Selection of new Vice Chancellor for the Lagos State University (LASU)
appears to be cruising to the point of crescendo, where it is now on the desk of
the Governor of the state, being the Visitor to the university, to appoint a
Vice Chancellor out of the three candidates sent to him. But the Liberators are
advising the governor to appoint the candidate who made number one on the list of
contenders sent to him. SUCCESS DAMIAN reports.
A group of concerned professors of the Lagos State
University (LASU), under the aegis of the Liberators has proffered a seamless
partway in process of selection of a new Vice Chancellor for the institution.
The group made up of internationally renowned and well
respected professors at a press briefing in Ojo on Friday, March 12, 2021,
called on the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to apply the
2016 template which was used in the selection of the past administration,
adding that the method used then produced excellence and quality leadership for
LASU.
The Liberators who said they are non-partisan, in
their view maintained that, after the mandatory interview conducted by the
Governing Council for the nine candidates aspiring for the Vice Chancellor
position in the institution; advised that whoever that emerged First in the interview
should be appointed the Vice Chancellor.
In their position, they agreed that even though the
governor has the statutory right to appoint a Vice Chancellor out of the three
names sent to him, they reasoned that the candidate who is number one on the
list must have prepared well enough for the job just like in 2016, when the
same method was applied and LASU became number two among Nigerian Universities,
winning laurels and grants. They said as concerned stakeholders, some of them
having put up to 36 years in the service of LASU, would not like to see the institution
nosedive, but to see it rise to laudable and enviable heights.
The Coordinator of the Liberators, Professor Adeleke
Fakoya, said “We are for the progress of LASU; we are not in support of Mr. A
or Mr. B, no. This is where all of us eat, this is where all of us live, I have
put in, for instance, about 36 years now in service of LASU, and I will not be
one of those to see LASU nosedive, I want to see LASU on the rise all the time.
So, and I typify the thinking of an average Liberator, so what we do is to
ensure that LASU goes higher and higher.
“It is not just to stay afloat, no, we are going to fly
high, so whatever stage we think LASU has got to now, the hope of liberators is,
that height must increase, that stage must get better.
“Now, nine people were invited for interview for the
position of the Vice Chancellor of LASU, all nine of them were interviewed, the
basic assumption here is that the short listing will be a confirmation of
something, all of them have been found eligible, so we expect that whoever that
has come first should be the one that we would give the leadership of LASU to,
there should be no consideration, this one is not from my Local Government,
this person is a friend of this person, no, there should be no such
interpersonal relationships. What we want is this person has been invited, this
person has been interviewed and this person has come first, that first person
is whom we all in LASU will like to have, if there should be any reason for
anybody who comes first not to be chosen, we want that reason to be very
objectively stated. For instance, this person is said to have some psychosocial
issue that can affect the progress of LASU, this person has a criminal record
that we have just seen, the reason for which number one must be rejected must
be very objectively stated and must be acceptable to everybody whether we are
within LASU or they are outside LASU.
“So rejecting number one in favour of number 10, we
are not going to support you because it will only lead to crisis, it means that
somebody’s candidate has been chosen over somebody else’s candidate. But if it
is the person that comes first that becomes the VC, believe me, all of us here
and within LASU will be in support of that person and will work in favour of
that person as long as that person is in favor of LASU itself.
He said unless there are such unpleasant
circumstances that can remove number one from view and put number 6, that reason
must be clear. ’If a Hausa man was shortlisted, and he came first, please make
him the Vice Chancellor of LASU. LASU is
the only university that Lagos State has, so if Lagos State is indeed the
Centre for Excellence, we want to see that excellence shine through in this
process.”
Prof. Fakoya said that ASUU-LASU also supports that
kind of thinking, “ASUU-LASU is not for division, ASUU is one, LASU is one, you
may belong to SANU, or NASU, what matters to us is the name that unifies us,
that name must be protected. The goal of the university must be such that it
can compete with any other university here in Nigeria, Africa and elsewhere in
the world; that is our goal. So the next VC should be somebody that we will all
like to work with, as long as the next VC is forthright, honest, dependable, progressive
and God-fearing.
Prof. Biodun Akinpelu, in his contribution said “There
was an experiment in 2016 and it really worked, number one was picked, we are
not interested in how number one became number one and how he was eventually
picked, but we saw that the whole world heard that this is number one, we also
heard in LASU that this is number one and he was picked. It was an experiment.
In the past, out of the three, the first three that emerged during the
interview, Governor can pick any of the three, but for the first time, number
one was picked, and today we are having the LASU that we have today. So we want
to believe that experiment is worthy of replicating, we can continue with that
particular method and I want to see other universities copying the LASU model
again.
“In LASU someone came first in 2016, he was allowed
to govern the university and he governed well and LASU became the second best
in Nigeria, and indeed LASU cannot go back again. We don’t want to have a
reversal of that, whoever comes first must have seriously prepared for the
assignment, so you can’t just say because we just discovered that, you can’t
discover anything now; that is the issue,” Prof. Akinpelu said
At the press briefing attended by such eminent
Lecturers as Dr Pius Akhimien, Prof. Onafalujo Akin, Prof Charles Asenime, Dr
Olabode Segun, Dr Kayode Oyende and Dr Sylvester Olajire; the Chairman of
Academic Staff Union of University, LASU Chapter, Ibrahim Bakari, in his
submission reiterated the need for due process and paying of attention to the
advocacy of the Liberators in choice of new VC for LASU. He said the Liberators
expect the governor to get the best for LASU and that best is the candidate
that scored highest in the interview conducted by the Governing Council of the
university.
He said the university needs someone who will take
welfare of the workers seriously, ensure congenial environment for staff and
university community, adding that infrastructure in equally germane in the
development of the university. He added that such a person coming in as the new
Vice Chancellor must accord Research its rightful place. He said the last five
years have been momentous as LASU staff won research grants. He said there must
be conducive environment for learning.
Bakari stressed on inclusive governance adding that
the new VC must be prepared to ensure inclusive governance through dialogue. He
said the growth and development witnessed in the past five years in LASU was
indeed as a result of dialogue and inclusiveness.
