Tributes have continued to pour in for Professor Joseph Olugbuyiro, a former lecturer at Covenant University who died on Sunday May 11, 2025.
Olugbuyiro, a professor of Pharmacognosy was said to have died from shock as a result of the abrupt termination of his appointment and forceful ejection from his official quarters by the university authorities.
While demanding justice for him, his friends and colleagues have set up #JusticeForCovenantLecturers while also calling on the federal government and the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa to order an investigation into staff welfare in the university.
They claimed that Covenant University was deducting its contribution to the pension fund from employee’s gratuity upon their retirement.
According to them, when the action of the university was declared illegal by the industrial court in 2021, the university only paid the person who instituted the case in court and got judgment and has continued to deduct the pension fund contribution from gratuities of the staff.
In a Facebook post on May 13, Samuel Tuesday Owoeye, a former colleague of the deceased, recalled their last conversation on May 4, 2025, where both men discussed the harsh economic realities facing them.
He wrote “Huummmmm, my brother and colleague, you couldn’t survive the shock. Covenant terminated our appointment with immediate effect in September 2024 and gave us 3 weeks to vacate our residence, failure which we would be forcefully ejected. Not because we violated any regulations, but there was need to bring down the wage bill and few had to go. That wasn’t even bad as every employer has the right to hire and fire”.
“The shock came when months after months, Covenant has WICKEDLY refused to pay us our terminal benefit. As I make this post, they are still devising how to cut, cut, cut and cut from the entitlement we worked for. It is now over 8 months and the organization we spent almost half of our lifetime to serve doesn’t care if we go and die. Of course, you have gone and you have now died untimely. Hummmmm, the Word of God captures it properly in Jeremiah 17:9: The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it”.
“My brother and colleague, we spoke last on May 4, 2025 for 7 minutes and 41 seconds and we both shared our individual experiences in the face of the present economy in Nigeria. We didn’t know that death was already knocking. Rest in the bosom of our Lord Professor Joseph Olugbuyiro. May the Holy Spirit comfort and help everyone you left behind. I am sure Covenant will now call your next of kin and pay him/her what they like and not what you are entitled to receive. God will judge the wicked!”.
Owoeye’s post generated a lot of comment especially from former staff of the university who lamented the alleged inhumane treatment meted to lecturers and other workers who have devoted most of their lives to the service of the institution but were left with nothing.
Commenting on the post, Oluwole Akinsola wrote “So so sad. Prof Olugbiyiro is one of the pioneer lecturers at Covenant University and that he was treated like this speaks volumes of rot overtime in that University. What a perfect gentleman. So soft in speaking. May his gentle soul rest in peace”.
Joshua Israel Jonah Odubele, another lecturer whose appointment was terminated wrote “It’s unfortunate this is going on in the system. The same thing done to us in 2020, immediately we resumed from COVID-19 break. Till date, what they cut from our terminal benefit is not paid”.
“Some of us are dead, but l give thanks to God who have been sustaining the rest of us. Things as this should not be heard in an institution established under the name of the covenant keeping God. It’s expected that after some courageous ones among us got favorable judgement from the court, other concerned be paid. And further cuts from others that follows be stopped. Because, it’s said that justice for one is justice for all. God’s the judge of all. May the console, comfort and take care of the family.”
Fynnba Derby wrote “I saw how each lecturer put in so much effort, tirelessly, to ensure the fulfillment of the 1 of ten in ten mantra. Even then, I was concerned. Stress levels were pretty high, and the mould in all buildings, including mine, equally troubled me. I feared the long term effects that could have on lecturers and their families. I share your pain, brother Sunday. Hopefully, we get to talk soon, and I pray for God to make so many ways, not just one, for you and all those affected. May he rest well”.
Dosa JM John wrote “Cut, cut and cut has been a usual practice. when I resigned, it took them more than a year before my terminal benefits was released to me. In the beginning it was not so, if you work for 10 years and resigned you will go home smiling, though it depends on your cadre and take home. But immediately the idea of cut, cut and cut started after the holy spirit spoke again that let there be review of staff condition of service precisely 2016, ever since then the labourer labour on their own, very sad reports to be heard in public about the land that flow with milk and honey. May God have mercy on his Churches”.
Morenikeji Akinbola also wrote “ I knew God does not slumber either does he sleep…The judgment belongs to him and he will give it to everyone(Covenant)according to their work. Professor Joseph Olugbuyiro May your gentle soul rest in peace with the Lord till eternity”.
Speaking further on the issue of their withheld gratuities, Odubele also wrote “Do know that we wrote collectively the Registrar, copy The chancellor, the vice, Pro-chancellor, and the Board of Regents, for over three years till date, no response. We are watching and God’s watching. The sweat of the labourers has dried and their wages is still being withheld”.
Efforts to reach Covenant University for official comment on the allegations have so far been unsuccessful.
Multiple calls made to the university’s Registrar’s office went unanswered as of press time.
