It is rather curious that the embattled Professor, Cyril Ndifon who was publicly accused of sundry misdeaminours including sex for grade, by his own students and colleagues in the faculty of Law has chosen to prolong the lifespan of a clearly shameful blight on his character that he himself should seek to wish away by all means necessary. Just when the dust was beginning to settle down on perhaps the biggest scandal in the life of the University of Calabar and the social media was moving away to other breaking matters, Ndifon has dragged the authorities of the university to court, reopening the unfortunate episode all over again to more public participation and salacious commentary.
And I am by no measurement, a proper judge of human character or can I superintend over the strength or foibles thereof, just as Mahatma Gandhi confessed that \”I look only to the good qualities of men, not being faultless myself; I won\’t presume to probe into the faults of others\”.
I cannot therefore interpose on the guilt or innocence of the afflicted professor in consideration of the recondite details appertaining to his present travails. Now that the wave of negative publicity around Professor Ndifon has retracted, the sensible thing to do would have been for him to appear before the panel set up to examine all the issues and defend himself.
However, the learned professor has chosen to repudiate his invitation to appear before the university panel, preferring to head to court in search of judicial deliverance.
Among the declarations he is seeking are that the Vice Chancellor of the university had no right to remove him as Dean of Faculty without a vote to that effect by the faculty board, a declaration that the panel set up to investigate his alleged misconduct was illegal and unlawful, and a perpetual injunction restraining the university authorities from interfering with his job and the enjoyment of all the benefits appertaining.
In summary, Professor Ndifon does not intend to attend the sittings of the panel, all he wants is that the court returns him to his office as the dean of faculty of law so that life can go on as usual. The same faculty that both the staff members and students rose up against him.
When this rumpus on campus came to light, several rights groups, including the Nigeria Bar Association expressed their readiness to investigate the matter but were assuaged by the internal administrative steps that were being taken by the management of the university. Now the learned professor himself has chosen to return the matter to the front burner all over again by dragging the university to court rather than defend himself before the panel of enquiry. Surely, there are interesting days ahead as the matter unfolds.
It may also interest the public to know that, the VC was one of those who lobbied for his return during the first suspension in 2015 with other Cross Riverians including Prof. Patrick Egaga, Bassey Igiri Okon, and Prof. Rowland Ndoma Egba. They did that believing Ndifon story that he was setup by those against Cross Riverians who wanted his Deanship and to ridicule him as the first Professor of Law from the state.
As VC, she worked for the sanction against his holding any office for 6years to be lifted with the then council chairman senator Nkechi Nwogu.
As Dean, he has always used his closed relationship with VC to harass, intimidate and cow other academics and students who had even openly accused the VC as shielding him for too long.
On his second coming as Dean, VC had advised him against victimizing perceived opponents. Soon after his election, VC invited him to a meeting with Prof. Okom DVC Admin, and the Registrar, Mr. Gabriel Egbe to advise him on self control, relationship with women, working ethics and unifying all the staff of the faculty. This advice like other ones, he threw to the board.
Ndifon took his relationship with the VC for granted hence, he went against extant regulations. Problem started when the VC caution him on results and refused to give executive approval for final year results, insisting that there must pass through due process of vetting before law school mobilization. This didn’t go down well with Ndifon. He went ahead last year to mobilize students to law school without due process some of them with incomplete results. This necessitated management directing the registrar to write to the DG of Law School to withdraw the list. Ndifon saw nothing wrong with this embarrassment to the University.
Before the demonstration, staff and students had complained of sexual harassment to the VC who quietly advised him not to allow affliction to arise the second time. But Ndifon prefers to sing about how people want to destroy his integrity rather than heed to advice
Climax was soon after his second term election as Dean, he brazenly went berserk with those who didn’t support and vote for him including his co-contestant Prof. Dada who he took over his office to give to Dr. Mike Otu who was Campaign DG for Dada during the 2nd term reelection thus, setting these two against each other in his characteristic manner.
Dr. Ugbe, now AG Dean and others equally had their share of the problem for not supporting Ndifon. The crisis got to an alarming level that drew management\’s attention hence the 1st visit to the faculty for a meeting. All decisions reached in the meeting were thrown away by Ndifon as he implemented none. This led the VC and the DVCs plus DAp to return to the faculty to assign office accommodation to Prof. Dada by relocating Dr. Mike to another office thus, creating office space for Prof Dada.
Ndifon need be reminded that when the VC was DVC, she had reason to visit the faculty and held meetings twice to resolve issues that were also bedeviling the faculty too.
Ndifon again sent the list of students to law school without due process thus disobeying Management\’s directives some weeks back.
Rather than looking for those behind the students protests, Ndifon should say if issues raised are false. That he is not an incurable abuser and predator as alleged by current and hundreds of past students who have stories to tell of his abuses.
The #me too# that is trending from past students that the VC does not even know who mobilizesd them?
Ndifon has bagages known to staff and students both past and present. He should change his story as Cross Riverians are not going to be fooled again by the same old story of his being the first law Professor from the state in the faculty and his detractors who want his deanship.
Ndifon is not the only first CRS Prof. in Unical. Other Faculties have first Professors also yet, nobody is accusing them of sexual harassment. Other Faculties have none indigenes as Deans yet, no one is blackmailing the indigenous Professors or accusing them of being serial perverts.
Prof Ndifon should stop deceiving himself about his hard earned name and face the panel and the court of public opinion rather than blame others for his woes. Running to court to stop the university from investigating him to the layman seems admission of guilt. Otherwise, why is he afraid of facing the panel?
It’s simply laughable for a Prof. of law to associate his predicament to his not supporting the VC son’s speakership ambition. What role was Ndifon to play on who becomes the Speaker of CRSHA? Sooner, every Cross Riverians with any problems in Unical including those who won’t get admission or employment will attribute it to not supporting the VC\’s son.
Prof. Ndifon should leave the VC to breathe and concentrate on her vision of taking Unical to the next level. His friends and associates should advise him to openly apologize to all Cross Riverians and students who have alleged victimization, frustration, and sexual abuse by him.
