Senate Rep at the Council, Prof Prof. F.E.A. Lesi and Prof. B. Oboh, Dissociate themselves from the decision to sack the VC
By Ayo Kehinde
The frosty relationship between the Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Lagos, Dr Wale Babalakin, SAN, and the management of the institution took a new turn for the worse on Wednesday, when the Council which held a meeting at the National Universities Commission, NUC, headquarters in Abuja, on issued a statement sacking the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Toyin Ogundipe.
The Council, in a statement signed by the institution’s Registrar and Secretary to Council, Oladejo Azzeez, said Ogundipe has been removed from office with immediate effect. In the statement titled Notice To The General Public On The Removal Of The Vice-Chancellor University of Lagos, and dated August 12, 2020, the Council, said, “This decision was based on the Council’ s investigation of serious acts of wrong doing, gross misconduct, financial recklessness and abuse of office against professor Oluwatoyin T Ogundipe”. It said it took the decision in accordance with the statutory powers vested in it by law.
Ogundipe who attended the meeting was excused and in a vote was taken by the other members of Council present. He got 6 against and 4 for, leading to his immediate removal.
In a swift reaction, Prof Ogundipe, described the sack as reckless and urged the university community to remain calm and go about their work without fear or intimidation.
In a statement titled: Re: Notice to the General Public on the Removal of the Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos by Oladejo Azeez, Esq, he said:
The attention of the University of Lagos (Unilag) management has been drawn to the ‘Notice to the General Public on the Removal of the Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos’; dated August 12, 2020 and signed by Oladejo Azeez, Esq, Registrar and Secretary to Council, stating that the current Vice Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin T. Ogundipe, FAS has been removed from office with immediate effect.
This is untrue and a figment of his imagination. Therefore, stakeholders of Unilag and the general public are advised to disregard this mischievous disinformation about the sitting Vice Chancellor of Unilag, contained in that notice. Professor Ogundipe still remains Unilag’s Vice Chancellor.”
Prof. F.E.A. Lesi and Prof. B. Oboh, Senate representatives on Council, also added their voices to the Report of the Council
According to them, “Council members representing Senate attended the emergency Council meeting on 12th August, 2020 to consider the 2020 Budget of the University and other ancillary matters which had been sent to the Pro-Chancellor as far back as Dec. 2019. Then, the Council Chairman changed the order of the agenda by bringing up the report of a sub-committee headed by Dr. Saminu Dagari on university expenditure since 2017. This report had been earlier considered in March 2019 where allegations are made against the Vice Chancellor and others. However, the response of the VC and others had NOT been considered by the Council in plenary.
“At this meeting the Pro-chancellor asked the VC and Prof. Ogunsola (DVC Development Services) to excuse themselves despite protestation from them on the need to defend themselves before their accuser. Pro-Chancellor did not accede to their protest and they left. The Pro-Chancellor then asked Dr. Dagari to summarize his findings, which he did and despite that the procedural flaw in not asking another panel to look at the allegations and VC’s response, went ahead and called for a vote on the removal of the VC. He stated that this action was the only step that needs to be taken as a punitive measure against the alleged infractions which had not been proven by another panel.
“He decided that members should vote and send it to him by WhatApp for him to collate the votes. While waiting, the Pro-Chancellor left the meeting and returned and called out votes and comments sent to him. Prior to this, the representative of the MOE, Prince Adetokunbo Adebanjo, arrived and asked what was going on and what was the agenda item being discussed. After getting explanation from the Registrar, Prince Adetokunbo Adebanjo raised a point of order that the removal of the VC was not an agenda item. The Pro-Chancellor noted that the MoE came late and could not alter the proceedings. Nevertheless, Prince Adebanjo Adetokunbo voted against removing the VC. At the end, the Pro-Chancellor gave a conflicting votes cast and eventually announced that the votes are 6 for removal 4 against removal, 1 vote to suspend. It is clear that there were abstentions and unclear whether the MoE vote was counted as the number of votes (11) did not add up to members present which was 15 who could vote.
Thereafter, the Senate representatives expressed their serious objections to the procedure and the decision taken and noted the potential for generating disquiet and disharmony in the system. They pointed that the decision was wrong and excused themselves from further consideration of anyone as Acting VC as stated by the Pro-Chancellor. The grounds for their objections are as follows:
i. Failure to properly consider the Dagari report
ii. Failure to follow procedure in dealing with alleged misconduct by the principal officer.
iii. Inconsistency of the votes cast which was not verified by an independent person.
iv. The travesty of justice on the predetermined plan to ridicule and remove the VC by any means possible.
He thereby adjourned the meeting for further consultation with a view of announcing the replacement at another meeting at 5p.m. on the same day.”
However, the decision by the Council to move its meeting to Abuja followed the declaration of Chairman of the Council, Babalakin as a persona non grata by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, UNILAG chapter.
Babalakin and the Vice-Chancellor, Ogundipe, have been at loggerheads over some issues relating to the running of the school.
The quarrel became so bad that year’s graduation ceremonies of the school had to be postponed, forcing the local chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to draw a battle line with the Babalakin led Council.
