Former Vice-Chancellor of the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Professor Chinedum Nwajiuba has called for a halt to the practice of engaging Nigerian professors for election duties.
He made the call in a lecture he delivered on February 24, 2026 as part of programmes marking the end of the administration of the Vice-Chancellor of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Professor Maduebibisi Ofo Iwe.
The Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) has over the years been using Vice-Chancellors and professors of public universities to serve as Returning Officers during elections.
But Nwajiuba, who spoke on the present state of Nigerian universities, vehemently condemned the apparent eargerness of high ranking academics to serve as electoral officials, saying that it has diminished their status.
He specifically called on the nation’s electoral body to “stop using our professors for election duties” and for the top academics to reject such assignments.
“The use of Vice-Chancellors of federal universities as returning officers for
governorship and presidential elections has to stop,” Nwajiuba declared.
However, the former VC noted that “most academics are ignorant of the intrigues of Nigeria politicians” and by accepting to serve as returning officers could end up being compromised thereby muddling the image of academics.
Nwajiuba alluded that professors that accept electoral duties possess slave mentality, adding that “slaves who love their chains shall remain in their bondage”, referencing the title of a book by Dr. D. K. Olukoya, the General Overseer of the Mountain of fire and Miracles Ministry.
He cited some instances when highly regarded academics ended up messing their hard earned images while performing election duties for INEC and getting caught enmeshed in political intrigues.
“We saw in a governorship election in 2019 a Vice-Chancelor who obtained a first class in mathematics, with a PhD in mathematics,
became a professor of mathematics, but unable to correctly work out, or so it seemed, two-thirds of 27 local governments areas of a state.
“When VCs were invited by INEC to review the 2019 elections at a meeting held at Radisson Blue Hotel Ikeja, with foreign partners present, it was truly embarrassing”.
Nwajiuba also lamented the poor quality of staff and students in the nation’s universities, saying that some professors are not worth the title they bear.
“We need to start an open and competitive process for appointment/promotion of professors, classify professors according to quality and productivity, while pay differential salaries according to productivity,” he said.
He suggested that Nigeria should learn from the German-style classification of Professors,
and paying them “differentiated salaries” according to their ranking and productivity thereby rewarding those who work hard.
The former AE-FUNAI VC stated that to implement the classification of Professors,
“we have to significantly raise the salaries of our topmost professors to what it was pre-civil war when Vice-Chancellors earned higher than ministers”.
However, he acknowledged that his suggestions “may not be popular views” but insisted that drastic measures needed to be applied in order to restore the dignity of Nigeria’s universities.
“If we are to restore the dignity of our universities and stop the continued demystification of our universities we need to create a competitive process of appointments.
“In making this suggestion, I will be surprised if it ever will be implemented, by a country that has adopted the philosophy of matching at the speed of the last man in a parade ground,” Nwajiuba asserted.
He commended Prof Iwe, whose five-year tenure as the VC of MOUAU ended at the weekend, for competently navigating the treacherous terrain of serving as VC, leaving behind a legacy of transformation and development.
