The situation is believed to have prompted the National Commission for Colleges of Education’s, NCCE, letter of January 14, 2016, signed by Monday T. Joshua, a Professor and Executive Secretary of NCCE, to Ibli, directing him to handover.
With reference no. NCCE/OES/CE/FCEOB/II/Vol. 10/79, the letter states thus: “Arising from the expiration of your first tenure of office as Provost of the Federal College of Education, Obudu and the eventual vacation of office on August 26, 2015, Mr. Okon A. Mbuk was assigned the responsibility of overseeing the college with effect from August 27, 2015 … pending the appointment of a substantive Provost or the renewal of appointment”.
Further, the letter continued, “…in line with the norms of the public service as contained in the Public Service Rules and Financial Regulations”, Ibli should have handed over as earlier directed. It termed his decision as “unfortunate” and clearly state that “the inability or refusal on your part to hand over has caused teething problems to the administration of the college; and it is seriously frowned at”.
Ibli was directed to “hand over assets and liabilities of the College on or before January 31, 2016, and forward handover notes to the Honourable Minister of Education through the Executive Secretary of NCCE”.
However, College sources maintain that the out-gone Provost is playing politics with his position and seems determined to hold the institution by its jugular. “See, when Buhari was sworn in as President, this man who was a card-carrying member of the PDP and printed billboards for Jonathan, placing same in strategic places in Obudu, quickly defected to the APC and bought a backdated membership card for almost N300, 000 (three hundred thousand naira). He saw this as a way of securing his second tenure as Provost…we do not quarrel with that, what we quarrel with is his decision to hold on to the assets and liabilities of this institution as if FCE Obudu is a personal property”, one source told www.calitown.com. It is a submission that we could not ascertain at press time.
What www.calitown.com can clearly ascertain is that Ibli left behind a backlog of unpaid allowances for lecturers who supervised students during teaching practice and also left a few projects unattended to, especially at the Bebi, Obanliku Campus of the institution. GOC MULTISERVE LTD, the company awarded the contract for the building of the hostels at Bebi, has sparingly delivered, even though huge contract sums for the project have exchanged hands. Representatives of GOC MULTISERVE LTD offered no information when www.calitown.com contacted them.
A close confidant of the former Provost who promised to get back to www.calitown.com for Ibli’s reaction to the NCCE letter and other issues is yet to keep to his words. It is thought that the days ahead may be defining moments for Ibli and the institution.