April 20, 2016 By Abu-bakarr Sheriff
Some 40 former students of the Department of History and African Studies at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, who were taught by Prof. Ibrahim Abdullah, have written to Acting Vice Chancellor, Dr Ekundayo Thompson, urging a speedy closure to the long drawn saga involving the eminent academic and the college administration.
The disagreement between university administrators and Prof. Abdullah has drawn attention from both abroad and in country, after the FBC administration “illegitimately and unfairly remove Prof. Ibrahim Abdullah from his job in the university.”
A group of respected academics from around the world had written to the Chancellor of the University, President Ernest Bai Koroma, to intervene in a matter many believe is motivated by personal scores than in the interest of academic excellence in the ailing college.
The former students are the latest to lend their voice to the saga, which no doubt puts the college in a bad light both locally and internationally.
“We hereby write to register our utter dismay and outright disappointment at the unfair treatment of Prof. Abdullah by the administration. As his former students, we would like to inform you that Prof. Abdullah is considered by those of us he taught as the tutor who created an ever-lasting impression on our young minds; someone we still look up to today. He is the most respected academic in the History and African Studies Department of Fourah Bay College. Even after graduating, we still hold Prof. Abdullah in high esteem because of his academic discipline and the teaching and learning standards that inform his pedagogy,” said the students, who say they were “disturbed to learn that university administrators have collectively deployed an illegitimate process to invalidate Prof. Abdullah’s tenured, professorial position.”
Thus, they urged that Prof. Abdullah’s “tenured professorial position be restored, his salary reinstated and the victimization against him be immediately stopped.”