Rejects Sokoto Catholic Bishop Kukah as Chancellor of Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University

· Condemns renaming of Uli Campus of Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University after Mbadinuju

· Hails automatic employment of 37 First Class Graduates of Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University

Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria, Tuesday, April 28, 2026: The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (https://intersociety-ng.org) is joyously celebrating the April 17, 2026 ratification by UNIZIK Governing Council of Comrade Aloysius Emeka Attah, a grassroots Human Rights campaigner as new Director of Information and Public Relations of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The University is one of Nigeria’s fastest growing universities. The Intersociety, having reviewed the last week activities at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University, Igbariam-during its 16th Convocation; wishes to strongly reject Sokoto Catholic Bishop Hassan Kukah as new Chancellor of the University.

Relatedly, Intersociety is also ejecting and strongly condemning the renaming of the Uli Campus of the University after former Governor Chinweoke Mbadinuju. On the other hand, Intersociety is thanking Governor Charles Soludo for offering automatic employment to the 2026 First Class Graduates of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University, numbering 37. We are further calling for such employment to be made permanent in line with the existing State’s Civil Service Rules. In other words, the automatic employment must not be tantamount to “political employment that does not go beyond the incumbent Governor’s Era”.

· Towering Background Of Rights Activist Aloysius Emeka Attah: Comrade Attah is one of the egg-heads behind successes recorded by Anambra State Branch of the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) in the 2000s under Emeka Umeagbalasi as Chairman. Comrade Attah, a talented writer, who wrote his first piece inside his Ogbo-Ogwu market stall, was discovered and brought into Anambra Human Rights Community by Umeagbalasi after reading one of his piece in Punch Newspaper in the late 1990s. Both of them as Onitsha apprentice-traders were, respectively, brought to Onitsha by their legal guardians as FSLC (Umeagbalasi) in the 1983 and WASC (Attah) in the 1997 and were among the earliest grassroots activists that joined Amnesty International and Civil Liberties Organization in the late 1990s from where they successfully grew in activism, trade and education. Today, Comrades Umeagbalasi and Attah are holders of university’s First Degrees and Master’s Degrees measuring in the Fields of Criminology, Security Studies, Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution (Umeagbalasi) from the National Open University of Nigeria, a Federal Government of Nigerian owned university and one of 65 dedicated Open Universities in the world under “Work and Learn”; and Political Science (Attah) under the Continuing Education Program (CEP) of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University. While Comrade Attah had his first degree (B.Sc.) from UNIZIK, he obtained his Master of Science Degree (M.Sc.) from Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University, Igbariam.

There are also dozens of other Onitsha traders-turned Rights Activist-Comrades presently holding multiple university degrees from NUC-recognized universities and programs. One of them is Comrade Justus Uche Ijeoma who rose from SSCE to BL, LLB and LLM and is now a respected member of the Onitsha Branch of NBA and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Our decision to revisit this history is therefore not only well-placed but importantly to debunk the long-held erroneous belief by the “Career Educated Class” against members of the Onitsha Business Community. Unknown to them, Grassroots Rights Activism has long become an informal university that had produced several informal professors particularly human rights researchers and investigators including those that had spent 17 years in data mining, collection and management. It must also not be forgotten that Umeagbalasi and Attah are multiple award winners especially Comrade Aloysius Emeka Attah who is multiple award winning-journalist, milestones yet to be recorded by many “Career Educated Journalists”.

This is more so when more victims of “Intellectual Laziness” are found among the “Career Educated Class” than among ‘Educated Business Class’. Such long-held false belief against educated business class recently played out when the Government of Nigeria was strongly suspected to have heavily mobilized and induced some conformist journalists and online writers to follow up the strongly suspected Nigerian Government-influenced hatchet job by the New York Times-to the effect that “since our Board Chairman and Founder (Umeagbalasi) is an Onitsha trader, therefore, he is a stark illiterate incapable of understanding social data collection and management” following the endless and Nigerian Government enabled massacre of Christians and destruction of their sacred places of worship by Islamic Jihadists across Nigeria. Therefore, we are urging Comrade Attah to remain a good ambassador of the Anambra School of Human Rights and Democracy Activism. We not only wish him good luck as prestigious UNIZIK Director of Information and Public Relations, but also wish to see him becoming a Doctorate Degree holder and a Professor in no distant future.

· Commendable Award Of Automatic Employment To 37 COOU’s First Class Graduates: Governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo is commended for offering automatic employment to the 2026 First Class Graduates of the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University, numbering 37. This commendation is strictly subject to such automatic employment being offered and implemented in full compliance with Anambra State Civil Service Rules especially ensuring that such employment is not revoked after the tenure of the present Government. In other words, the Professor Charles Soludo-led Government of the State should ensure that the affected beneficiaries are permanently employed, remunerated and accorded all the rights and privileges as career civil servants under the existing State Civil Service Rules.

· Rejection Of The Renaming Of COOU’s Uli Campus After Former Gov. Mbadinuju: We totally reject the renaming of the Uli Campus of the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University after former Governor Christian Chinweoke Mbadinuju. It is recalled that the Anambra State University was established under former Governor Mbadinuju through State House of Assembly Law No 13 of 2000 and was later renamed “Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University, Anambra State” through a Law passed by the State House of Assembly on Sept 11, 2014, under Peter Obi as Governor. Therefore, having been popularly renamed after the Igbo Leader and Eze Igbo Gburugburu, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the University and its three campuses at Igbariam, Uli and Awka is incapable of being given another name including any of its campuses. The name of the University must irrevocably remain “Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University, Anambra State”. Anything in the contrary is a mere academic exercise or effort in futility that cannot stand the test of time. Several cases in point abound: The Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU) at Awka and its campuses in Nnewi, etc.; the University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka and its campuses in Enugu Campus, etc. Apart from the above, the Era of Dr Mbadinuju as Anambra Governor remains the worst in the State’s history of human and capital development, protection of lives and properties and promotion of human rights, democracy and rule of law especially between June 1999 and 2003. Till today, no Government in Anambra State has thought it morally wise to honour and immortalize the slain Barr Barnabas and Barr Mrs. Amaka Igwe, who were gruesomely murdered in broad day light in Sept 2002 along Oraifite Street, Awada under Dr Mbadinuju as Governor. Their killers have not only remained on the prowl, but it is also likely that some are serving under the present Government of Anambra State.

· Appointment Of Kukah As COOU Chancellor Strongly Rejected And Condemned: While we hold no grudges against Bishop Hassan Kukah, our gathered statistics on jihadists’ grisly attacks on Christians across Nigeria have continued to indicate that he did not do enough especially by failing to use his vast links to various State and Federal Governments and their political and coercive establishments since 1999 including the present Central Government since 2023 to get them act decisively to protect persecuted Christians. Critics say: “he abandoned his fellow Catholic Faithful and other Christians when he was needed most since Oct 2025”. Father Kukah is also found to be the only Catholic Bishop, out of more than 65 serving others, made Pro Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Nigerian Government’s Federal University of Applied Sciences in Kachia, Kaduna since March 17, 2025 and the Chancellor of the Anambra State Government owned Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University since April 22, 2026. According to Critics: “Father Kukah was rewarded by Governor Soludo for being one of those denying Christian Persecution or Genocide in Nigeria, especially from the Governor who publicly declared recently and falsely that there is no single Fulani Herdsman in Igbo Land forests in the South-East except Christian kidnappers”.

Signed:

For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

Emeka Umeagbalasi
Criminologist and Graduate of Security Studies

Boss @ International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

Chidinma Evangeline Udegbunam, Esquire
Human Rights Lawyer and Head, Dept. of Campaign and Publicity

International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Esquire
Human Rights Lawyer/Head, Dept. of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

Comrade Chibueze Nwajiaku
Deputy Head, Dept. of Policing and Law Enforcement

International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

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