by 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.
