By Jerome Okonkwo
There is growing discontent among students and staff members of the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU) over what they consider as an absurd, exploitative academic and governance rot under the current Vice Chancellor.
The issues include arbitrary imposition of levies on students, poor learning and teaching environment, inadequacy of academic content of the semesters and poorly motivated workforce.
Observers say that Gov. Chukwuma Soludo should take interest in the situation by calling out the embattled Vice Chancellor, Prof. Kate Omenugha in order to save the university from further administrative rascality.
New Students Billed N10,000 for Bronchure
The management billed no fewer than 10,000 students—including many admitted less than one week before the first semester exams in March 2026—N10,000 for a matriculation brochure titled “Ifenkili,” which turned out to be a book praising the Vice Chancellor.
Secondly, and without the approval of the University Council, the Vice Chancellor embarked on an ICT transition programme.
She pulled down the University Portal, and awarded a contract for a new one without a bid, as required by the Public Procurement Act and the COOU Law.
Students to Pay N15,000 to Access Portal App
To access the new portal to register courses and make payments, every student of the University was directed to pay a mandatory sum of N15,000 by the management.
This was confirmed by a circular issued by the Directorate Of Information & Communication Technology, signed by the Director Prof. J.P. Iloh.
The circular stated the deadline for course registration for 1st Semester 2025/2026 on the new COOU App had been extended to April 15.
According to the circular, the extension is to enable the students to have enough time to download the app, complete their initial login process, make the necessary payments and complete their course registration on the app.
“The students are therefore expected to take advantage of this extension to complete their course registration,” the ICT memo said.
Students’ Protest
Students of the University have been protesting the obnoxious levies and poor academic content of the session and learning environment across different social media spaces.
In a widely circulated open letter of protest, a 100-Level Law Student (name withheld) expressed frustration over what he considered a regime of strangulating levies for services which ordinarily should be free.
The student questioned why the newly launched COOU Portal App should attract a mandatory burden of N15,000 ICT fee on students when it should actually be an institutional investment.
“I must therefore ask, what exactly is this N15,000 ICT fee for because the current charge raises legitimate concerns about proportionality and transparency.
“With an estimated student population of about 30,000, a compulsory payment of N15,000 per student amounts to N450,000,000, this is not a trivial figure and it naturally prompts serious questions,” the student said.
Going further, the student said they were required to purchase a publication titled “Ifenkili” for N10,000 as a condition for entry into the examination hall.
He described the book as a collection of poems in praise of the Vice Chancellor with no academic relevanc.
It contained only photographs of school management and the names of matriculating students.
He lamented that applicants pay N15,000 for an application today and may face even higher charges tomorrow for necessities that should ordinarily be accessible.
Involvement in Partisan Politics
Another sad turn of event is the Vice Chancellor’s abandonment of University administration for open involvement in partisan politics.
More worrisome is the Vice Chancellor’s donation of a whooping sum of N10 million to members of a political party and gleeful announcement of the same in the media space.
For a university that is grappling with an acute infrastructure deficit such that most departments have just one classroom to service its entire students from year one to final year.
The Part Time and, the Postgraduate programs, one wonders where Madam Vice Chancellor got the spare money to fund a political party.
Clearly, the council or Senate did not approve that money. If she claims it is her personal donation, people are questioning how much she donated before assuming office as Vice Chancellor.
It may be convenient to say that Madam Vice Chancellor whose appointment fell short of all laid down processes and hangs precariously in the balance as it is a subject of litigation, is running as an empress in line with the procedural impunity that enthroned her.
Could it be that she has made as much money through the numerous windows she created to milk parents and guardians of students, such that she now has enough to recklessly throw around without recourse to decency.
Low Morale for Research
Lecturers say poor motivation is affecting research and teaching, adding that some of them earn as little as 40 percent of what their counterparts in federal and other state universities receive.
The lecturers say hopes were high when a professor and world acclaimed scholar became the visitor of the institution but expressed disappointment that conditions of service had gone worse moreso, with the soaring inflation.
He said the infrastructure in the University was grossly inadequate and the increasing deference to NUC carrying capacity and the JAMB admission quota by the Vice Chancellor, especially in the past three years, was collapsing the existing facility.
One of them said they expected the university to have built new facilities by now because the immediate past Vice Chancellor left about N5 billion in an infrastructure fund.
However, the university has only carried out a facelift of the gate, while the perimeter fence has collapsed around the campus and students’ safety remains not guaranteed.
Jerome Okonkwo writes from Uli
