FG Names New Naval Varsity VC Amid Controversy

The Federal Government has confirmed the appointment of Prof Lucian Chukwu as the substantive Vice Chancellor of Admiralty University, Ibuzor, Delta State.

Chukwu, a Professor of Marine Biology and the current Deputy Vice Chancellor (Management Services) at the University of Lagos, was officially announced as the new Vice Chancellor on Saturday.

The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, confirmed Chukwu’s appointment in a statement made available to reporters by the ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Folasade Boriowo.

According to the minister, Chukwu scored 83.41 per cent to emerge the institution’s new vice chancellor.

The development comes after an earlier announcement by the university’s Registrar, Isaac Mankilik, on Friday, declaring Prof Christopher Ogbogbo as the new VC, a move that reportedly confused the university community.

Mankilik, in a statement, claimed that Ogbogbo, a Professor of African History at the University of Ibadan, emerged as the successful candidate after receiving nine out of 15 votes from the members of the university’s Governing Council at an extraordinary meeting held on Friday.

However, the Chairman of the Council, Dele Ezeoba, dismissed Ogbogbo’s appointment, describing it as “illegal”.

Ezeoba said the registrar neither had the authority nor the mandate to announce Ogbogbo as the vice chancellor.

“What authority does he (Mankilik) have to announce the appointment of the vice-chancellor? Does his authority override that of the Federal Government?

“His announcement is illegal; it is only the Chairman of the Governing Council that can do that. So, whatever they have done is illegal, and that was why the minister issued a statement approving the appointment of Professor Lucian Chukwu, the substantive VC,” Ezeoba told media.

It was gathered that to ensure the integrity, transparency and professionalism of the selection process, the council engaged the services of KPMG, a globally recognised and reputable consulting firm, to conduct the recruitment and selection of the 52 candidates that applied for the position of vice chancellor.

A report by KPMG sighted by press showed the scores of the top five candidates with Chukwu scoring 83.41 per cent and Ogbogbo 72.5 per cent.

A source from the university, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity, said some members of the council resisted the move by Ezeoba to announce Chukwu as the vice chancellor-designate after he (Chukwu) emerged as the overall best candidate.

“The overall best was supposed to be declared winner when the Chairman of Governing Council and Pro-Chancellor, Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba (retd.), informed the council that they should declare Prof. Chukwu winner and the vice chancellor-designate, but some selected members of Council resisted and said they would prefer to go with the candidate that came second and thereby abandoning merit.

“As a result of that, the council meeting ended in a fiasco because the governing council chairman did not agree with their action.

“On Friday, February 28, 2025; those selected group convened a kangaroo council meeting without the knowledge of the council chairman and declared Prof. Christopher Ogbogbo, who scored 72.5 per cent and came second as the vice chancellor-designate,” the source said.

But announcing Chukwu as the new VC, the education minister said his appointment was in line with the principle of merit being upheld by the Federal Government.

He added that the appointment was for a single tenure of five years in effect from February 28, 2025.

However, media outlets learnt that as of the time of filing this report, the Federal Government had yet to issue an official appointment letter to Chukwu.

Meanwhile, efforts to reach Chukwu for confirmation of his appointment were unsuccessful, as he did not respond to phone calls or messages at the time of filing this report.