By Andrew Joseph
On November 6, 2025, the selection process for the appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), superintendent by the institution’s Pro-Chancellor/Chairman Governing Council, Distinguished Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, ended with the announcement of Professor Joshua Olalekan Ogunwole, the current Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC) Strategic Partnerships, Research, Innovation and Linkages of the Ivory Tower.
Professor Ogunwole who has since been presented with his letter of appointment by the Pro-Chancellor, will officially take over as FUOYE VC from Professor Sunday Abayomi Fasina when his five-year tenure expires on February 11, 2026.
The process for the appointment of a new FOUYE VC began with the placement of advertisement in national dailies on August 1, 2025, requesting for applications from qualified candidates based on the requirements listed in the advert and was expected to be submitted within a period of six weeks from the date of publication.
After the expiration of the six weeks, elections were conducted by the University Senate and Congregation to choose their representatives for the search and selection committees as part of the process for the appointment of a new VC. All the elections conducted for the purpose of constituting the search and selection committees were said to be free, fair and transparent as attested to by various stakeholders in the university community.
In all, a total of 83 persons competed for the position of FUOYE VC. 64 applied online while the search committee brought in 19 names. Those names from the search committee and the online applicants were subjected to the same standards, as revealed by the FUOYE Governing Council Chair, Ndoma-Egba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and highly respected political figure in the country.
According to Ndoma-Egba, after the preliminary assessment and screening, 34 out of those who applied online were eliminated and 17 persons were dropped from those brought in by the search team. Therefore, thirty persons from the online applicants and two from the search team made it to the next stage.
The Pro-Chancellor was quoted as saying that “The process was fully digitalised. The applications were launched online, and the assessments were done by the system. However, to ensure transparency and accuracy, we still carried out a manual review. For instance, if the system showed that an applicant had two fellowships, we verified manually to confirm the claim.
“When we had the final six names, we immediately contacted the Department of State Services (DSS) in Ekiti for the screening of the shortlisted candidates. After a very thorough exercise, the Council approved the most suitable and qualified candidate.”
The Council Chair further noted that “The process left little or no room for discretion. And I want to say with all confidence that if you give out the template we adopted to any person in the street to conduct the exercise, and the person applied the template strictly, the result will be the same. So, there was no allowance for discretion from what we set out to do. Therefore, the issue of preferred candidate was not there, because the scores were objective. The online systems well sorted out and we also did the manual verification.”
Interestingly, just a day after Professor Ogunwole’s appointment was announced, Professor Hakeem Babatunde Fawehinmi, one of the six candidates that scaled through to the final interview stage in the rigorous and transparent FUOYE selection process supervised by Ndoma-Egba, also emerged as the new VC of University of Abuja (UNIABUJA). Professor Fawehinmi, who until his recent appointment, was the VC of the Nigeria-British University, Asa, Abia State, missed the FUOYE final interview while probably attending that of UNIABUJA.
The emergence of one of the six finalists in the FUOYE VC selection process as UNIABUJA VC, a different university environment, is the reason many have come to agree and strongly convinced that indeed, the template used for the exercise supervised by Ndoma-Egba, was designed to produce the best from the 83 scholars that competed for the position. What it means in a way is that the FUOYE VC selection process superintended by the legal luminary and ex-Senate Leader ended up producing two VCs from the last six candidates – one for FUOYE and another in UNIABUJA.
Many find it sickening and absurd that some people are condemning such a process widely acknowledged as completely transparent, purely merit-based, and effectively designed to produce the best candidate! The Youth Coalition in Ekiti State shouldn’t align themselves with individuals who are supposedly intent on sabotaging the success and undermining the progress of FUOYE, the 4th most sought-after Nigerian university based on JAMB’s ratings and the 11th best in the country, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) World Universities Rankings.
In a report published by Tribune, youths under the auspices of Coalition of Youths for Development and Advancement in Ekiti State asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) to cancel the appointment of Professor Ogunwole as the VC-designate of FUOYE, threatening to embark on a 90-day protest, if their demand is treated with levity.
According to the Tribune report, “The youths accused the outgoing vice chancellor, Professor Sunday Fashina and the chairman, Governing Council of institution, Senator Ndoma Egba of allegedly scheming qualified candidates out of the race to favour a preferred candidate.
“The youth called on the President to immediately reverse the appointment and saddle the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, to midwife a thoroughly supervised process that will produce a more competent academic that will transform the citadel of learning into a world-class status, in line with university (Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Act 2003.”
The question to ask is: why are we seeing protest by youths only in Ekiti State with many new VCs emerging in different parts of the country before and after Professor Ogunwole’s emergence? Why are Anambra youths not protesting against the appointment of Professor Ugochukwu Anyaehie from Imo State as the new VC of UNIZIK? Why are Nasarawa youths not asking President Tinubu to reverse the recent appointment of Professor Mohammed Isa Kida from Borno State as the VC of Federal University Lafia? Why are we not seeing protest from youths in FCT against the emergence of Professor Fawehinmi from Ondo State as UNIABUJA VC who was among the last six candidates from the 83 persons that competed in the FUOYE VC Selection process?
It is only the youth coalition in Ekiti that is rejecting the outcome of the VC selection process of a federal university in its state, despite having no stake or involvement in the university’s affairs. And one begin to wonder why they are interested in who becomes FOUYE VC? Are the youth bodies making up the coalition part of the university community! The entire members of FUOYE community were satisfied with how the VC selection process was transparently conducted in accordance with the law under the strict supervision of Nodma-Egba, the Pro-Chancellor.
The youth coalition said President Tinubu should annul Professor Ogunwole’s appointment and charge the Minister of Education to midwife the conduct of a fresh exercise that will produce a more competent scholar as FUOYE VC. Who could be more qualified or competent than the Ogbomosho-born renowned Professor of soil ecosystem, Ogunwole, from among those the youth coalition alleged were schemed out of the race? How could they think that a man with an outstanding track record of performance and exceptional leadership style who had served as the VC of Bowen University, one of the 10 best private universities in Nigeria, and currently holds the position of DVC (Strategic Partnership, Research, Innovation and Linkages) at FUOYE, is not qualified or competent enough to be FUOYE VC?
Professor Ogunwole, an erudite scholar and distinguished soil scientist with nearly thirty years of experience in teaching, research and community service, is eminently qualified to be FUOYE VC, having served diligently and meritoriously across institutions of higher learning, including Ahmadu Bello University Zaria (ABU), Adamawa State University, Mubi (ADSU), Federal University Dutsin-Ma (FUDMA), Bowen University and FUOYE, making significant contributions both as an educationalist and administrator.
The Ekiti youth coalition should not waste their time for any protest for the cancelation of Professor Ogunwole’s appointment. Their planned 90-day protest would amount to nothing because the University Visitor, President Tinubu and Minister of Education, Dr. Alausa, were aware of how open and transparent the FUOYE VC selection process supervised by Ndoma-Egba was.
It is strongly believed that President Tinubu, an ardent promoter of national integration, redeployed Ndoma-Egba from Federal University Lokoja (FUL) to FUOYE as Pro-Chancellor/Chairman Governing Council because of the high level of trust and confidence he has in him. And the revered legal pundit and esteemed politician, well-known for his impeccable records in public service, has obviously justified the confidence reposed in him by the country’s number-one citizen with the proactive, pragmatic and purposeful leadership he has offered since he resumed in FOUYE about 11 months ago to head the Governing Council.
In spite of the deliberate attempts by some mischief-makers to cause needless distractions, and dent the image and reputation of the ex-parliamentarian of note built over the years, the cerebral lawyer has remained focussed, firm and steadfast in his resolve to ensure the sustainability of the impressive exponential growth of FUOYE championed by the outgoing VC, Professor Fasina with the full support of the entire management team, of which the incoming VC, Professor Ogunwole is part of.
So, the VC selection process overseen by Ndoma-Egba produced an astute professor with proven track record of performance and accomplishments to take over from a great scholar and distinguished professor with stellar record of achievements, who through his visionary leadership, amazingly turned around the fortunes of FUOYE. Definitely, Ogunwole will consolidate and build strongly on the remarkable feats of Fasina, and FUOYE will be better for it. Therefore, any individual or group asking President Tinubu to cancel the appointment of Professor Ogunwole, who emerged via a plainly merit-driven and highly competitive selection process, does not mean well for FUOYE
Andrew Joseph writes from Abuja