got to boiling point that as neither the JAC members nor the governing council supporting the provost was willing to yield ground.
To settle the leadership impasse at the institution, the Senate through its committee on Ethics and Privileges headed by Senator Samuel Anyanwu representing Imo East (Owerri) wrote all parties on July 20, to resolve the matter within two weeks and report back to the committee unfailingly on August 17.
After much horse trading, Dr. Dan Anyanwu, a Deputy Provost at the Department of Agriculture was appointed as the acting Provost of the college with effect from September 15, when the current Provost, Ijioma who has served the institution for about 42 years will finally take a bow.