Published 22nd Jun, 2021

By Gabriel Ogunjobi

Eighteen months after his erroneous dismissal from the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Olufemi Owoola, a lecturer in the university’s Department of French, has died without any compensation from the institution he served for nearly 20 years.

At about 6:30 p.m on that day, he was returning home when he slumped at Ayeyemi area, near Shepherd International College, and died instantly.

Owoola was among over 1,000 staff dismissed in December 2019 but his case was clearly an avoidable error: the university mistook him for someone with the same surname in the Theatre and Media Arts department who was on sabbatical leave. While some staff were reinstated, Owoola was still left out.

LOYALTY BETRAYED

Family and colleagues testify to Owoola’s hard work while discharging his duty. In fact, he was said to be one of the founding lecturers of the French department and was the examination officer until his dismissal.

When Owoola learnt of his sack, he took it lightly as he was so convinced nothing could warrant an abrupt termination of his job.

“I think that was one of the problems that made it hard to resolve his issue,” a colleague from the French department who prefers to be anonymous said. “We advised him to collect the letter from the Theatre Arts department and appeal the decision but he refused, believing it was a minor issue that would correct itself.”

Oluwakemi, his wife, buttressed this statement, saying: “Each time I asked him at home, he simply discarded my worries, saying it was a minor thing since he was always punctual in school without any complaint against his work.

“It was when he didn’t receive salaries for two consecutive months that it dawned on us that the situation was not a joke.”

HOPING UNTIL DEATH

FIJ learnt that Owoola went to work at least three times every week as if he was still a regular staff member of the university.

After a while, his friends began supporting him by writing petitions to the school authorities and sparing parts of their salaries for him “virtually every month” until his death.

“When I asked him why he was still coming to school, he told me he had been advised to do so, perhaps his presence would keep his issue in the mind of the school management. He was indeed hardworking,” Olusegun Gbadegesin, one of his colleagues, told FIJ.

Oluwakemi added that one of her husband’s students had become a lecturer in that same department.

“He has colleagues across the faculty,” she said. “One of his senior colleagues was still supervising his PhD thesis in French at EKSU before his sudden death.”

TEARS OF A WIDOW

“We wrote to different people, including the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Edward Olanipekun; Registrar, Akin Arogundade; former Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology in Ekiti State, Foluso Daramola and some other political bigwigs in the state,” the wife continued.

“I don’t know what the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar want to achieve in killing my husband. If it is not so, they won’t still not refuse all pleas to reinstate him until his death.”

Oluwakemi didn’t sound too optimistic when asked how she would cope with single-handedly raising her children from now. A Level 9 primary school teacher in Ekiti, she receives the wages of a Level 7 civil servant.

“You can ask anyone around Ekiti State. That is what is happening here,” she said.

“With the little I collect, things have been hard since my husband was unjustly dismissed. I have also had to relocate my last child from a private secondary school to a public school just to cut costs for the family.”

Their first child, 17-year-old Olakusibe, is seeking admission into a tertiary institution, while the other two are still in secondary school.