UNN: Jinx Broken! Nsukka Zone’s Son Emerges VC

By Charles Igbo

A more than six-decade old jinx has just been broken. And it couldn’t have been broken by a more accomplished scholar.

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A Professor of Law, Simon Uchenna Ortuanya has been appointed the 16th Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. And his Zone, Nsukka, the seat of the University, are drunk with joy. Decades of dreams suddenly became reality.

The Professor’s appointment was announced on Sunday, 3rd August, 2025, after its ratification by the University’s Governing Council, headed by Engr. Kayode Ojo.

Professor Ortuanya was a former Commissioner for Education, Enugu State, former Secretary to the Enugu State Government, a  former Associate Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, and is currently, a Professor of Law at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology. He is also a Visiting Scholar at Loyola University  Chicago School of Law.

Inya Agha Egwu, the University’s Acting Public Relations Officer, in a statement which announced  the appointment of the new Vice Chancellor, noted:  “His deep understanding of University governance, policy and law, as well as his extensive leadership experience will significantly advance the mission and vision of Nigeria’s premier University over the next five years.”

But beyond all that, Nsukka Zone of Enugu State is agog. The people are in a celebratory mode.

In the history of the University, this is the first time an indigene will take its topmost office, a position the people, including a former Governor of the State, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, have been protesting for and angling to occupy. The chorus is: “The jinx is broken.”

Professor Ortuanya is from Igbo Etiti Local Government  Area, a Council within Nsukka Zone.

All things being equal, he will be at the helm of affairs for the next five years.