UYO, Nigeria — Inih Ebong, an associate professor of theatre arts at the University of Uyo (Uniuyo), Akwa Ibom State, died not just from cardiac failure. He died from a broken spirit. He died shattered by years of institutional betrayal, official silence, and systemic injustice meted out by the very university he once served with passion and principle.
Dr. Ebong passed away in the early hours of Wednesday, April 16, at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), a facility ironically under the same institution that had thrown him out and blatantly refused to make peace with him. He was 73.
“He is gone,” his wife, Uduak, whispered tearfully. Describing his final moments, the wife said, “He was talking continuously, even in his weak state. I tried to calm him so he could sleep. I dozed off. When I woke up, he was no longer breathing.”
Not one to bow to injustice, Dr. Ebong was still voicing his anguish and calling out his tormentors just moments before death quietly claimed him.
A Career Derailed by Conscience
Dr. Ebong’s ordeal began 24 years ago, when he was unceremoniously and unjustly dismissed by Uniuyo in 2002. His crime? A persistent criticism of the university’s leadership over alleged corruption and maladministration.
The then Vice-Chancellor, Professor Akpan Ekpo, and Registrar, Peter Effiong, presided over the university administration that issued the termination letter. But that was just the beginning.
The university would go on to publish a national disclaimer on him in an extraordinary and chilling move that blacklisted him from future employment in academia.
He was not only falsely accused of abandoning his duties but was also wrongly linked to allegations of sexual misconduct; allegations that further tarnished his reputation and made him a pariah in academic circles. Yet, he did not back down. He took the university to court—and won. Many times.
Professor Akpan Ekpo, who once prided himself as an anti-corruption crusader and expelled hundreds of students for using fake certificates to gain admission into the university, could not stomach being held to account when it was his turn.
When Dr. Ebong raised questions about his leadership and alleged financial irregularities, the same intolerance for wrongdoing vanished. It was replaced by vindictiveness and a swift move to silence a dissenting voice.
From the National Industrial Court to the Court of Appeal, the judicial system in Nigeria consistently ruled in his favour. In a landmark judgment delivered in January 2020, Justice M. A. Namtari described the university’s actions as “malicious, ultra vires, and unlawful.”
The court ordered Uniuyo to reinstate him, withdraw the termination letter, and pay him all entitlements dating back to August 2001. But the university did nothing.
Even when the Court of Appeal in Calabar, on December 4, 2024, dismissed the university’s request for a stay of execution, Uniuyo still refused to comply.
A Slow Death in Silence
Out of work and branded with shame, Dr. Ebong slipped into poverty. Left jobless, he could barely feed his family or pay for medical care. In October 2020, doctors diagnosed him with cardiac failure. He was dying until his ordeal caught the attention of billionaire philanthropist Femi Otedola.
Mr. Otedola stepped in and paid for treatment at a private facility in Uyo, giving Ebong a second chance. He recovered and came out to thank all those who supported him. But it was just for a while. The scars of injustice do not heal with pills.
By February 2025, he had relapsed. His swollen feet raised concerns about possible kidney failure. His doctor referred him to UUTH, where he was admitted in March.
Days before his death, he called a reporter from his sickbed and said, “I have stayed here too long. It’s as if I am in prison. I want to go home.” It was a quiet cry for dignity from a man the system had abandoned.
A Community Mourns, A System Stands Unchanged
His death has sent ripples through Nigeria’s academic and human rights communities. Lawyer and activist Inibehe Effiong, who had advocated passionately for his reinstatement, was gutted by the news. “This breaks my heart,” he wrote on Facebook.
For more than two decades, five successive vice-chancellors at the University of Uyo inherited the injustice meted out to Mr. Ebong. Yet, not one summoned the moral courage to correct it.
Ironically, the same university continues to celebrate Professor Akpan Ekpo, under whose watch the injustice began, even when he could not tolerate criticism when a colleague called out his alleged wrongdoing.
It is easy to say he died of heart failure. But that is only part of the truth. Professor Inih Ebong died because the system killed him. It was slowly, cruelly, and publicly. In life, he was denied justice, but in death, he deserves not just remembrance but accountability too.
Another former Uniuyo student, Ubong Nelson on Facebook wrote,
“THEY FINALLY KILLED INNIH EBONG
“The story about educational institutions turning to political tools abound.
“Innih Ebong was an independent minded college professor. I remember. Theater Arts. They come different. But very brilliant.
“By the time the regime of Prof. Akpan Ekpo hounded him out of UNIUYO, he was actually one of the best academic around.
“After the forced expulsion, the victim took to the law courts. Interestingly, well meaning Nigerians supported his cause. He won at the courts and finally at the Industrial Court.
“One of the VCs who refused to pay his outstanding emoluments is Professor Essien, a SAN. You see the hearts of men?
“Yesterday, Innih Ebong lost the battle to live and will the administrators of UNIUYO clink their glasses in victory, or ..? Who’s next?”
The University of Uyo did not respond to multiple requests for comment at the time of publication.
