Intrigues and Interests behind FUOYE leadership tussle

The Federal University, Oye-Ekiti has been in the eye of the storm for some months and it is a development that is calling several attentions to the ivory tower.

While on the surface the problem with the 14-years old varsity seems to be about a battle of succession after the tenure of the substantive Vice-Chancellor, Professor Abayomi Fasina, a closer look would project a much deeper nuisance of political intrigue ahead of the Ekiti State governorship election next year and some primordial alliances for an Ekiti indigene as Vice-Chancellor after the tenure of the incumbent in February of 2026.

While protagonists of the crisis in FUOYE would disguise their actions as being fueled by the alleged case of sexual harassment by the Vice-Chancellor against a female staff of the university, the reality holds a different truth.

Indeed, insiders in the university describe the alleged sexual harassment scandal as a half shrouded camouflage

A source in FUOYE noted that when the supposed victim in the scandal, Mrs Folashade Adebayo, released the audio recording of her conversations with the Vice-Chancellor, Fasina, she set the ball rolling for a string of activities that would have ballistic effects on the soul of the university.

According to the source, “Mrs. Adebayo, like everyone in the management team, was close to the Vice-Chnacellor. Fasina is well known to run a system of management that makes it easy and comfortable for his team to have unfettered access to him.

“It was also well known that he and Madam Adebayo had a special kind of relationship. After the audio tape of the conversation that the Vice-Chancellor had with her was released to the public, in all honesty, it didn’t take us by surprise. We are not surprised because the accuser is always around the Vice-Chancellor and she probably released the tape because the Vice-Chancellor refused to accede to making her the substantive Director of Works at that time,” a female source in the university said.

While Adebayo may have a different reason for putting a private conversation between her and the Vice-Chancellor in the public, the development did not go unnoticed by members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) who have long been angling to confront the Vice-Chancellor for taking sides with a rival Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), FUOYE branch over union dispute between the two bodies.

There had been tension between the two unions bordering on the admissibility of members crossing from NASU to SSANU and, Adebayo crossing from NASU into SSANU provided a veritable ground for the SSANU leadership to take ownership of her sexual harassment accusation as a weapon to fight the Vice-Chancellor.

Before SSANU stepped into the matter, it must be noted that the Nigeria Police investigated the sexual harassment charge against Professor Fasina with an acquittal.

Indeed, the police report on the investigation was to the effect that Mrs. Adebayo herself did not admit that the Vice-Chancellor sexually harassed her in any way, other than the verbal conversation between her and the Vice-Chancellor.

Similarly, the Governing Council of FUOYE, then led by Dr. Kayode Ojo, also looked into the controversy and did not find a reason to reprimand the Vice-Chancellor.

Not satisfied with the disposition of the Kayode Ojo Governing Council, in the very week that the Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba took over the FUOYE governing council, the SSANU chapter of the university proceeded to lodge a complaint against the Vice-Chancellor at the Federal Ministry of Education.

A source, who is a member of SSANU in the university, who spoke under anonymity said that the decision of the union to take the matter before the ministry was to arm-twist the incoming Ndoma-Egba council by applying a political force that would ensure that Professor Fasina was removed from office.

But why would anyone want Professor Abayomi Fasina out of office as the Vice-Chancellor of FUOYE, despite the innumerable achievements that his administration has caused in the university?

Finding the right answers to this question would expose the issues behind the leadership crisis in FUOYE and how it all comes down to the 2026 governorship election in Ekiti State.

First off, FUOYE has never had an Ekiti indigene as Vice-Chancellor in the succession of four chief executives that preceded Fasina.

Like his immediate predecessor, Professor Kayode Soremekun, Fasina hails from Ogun State and he is the fourth Vice-Chancellor of FUOYE since its creation in 2010.

“There is currently an aggressive campaign for an Ekiti indigene to be appointed as the next Vice-Chancellor of FUOYE and that is why the acting Vice-Chancellor is daring the odds to tempt fortune,” a source familiar with happenings in the university said.

It was thus gathered, that many of the proponents of the Ekiti agenda in FUOYE are of the considered opinion that, “Fasina being in office up to the time of appointing his successor would wield considerable influence, which might frustrate the idea of an Ekiti candidate succeeding him as Vice-Chancellor,” a reliable source said.

However, if the matter between Mrs. Adebayo and Professor Fasina is a tango of the vegetarians on the Serengeti Plain land, there are hyenas lurking around and looking for a spoil.

The Ekiti State governorship election is up for the bargain in 2026 and, expectedly, politicians won’t abandon their focus on a university campus that has a student population of more than 50 thousand.

According to a source, “FUOYE is the largest educational institution in Ekiti State. Politicians in the opposition camp believe that the incumbent governor and the Vice-Chancellor are mutual friends.

“We know that some opposition figures in the state are already talking with labour unions in FUOYE to engineer crises that would forestall the prospects of Profeossor Fasina to return to his position after the leave.

“The issues in FUOYE are complicated, but I bet you, the election in Ekiti State next year and the ongoing issues around this coalition of opposition parties is responsible for more than half of the problem that you can see,” the source noted.

The All Progressives Congress, the political party currently in power both in Ekiti State and at the federal government may have been well ahead of the game, which was the reason why President Bola Tinubu, in November of last year, caused a swap in the chairman of governing councils of FUOYE and Federal University, Lokoja between Kayode Ojo and Ndoma-Egba.

Ojo is from Ekiti State and contested the last governorship ticket of the APC with the incumbent, Governor Biodun Oyebanji.

“Leaving Ojo as Council chairman of FUOYE is like placing the fate of Governor Oyebanji in the hands of his rival,” a source said.

The source said further: “You must give it to President Tinubu that he is a deft political operator and he reads the mood ahead. The President must have seen this coming and that is why he brought Ndoma-Egba to FUOYE and took Kayode Ojo to Lokoja.”

The situation in FUOYE and the narratives around them are merely a storm in a teacup compared to the main issues at play.