ABSU, Enough Is Enough: Recall Professor Nnamdi Nwaeze – By Samuel Okenyi

ABSU, Enough Is Enough: Recall Professor Nnamdi Nwaeze – By Samuel Okenyi

If the reported position of ASUU is that academic activities at Abia State University should not continue until Professor Nnamdi Nwaeze is recalled, then ABSU Management needs to understand that this matter has gone beyond one professor. It is now a serious test of the University’s commitment to academic freedom, due process and institutional independence.

Let us stop beating around the bush. The suspension of Prof. Nwaeze is unjust, unfair, high-handed and completely disproportionate if, as publicly stated, the issue centres on comments attributed to him on social media. A university is supposed to be a home for intellectual freedom. A Professor of Economics should be able to interrogate government policies, analyse economic realities and participate in public discourse without being treated as an enemy simply because his views are uncomfortable.

If Prof. Nwaeze violated a specific university regulation, bring the rule. Bring the evidence. Give him the allegations. Give him his day before an impartial panel. But don’t suspend a professor first and start looking for justification afterwards. That is not how a credible academic institution should operate.

And now that the Abia State Government has reportedly made it clear that it had no hand in the suspension, Management should have no reason whatsoever to continue hiding behind political considerations. If government truly did not order the suspension, then ABSU Management must own its decision and take responsibility for correcting it.

Quite frankly, trying to prove loyalty to whoever is in government is not the job of a university administration. Your loyalty should be to the institution, its statutes, its students, its staff and the principles of scholarship. Government will change. Political actors will come and go. But Abia State University will remain.

So, ABSU Management, this is the moment to show maturity.

You made a decision. The decision has generated serious controversy. ASUU has taken a position. The academic community is watching. The public is watching. Why not simply review the matter and do what is right?

There is absolutely no shame in correcting a decision.

In fact, there is greater shame in knowing that an action may have been wrong and stubbornly refusing to correct it simply to protect institutional pride.

Recall Prof. Nwaeze.

Let him return to his classroom.

Let him continue his academic work.

If there are genuine allegations against him, let them be handled through transparent and lawful disciplinary procedures.

But don’t turn ABSU into a theatre where academic freedom is sacrificed on the altar of political sensitivity.

And to those who think this matter will disappear with time, think again. The issue is no longer just about Prof. Nwaeze. It is about what happens to the next lecturer who expresses an unpopular opinion. It is about what happens to students who question authority. It is about whether academics must become afraid of speaking because their opinions might offend someone powerful.

Today it is Prof. Nwaeze. Tomorrow it could be somebody else.

That is why this matter must be resolved properly.

Nobody is asking Prof. Nwaeze to be above the law. Nobody is saying an academic should violate university regulations with impunity. What we are demanding is simple: due process, fairness, evidence and justice.

ABSU must not become a place where the loudest political voice determines who survives professionally.

Enough is enough.

Recall Professor Nnamdi Nwaeze.

Restore institutional confidence.

Protect academic freedom.

Keep partisan politics away from the university.

Let the University be a citadel of learning, not a factory for manufacturing silence.

The ball is now in the court of ABSU Management.

Do the right thing. Recall the professor.

Samuel Okenyi
16/08/2026