BUK VC Threatens To Set Ablaze A PhD Holder Book Seller: (A Rejoinder To The Spurious Allegations Levelled Against Me By Bayero University, Kano)

By David Iluebe

(+2348034468368, davidiluebespecial@gmail.com)

1. Since 26^th of July, 2024, the social media has been awash with the above subject matter in quote, which emanated from the Special Bulletin of Bayero University, Kano (BUK), Vol. XLIII No 50, as released on the Internet in their vile social media trial of the suspects.I wish to categorically state that the information is grossly embellished and garnished with tissues of lies. The original source is as maliciously  tainted with falsehood as its various versions being peddled on the internet by Punch, Tribune, News Central Africa, Daily Post, Oriental Times (all  online) of 26^th to 27^th of July, 2024, and other social media outlets alongside Radio Nigeria that took it up without any form of investigation or confirmation from the suspects. This rejoinder is therefore a refutation of the spurious allegations against my person and dignity. It is necessitated by the need to clear the dark air surrounding what actually transpired at Bayero University, Kano   between me and the school management. In other words, the response is an attempt to separate the truth from the published misleading lies.   

2. Without a doubt, I am Dr David Iluebe whose photograph appears on the right side of the original publication. On the 24^th of July, 2024, I walked through the main gate into the premises of Bayero University, a Federal University belonging to the Federal Republic of Nigeria (my country of origin) with the intent of marketing some of my publications (as an author, a publisher, and book seller) to students who might be interested in them for intellectual development. The business of marketing books in Nigerian tertiary institutions has been my means of livelihood over the years. As it currently stands, being a well-educated Nigerian with a PhD without any gainful employment yet, it is with this business that I am currently catering for my family predominantly. In fact, it was also with it that I trained myself in the university from first degree up to PhD level.  Conventionally, I have been to many universities in different parts of Nigeria, where I usually go to classes of interest to either take permission from lecturers in their course of teaching or class representatives in less-engaged classes, who then invite me to address the students, wherein those interested normally purchase my books.

3. So, on getting to the Faculty of Engineering in BUK, where students converged that fateful day, I met one Mr Chike Emmanuel whom I know as a fellow marketer of books on tertiary Institution campuses selling his Mathematics   and Statistics   books   to some year one students in one of the lecture halls.  When I noticed that he was through with the transaction, I equally attempted to advertise some of my publications to the students.  Before then, I disclosed my mission to the class rep. who kindly gave me the go-ahead and helped to calm down the students who were about dismissing on confirming that the expected lecture was no longer going to hold.  

4. When I eventually took the stage to introduce myself to the combined faculty-class as a publisher and  book marketer, as well as the books I have for them, they willingly, convincingly and enthusiastically bought some copies for personal use without any form of deceit, impersonation and coercion from me. The two books which I  sold for  one thousand naira (N1,000)  per copy  to them are:  Use of English, and a  compilation entitled: Nigerian Peoples and Culture.  However, those who had no money for immediate purchase pleaded with both of us to come back the following day.  Surprisingly, in the process of fulfilling the students’ desire the following day, the university security operatives swooped on us with the false claim that we “deceived” their students to purchase our books.

5. Consequently, we were    handcuffed   together for two days unfed without anybody ready to hear our own side of the story.  On the first day, we were embarrassingly paraded round the campus in joint handcuffs like criminals, evoking mixed feelings of amusement and sympathy from the teeming onlookers. Later in the day, the subordinates of the Director of Security in the university who had already briefed their leader arraigned us before him. When he had patiently given us fair hearing, he contended that we must have come to the school with some sinister motives outside sale of books. I laughed agonizingly, resisted his fallacious perspective and introduced myself to him as a PhD holder in English who write, publish and sell books on Nigerian campuses to survive hard times.  I further explained that I go about marketing my personally authored books on Nigerian campuses for lack of gainful employment yet. He looked at me with a pitch of pity, flipped through the books we brought for sale and promised to take us to the VC for “soft landing” and possible offer of a job, especially to a prestigious PhD holder in English like me. Profusely, I appreciated him, thinking that the unleashed affliction was over, not knowing that it had just begun. 

6. In the evening of that day, we were brought before the VC in his exalted office. A very handsome and magnificent personality that looks outwardly harmless, and physically taller than everyone in the university that he superintends.  With him were several of the university principal officers. As I beheld his eminence, I traveled through the soothing imagination of being favoured by him with an appointment, and kept hope alive. But in a short while, it turned out to be an illusion.  As we stood before him in handcuffs, he asked for our names, which were variously introduced as Dr David Iluebe (from Edo State) and Mr Chike Emmanuel (from Delta State). Noticeably, at the mention of   “David” and “Emmanuel,” his countenance changed, and heaven was let loose. He fumed, “you, who made you a doctor?”    He automatically  invalidated my doctorate on the grounds that someone of my academic level ought to have been engaged somewhere if I was actually what I claimed to be.  As I was trying to tie my predicament to the Nigerian situation of unemployment, he burst in with the strange subject matter of forcing his students to buy our books as a pr-condition for passing exams in the guise of being their lectures. Oh, my God, it sounded so strange, unimaginable and shocking as I heard the malevolent allegation   for the first time since the beginning of the ordeal.  Obviously, it was a case of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

7. We tried to explain the truth of the matter, but he commanded us to “shut up!”  And he re-emphasized: “you went into the class and introduced yourselves to the students as their lecturers, imposed your books on them as the requirements for passing their Continuous Assessment and exams, and even threatened them with failure if they didn’t buy the books.” Meanwhile, to the best of my knowledge, nothing of such happened. Imagine!  As total strangers, how couldn’t we have done that to university students who must have known their lecturers? But, as incriminating and weighty as these unverified claims were, the VC forbade us from uttering any word in response. On seeing his level of rage, we started begging vehemently on our knees for leniency, especially for his identified primary offence of trespass. Yet, nothing changed. 

8. Furiously, he declared that nobody could walk into any university in the Southern part of Nigeria where we hail from to market books like that without paying dearly for it. As the anger intensified, he queried his security personnel for not breaking our legs before presenting us to him, and then called on the Dean of Students: “get some petrol and mobilize the students to set them ablaze.” Categorically, he said to us, “both of you are dying today.” Yet, nobody among his subordinates dared to challenge him about such a dangerous step. Helplessly, we continued with the pleas that seemed to make no meaning to him, while battling with the fear of the unknown and confusion.  Within this dark moment, I silently prayed God to avert the evil verdict in a hurry, while we continued appealing to the VC with all our strength. 

9. And then, suddenly, by divine providence, he halted his plan of homicide and opted for  a lesser evil  of pushing his predetermined judgment and false claim into the social media. That was how his media team photographed us, cooked the story of their choice   as fine-tuned by the VC to suit his purpose, and then hastily popped it into the Internet space without any investigation.  From the VC’s office, we were taken back to the security detention room, where we spent two days in chains unfed. It was so bad that the security operatives seized our phones and deprived us of reaching out to our families who were hitherto oblivious of what was going on.

10. On the second day of the in-house oppression and medial trial, the security operatives constrained us   to refund the money with which the students willingly purchased our books as a condition for our release. With no choice, we refunded the N118,500 to the security operatives, whereas our books remained with the students. Yet, they refused to release us, but instead handed us over to the police Area Command in Kano. And then I ask: if the books were not good for the students as alleged, why were they retained by them? Emphatically, these people have unjustly retained both our books and the cash recovered from us till date.

11. To an extent, the police were neutral in the case in their search for truth and justice. But, they detained us for additional two days after which we were released on bail. They didn’t also advise the university to return our books or either return the money retrieved from us if the students must retain the books. Remarkably, earlier, when the university representative and the leader of the class in question presented their case to the police Admin Officer who was the first to interrogate us, in his presence, I personally asked the class rep whether I had in any way claimed to be their lecturer when I advertized my books to them. And the boy emphatically said “No,” to the amazement of both the investigating police officer and the university representative. This was in contrast with what was already being circulated in the social media. However, the following day, most of the students who bought the books were mobilized to the police station and instigated by the university to testify in writing that they were forced to buy the books in line with the falsehood being peddled in the social media. But, that seemed to have come too late based on   what the class rep had earlier testified at the same station. 

12.When the storm was over at the state police headquarters where the case was later  transferred to, I asked the leader of the class from which it arose, in a whatsApp chat, “who on earth lied to the VC that we claimed to be your lecturers?” Surprisingly, he said, “that shouldn’t be disclosed.” This clearly shows that something is wrong somewhere?  Nevertheless, I had to appreciate him for testifying earlier about my innocence before the police,   assuring that I bear no grudge against him.

13. Observably, on the second day of our   travail in the hands of the “smart” BUK security operatives, something remarkable played out before our very eyes.  Some students came to report a pure case of fraud involving a Hausa Muslim “businessman” on the campus, who collected N1,500 each from over 40 new students to  help them forge the  medical certificates required for their  clearance. The deal having become counterproductive, the case was presented by the students   to the same man who arrested us and pushed our case to the VC without mercy. Guess what.  He simply asked the culprit to refund the money and go in peace without any further consequence. Accordingly, the young man refunded the cash and walked away with his dignity intact. But, in our own case, we were made to refund the money to the school, and thereafter detained for further affliction, while the books remain with the students till date. Well, I don’t know if it is safe to describe it as a case of tribalism, discrimination, and religious bigotry in our supposedly “one Nigeria.”  But, the truth is a universal and no respecter of persons.

14. In the aforementioned widely circulated malicious publication, I am particularly accused of trespass, impersonation, cheating and piracy.  On the moral issue of not taking permission from the management instead of the class rep., I   apologized to the VC, but all to no avail.  Honestly, if the class rep. whom I obtained permission from had given me the hint that sale of books was exclusively not allowed in BUK unlike other public universities that I have been to, I wouldn’t have attempted it. Besides, I passed through the class rep. because I considered the VC too busy with administration to be approached for the seemingly minute issue of selling books on campus.   

15. Furthermore, I didn’t in any way impersonate any lecturer in BUK nor threaten any student to buy my books. This is quite an unreasonable thing to do. They voluntarily bought the books that I advertised to them without any form of deceit, coercion and impersonation. As a matter of fact, when some of the students asked if I was one of their lecturers, I emphatically retorted “No.” Think of it: how   could   I have told engineering students that I am their departmental lecturer in the course of marketing an English book? Was that the English Department of the university? Then comes the accusation of “cheating.” Then, I ask: how is the sale of two books at the rate of N2,000 a cheating in the present economic reality?

16. Ridiculously, I am also accused of piracy in the publication. And these are books written by me.  Then I ask: how can an author pirate his own books? Besides, it is alleged that the same books were sold at the Kano State Polytechnic early this year. This is another figment of imagination as nothing of such is associated with me. As a matter of fact, these are university books. Above all, it is wickedly alleged in the malicious publication that “the suspects confessed to all the allegations levelled against them,” whereas the VC didn’t give us any iota of opportunity to explain to him what actually happened and how it happened.  And I begin to wonder how such baseless accusations could be levelled against hustling   Nigerians who merely entered a public university in search of their daily bread without any sinister motive.

17. Indeed, I was grossly dehumanized by BUK management, with my rights vehemently violated. Their publication has immensely   smeared and tarnished my image and hard-earned reputation. They have widely publicized my name on the Internet for the wrong reasons.  Consequently, I have dully informed my family members and counsel, while I patiently await their informed decision and counsel for the next line of action. Meanwhile, I call on all well-meaning Nigerians and the international community to take note of the gross injustice perpetrated against me in a public university in my own country.

18. Finally, I hereby aver solemnly that I am Dr David Iluebe, a native of Okpella in Etsako-East Local Government of Edo State and a bonafide citizen of Federal Republic of Nigeria Among other academic qualifications, I hold a bachelor’s degree in English & Literature, and Master’s in English Language from the University of Benin, and a PhD in English from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. I am not an impersonator. I am not a book pirate. I am not a manipulator. I am a writer, with over 30 books to my credit. I am equally a book marketer,  a  CAC-registered publisher, devout Christian and clergyman. Over the years, I have been marketing books on Nigerian university campuses without any intent to deceive or cheat anybody or fake my identity. So, the notion of a “fake lecturer” does not arise here at all.  Besides, I am an intelligent PhD holder in search of gainful employment to enable me contribute my quota to national development.  Thank you so much for having the patience to read this rejoinder.