UNILAG: Workers, Senate Reject VC’s Removal, Wants Governing Council Dissolved
All staff unions in the University of Lagos on Thursday expressed their displeasure with the removal of the institution’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, by the Governing Council of the school.
The workers, under the aegis of the Joint Staff Union, JSU, made this known at a Congress they held to state their position on the announcement by the Council, led by Dr Wale Babalakin, SAN, that Ogundipe ceased to be the VC of the school as from Wednesday, this week.
The staff unions are the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, and the Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU.
The workers, through their leaders, also endorsed a statement, condemning the removal of Ogundipe by the Council.
The signatories were: Chairman, ASUU, Dr Dele Ashiru, Chairman, SSANU, Comrade Olusola Sowunmi, Chairman, NASU, Comrade Ajibade Kehinde, Chairman, NAAT, Comrade Sulyman Lawal, Chairman, NASU, College of Medicine, Idi Araba, Comrade Tunde Aderibigbe and Secretary, SSANU, CMUL, Idi Araba, Comrade Ayo Alli.
While all the union leaders addressed the Congress, they voiced their opposition to the development, saying it could set a bad precedence in the university system.
“The University of Lagos is the first university in Nigeria to be set up through an Act of Parliament and that is why we have the University of Lagos Act 1962. The Act stipulates how the university is to be run. It spells out how to discipline any errant officer. In this case, all the procedures listed for disciplining officers were not followed.
“This is not a Banana Republic and even a junior clerk in the university should not be treated that way. We are not in Oshodi Market where somebody can turn himself into an idol to be worshipped. When Dr Wale Babalakin was appointed the Chairman of the Governing Council, being an alumnus of the school, our hopes were that he would use his good offices to make the institution better, but the reverse is the case,” Ashiru stated.
Sowunmi, Kehinde and Lawal who spoke for SSANU, NASU and NAAT, also noted that they were not in support of any person, but that they were supporting the system.
They added that the matter could centre on Ogundipe today, but that it could be anybody tomorrow. They expressed their displeasure with any show of impunity on the part of anybody, but that due process must be followed.
In the course of the Congress, members raised the issue of the need to call on President Muhammadu Buhari, the Visitor to the University, to dissolve the Governing Council.
They hinged their call on the claim that Babalakin was using it to fight needless battles and drawing back the school.
A member of the Senate of the institution, Prof. Olukemi Odukoya, who briefed the Congress on some of the decisions taken at its sitting earlier in the day, said the resolutions of the Senate had been sent to the appropriate authorities.
The resolutions involved the rejection of the removal of Ogundipe from office by the Council among others. It was gathered that following the call by one third of members for a sitting, the Senate met in the morning and appointed Prof. Chioma Agomoh, former Dean, Faculty of Law, to chair the proceedings.
While the meeting was still on, Ogundipe, who was in Abuja on Wednesday for the Council meeting, arrived the venue.
He was accorded a rousing welcome, as the crowd intensified their solidarity songs.
Before he talked, some members such as Prof. Carol Okpara, Dr Amadi Matha and Dr Ashaolu, called on the workers to see the struggle as a fight to say no to bad examples being laid.
The workers also said they were not in support of any surrogate Acting Vice-Chancellor in the institution and resolved to turn the Senate Building to their resumption point until the matter is resolved. They appealed to the President to allow the rule of law prevail by giving Ogundipe a fair hearing and following due process at every state.
Ogundipe, who breezed in when members of the Joint Staff Union, JSU, of the institution were holding a special Congress, told the workers that he had always discharged his duties to the best of his ability in whatever capacities he had worked.
“I have put in 30 years of meritorious service to the University of Lagos and whether as a junior or senior lecturer, Head of Department, Dean of a Faculty, Dean of Post Graduate School, Deputy Vice-Chancellor or as the Vice-Chancellor, I have never been found wanting.
