The Only Surviving Executor of the Last Will and Testament of the late Founder of Tansian University, Professor Godwin Uche Akam, has said the National Universities Commission (NUC) has already affirmed that the institution belongs to the Missionaries of Blessed Tansian, insisting that the university’s legal officer had no role in its management before the founder’s death.
Speaking in an interview on ARISE NEWS on Sunday, Akam alleged that the university’s current leadership crisis began after the institution’s legal officer assumed positions he was never appointed to occupy, despite NUC’s position on the ownership of the university.
“NUC said, Tansian University is owned by Missionary Assemblies of the Church, which later was changed by the Bishop of Ijevudu Diocese to Tansian Missionaries, or Missionaries of Blessed Tansian.”
Akam explained that the late founder established Tansian University in 2007 and managed it in line with NUC regulations until his death in February 2021. “Obiora was never involved in anything concerning the BOT, the governing council of the university, or even the department of the university, until the founder of the university, Reverend Professor John Bosco Akam, of blessed memory, died on the fifth day of February 2021.”
According to him, the situation changed after the founder’s death when the legal officer allegedly altered the governance structure by registering a separate entity known as Tansian University Limited by Guarantee. “Everything changed. An employee, a person engaged to manage to see to the legal issues in the university, turned out, surreptitiously, manipulated documents that made him now one of the directors of the university. He started a company called Tansian University, Limited by Guarantee.”
Akam said he challenged the move at a Board of Trustees meeting and later petitioned the NUC after refusing to endorse the new arrangement.
“I said I wouldn’t sign. At the end of the meeting, he said I should read and confirm. I voted and wrote a petition to NUC.”
He stated that following the petition, the NUC invited all parties for a meeting in July 2023 and reaffirmed the ownership of the university.
“That led NUC to invite us on the 4th of July, 2023, for a meeting. There, NUC said, Tansian University is owned by Missionary Assemblies of the Church, which later was changed by the Bishop of Ijevudu Diocese to Tansian Missionaries, or Missionaries of Blessed Tansian.”
Akam further alleged that despite the regulator’s position, the university’s legal officer dissolved the existing governing council. “Before we know it, he went and dissolved the council, which I was the pro-chancellor, took over, appointed his own cronies to be members of the governing council, sat even the Bishop of Ijevudu Diocese, and became the chancellor.”
He claimed the same individual currently exercises multiple roles within the university, a development he described as unprecedented.
“He still signs documents and records everything as secretary, chairman, chancellor, and more importantly, legal officer to the university at the same time. We have documents to show this. This distorted the governance structure of the university. It’s unheard of anywhere in any part of the world.”
Akam questioned how someone employed solely as a legal officer could become the institution’s chief executive without first serving on its governing bodies. “He wasn’t a member of the BOT. He wasn’t a member of governing councils. He comes in there simply to find out functions as a person employed on legal matters. How then did he come in to be now the chancellor, the secretary to the BOT and BOD? And at the same time, the legal officer of the university is absurd. It’s not heard of anywhere.”
He added that the governance dispute has plunged the institution into crisis, saying the university has suffered from the leadership controversy. “Therefore, distorting the governance structure with serious management crisis.”
Akam said he was encouraged that the NUC had intervened in the matter and expressed confidence that the regulator would resolve the dispute. “I am very happy that the NUC has waded into the problem, and I’m sure they will resolve it.”
He concluded by rejecting any claim that the university’s legal officer could own the institution. “He can never be the owner of the university. That’s my own thinking.”
Erizia Rubyjeana
Follow us on:
