Security has been tightened around the Senate building of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) as its Senate meets at the Ade Ajayi Main auditorium to discuss the sudden removal of Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe as Vice Chancellor by the Governing Council in Abuja on Wednesday.
Prof Theophilus Soyombo of the Faculty of Science was announced Acting Vice Chancellor in the wee hours of Thursday by the Registrar and Secretary to Council, Mr. Oladejo Azeez.
Access to the Senate Building, the administrative hub of the University, housing the offices of the Vice Chancellor, other principal officers as well as the Senate Chamber, was restricted.
Visitors and members of staff without offices in the building were not allowed in.
The situation may have forced the Senate to move its meeting, which is ongoing, to the main auditorium.
Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are also scheduled to hold a Congress to debate Ogundipe’s removal.
It was learnt that ASUU warned Soyombo not to resume as Acting VC.
A source said Soyombo described his appointment as a “call to service”.
However Ogundipe has rejected his purported removal as the university’s head by its governing council, insisting that he remains the authentic UNILAG VC.
The university’s governing council on Wednesday, through its secretary and university registrar, Oladejo Azeez, said the council suspended Ogundipe during an emergency meeting held in Abuja.
He wrote in a circular: “This decision was based on Council’s investigation of serious acts of wrongdoing, gross misconduct, financial recklessness and abuse of office against Professor Oluwatoyin T. Ogundipe, FAS.”
But Ogundipe in a counter statement after the announcement asked the public to disregard the council’s statement; describing the announcement as mischievous and a figment of the imagination of the council.
“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,” he wrote.
While seven members of the council were said to have voted for the removal of Ogundipe, four voted against it.
But one of them voted that he should rather be placed on suspension.
The meeting was chaired by the UNILAG Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of its Governing Council, Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN).
Following Ogundipe’s removal, the Governing Council announced the appointment of Prof. Theophilus Soyombo as the acting Vice Chancellor of the institution.
The announcement of Soyombo as the VC was contained in a statement issued at 12:05 am on Thursday by the Registrar and Secretary to the Council, Oladejo Azeez.
He advised the public to totally disregard the statement attributed to Ogundipe denying his removal.
The statement reads, “Members of the public are hereby advised to totally disregard the statement attributed to the said former vice chancellor. The position remains that he was lawfully removed by the Governing Council at a meeting fully attended by all Council members.
“I also wish to use the opportunity to inform members of the public that Council at the said meeting duly appointed Professor Theophilus Omololu Soyombo of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lagos as Vice Chancellor of the university in an acting capacity.
ASUU condemns UNILAG VC’s sacking
However, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, UNILAG Branch, has condemned the purported sacking of the institution’s vice chancellor.
The Chairman of ASUU in the institution, Dr Dele Ashiru, said the Chairman of the Governing Council, Dr Wale Babalakin, was behind the plot.
Ashiru insisted that Ogundipe remained the VC, adding that his sacking was against the law and would not stand.
“His removal is illegal and uncalled for. Our union condemns in the strongest term the purported removal. It is the machination of the pro-chancellor to destabilise this university and our union has been on the forefront of the agitation against a reckless and lawless pro-chancellor.
“We reaffirm our confidence in the leadership of Professor Toyin Ogundipe as Vice Chancellor of the university,” the union’s chairman stressed.
Ogundipe debunks report of removal
Also, Ogundipe, in a statement on Wednesday, refuted reports of his removal and added that he remained the vice chancellor of the institution.
The statement, which was signed by the vice chancellor himself, was titled, ‘Re: Notice to the General Public on the Removal of the Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos by Oladejo Azeez, Esq’.
He said, “The purported removal is an illegality and cannot stand as it is in clear violation of the University of Lagos Act as amended by the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act 2003.”
VC removal ridiculing our regulation – UNILAG Senate
In a related development, a representative of the UNILAG Senate in council, Prof. Bola Oboh, has said that the sudden removal of the Vice Chancellor has ridiculed the institution’s regulation.
A statement signed by Prof. Oboh called on members of the Senate to fight the unlawful manner in which Ogundipe was removed by the Governing Council.
“Dear Senate members, the procedure for removal of persons in office is clear and this was pointed out to Babalakin several times but he turned deaf ears. He said he would announce the acting Vice Chancellor at 5pm,” she added.
FG distances self from VC’s sacking
But the Federal Government on Wednesday distanced itself from the purported sacking of the vice chancellor by its Governing Council, saying it has not been briefed.
The Director of Press in the Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Bem Goong, in a statement said while the FMoE was awaiting proper briefing from UNILAG authorities, it was important to reaffirm that the council had the power to hire and fire, but must follow due process.
What the law says on removal of vice-chancellor
Extant provision
The action of the governing council, however, appears contrary to the law establishing the university. The law vests the power to remove a vice-chancellor on the Nigerian president.
On the grounds of misconduct or of inability to perform, section 17(1) of the university’s establishment law empowers the Council to recommend the removal of any of its members to the president, who thereafter decides, in writing, whether or not the council’s recommendation should stand.
Also, section 3(8) of the first schedule of the same act vests the power to remove the vice-chancellor on the president of the country “after due consultation with the Council and the Senate acting through the Minister of Education.”
In other words, only the president has the power to remove the vice-chancellor from office.
Also, the ministry of education through its director of press, Ben Goong, said the ministry is yet to be briefed on the removal of the vice-chancellor by the council.
“While the ministry awaits the proper briefing from the university authorities, it is important to reaffirm that council has the power to hire and fire, but that due process must be followed in doing so,” Mr Goong told Punch newspaper on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the amended universities miscellaneous act of 2003 requires the governing council to set up a joint committee of itself and the university senate before a recommendation to remove a vice-chancellor can be forwarded to the president.
However, a human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, said the law specific to the university takes preference.
Also, a professor who represents the university’s senate in the governing council, Bola Oboh, who said he attended Wednesday’s emergency meeting, said in a statement that the removal was based on an earlier report but was wrongly done.
He alleged that the vice-chancellor was denied the opportunity to defend himself before the Pro-Chancellor called for a vote for the removal of the VC.
“Dear Senate members, the University of Lagos regulation has been stepped on and ridiculed. Babawale Babalakin, the ProChancellor waited for the tenure of Prof. Chukwu and Prof. Familoni to end, to call an Emergency Council meeting. Based on the Dagari report, without allowing the VC defend himself, the ProChancellor called for a vote for the removal of the VC.
“I (Prof. Oboh), Prof. Odukoya, Prof. Leshi and John Momoh voted against the removal of the VC. Six persons (excluding Babalakin (the pro-chancellor) voted for. Babalakin then went ahead to announce the removal of the VC,”Oboh said, adding that he would report to the school’s Senate.
The perennial conflict between the university’s management and its governing council worsened in March when its week-long 2020 convocation was abruptly cancelled.
The cancellation, which was ordered by the NUC, Nigerian universities’ regulatory body, was in response to a directive by the education minister, Adamu Adamu.
Mr Adamu gave the directive in response to a letter written to the vice-chancellor by the council chairman, Wale Babalakin, accusing the vice-chancellor of failing to share important details about the ceremony with the council.
The exchanges between the two officials were condemned by relevant stakeholders including graduands, parents, alumni and the university’s staff.
The council as stated in the university’s establishment law is a twenty-member body consisting the pro-chancellor, the vice-chancellor, the deputy vice-chancellors, a representative from the education ministry, nine representatives of the federal government, four members of the university’s senate, two persons appointed by the congregation and a member appointed by the convocation.
The Nation/Punch/Premium Times
