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In 1966, Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi sacked a Lagos magistrate who convicted Prof. Ben Nwabueze over his role in the crisis that happened at the University of Lagos following the replacement of Eni Njoku as Vice Chancellor in 1965.
Here was how it happened:
Nwabueze, according to historical reports, championed the group including lecturers and students, who supported Njoku against the appointment of Sabiru Biobaku as the new VC.
In the melee that greeted the period, Nwabueze, who believed there was tribalism in the appointment of Biobaku, was accused of hitting a chair on the head of a lecturer who was supporting Biobaku.
Nwanbueze was charged to Igbosere Magistrate Court and convicted. He appealed the judgment and upon that, he was released by Justice JSC Taylor, Chief Judge of Lagos, while the appeal continued.
Not long after this, General Ironsi took over as Head of State. Then, he sacked the magistrate who convicted Nwanbueze thus further heightening the mutual suspicion that has evolved between ethnic groups.
All these preceded the Nigerian civil wãr.
Part of Nwabueze’s account of why he supported Njoku is represented below:
“I was one of the first lecturers appointed in UNILAG. I was teaching in London, and I had to come down with Professor Gawa, my Dean in London School of Economics, to open the Law Faculty in the University of Lagos in 1962. Three years after, in 1965, there was a crisis over the appointment of the vice chancellor. Professor Eni Njoku was the pioneer vice chancellor, and there was trouble between Igbo and the Yoruba and he was dropped for Professor Sabiru Biobaku, and there was a crisis. The students would not have it. I happened to be a leader of the staff in support of Eni Njoku, on principle. This man had done first class work. Why do you want to drop him after three years purely on tribal grounds? And there was a crisis.”
Credit: Ethnic African Stories
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