Ayo Arowojolu
The crisis unfolding at the University of Lagos, Akoka, is far from being over as more members of the University’s Governing Council are likely to tender their resignation letters in droves, in solidarity which the former Pro-Chancellor, Dr Wale Babalakin, who on Thursday announced his exit from his position.
The current development is said to have badly bruised the ego of the government, whose nominees in Council are clearly not on same page over what many see as shoddy and biased handling of the crisis in the ivory tower.
In any University system in Nigeria, there are certain vested interests that are tailored along two major dividing lines of academic and non-academic and many avid watchers of the education sector are quick to blame government for tilting the direction of the Visitation Panel towards only one side.
Early today, a Council member, Dr Bayo Aderalagbe, who is also a government nominee, has tendered his resignation letter, citing his displeasure.
Also earlier today, another Council member, who is also a representative of government, Dr Saminu Daari, is predictably not happy with government on the whole turn of events which has ridiculed well-intentioned efforts of patriotic Governing Council members to rid the University of corruption.
Dagari, who chaired the Council Sub-Committee that probed the embattled former Vice-Chancellor, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, is palpably angry that the government is overlooking the real issues bothering on large-scale corruption, forgery and financial recklessness of the former helmsman.
In a letter addressed to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, Dagari accused Prof Ogundipe of falsifying information and covering up documents which misled the Council to pass the institution’s budgets for 2018 and 2019 in error.
In his own resignation letter addressed to the Minister, the Council member, Mr Adaralegbe, hinged his decision on the crisis rocking the university, even as he accused Prof Ogundipe, of falsifying the result of an interview conducted for applicants into the position of Director of Works on the campus.
Adaralegbe said his resignation takes immediate effect, even as he extolled the leadership qualities of the erstwhile chairman of the council.
To him, Dr Babalakin committed his personal resources into the university without seeking any favour from the institution.
The letter reads in part; “I was inaugurated along with other Federal government appointees on the 6th April 2017. In that period, Dr Babalakin provided very strong moral leadership as Pro Chancellor and Chairman of Council. He kept scrupulously to the promise he made at our maiden Council meeting not to bid for, or be awarded contracts from the University.
“He actually did more. By December 2019 he had poured approximately N100 million of his own personal resources on different endeavors in the University. At the time this situation arose, he was in the process of transferring to the University (at no cost to it) 40 hectares of land he owned in Ogudu, Lagos to address its staff housing problems”
Adaralegbe accused unnamed persons of politicising his membership of the council, saying as a proud son of his father, who he said was a former deputy vice-chancellor at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), and an Adviser to a former education minister, he had served the university conscientiously.
He continued: “Recent developments have, unfortunately, made my continued stay on the Governing Council of the University of Lagos very untenable. I experienced first-hand, the Vice Chancellor of a University falsifying interview results for the position of Director of Works. Professor Toyin Ogundipe threatened to beat me up during an interview session for the position of Director of Works because I resisted his attempt to falsify interview results.
“It was also in University of Lagos that I experienced a Vice-Chancellor attempting to appoint a Professor in respect of a discipline that the University did not have a department, did not admit undergraduate or postgraduate students, and through a one-page Memorandum to the Pro-Chancellor that touted the candidate as an agent of change.
“This is of course apart from a litany of corrupt practices.I consider my continued stay on the Governing Council of University of Lagos, a serious dishonor and desecration of my late father’s memory, Professor Adeniji Adaralegbe.”
For his part, Dr Dagari, in his letter to the Minister titled: “Corruption in the University of Lagos”, conveyed his appreciation for the opportunity to serve in his current capacity but expressed misgivings that the government was not appropriately discerning the issues at stake.
Dagari said: “The fundamental problem of University of Lagos Finance is Inaccurate Budget. The Current Governing Council passed the 2018 and 2019 Budgets in error because of false information from the Prof. Ogundipe led Management.
“All along, the Governing Council did not know the actual number of Internally Generating Units (IGUs) in the University, until recently when Eddy Omolehinwa (a Professor of Public Accounts) Council Sub-Committee to overhaul the operations of the Income Generating Units in the University of Lagos submitted its report to Council.
“The Omolehinwa Sub-Committee reported that there are 30 Income Generating Units (IGUs) which were classified into Category A and Category B Units.These are the units of the University that are expected to generate income to sustain their operations, cover all staff compliments and overheads as well as make financial contributions to the University…
“The 2018 and 2019 Budgets of the University of Lagos were passed by the current Governing Council in error, because the Prof. Ogundipe led Management misled Council by providing inaccurate figures
They include all the limited liability companies; all part- time programmes which are also called Non-FTE academic programme units.”
