Iyunade Adefioye
The University of Lagos branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has lauded the President and Visitor to the university, Muhammadu Buhari, for recognising the role of the institution’s Senate in its governance.
In an interview, the Chairman, ASUU-UNILAG, Dr. Dele Ashiru, said it was admirable that Buhari allowed due process by respecting the legal role of the Senate – a role it said the suspended Governing Council Chairman, Dr. Wale Babalakin failed to recognise.
He said, “It is a right step in the right direction. Worth gratifying is the recognition of the position of the Senate as a critical organ in the governance structure of the university.
“The same Senate which Wale Babalakin treated with disdain, with contempt, with absolute lack of respect, the Visitor to the university through the honourable minister should be commended for standing firm in defence of the rule of law – particularly by asking Senate to reconvene with a view to selecting an Acting Vice-chancellor in compliance with the law.”
READ ALSO: ASUU lauds Buhari for recognising UNILAG Senate
Ashiru added that with the Visitation panel, all the people accused would be given a fair hearing. “An accused is deemed innocent until he or she is proven guilty. This visitation panel will afford each party the opportunity to give their own side of the story,” he said.
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Regarding the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Theophilus Soyombo’s statement that he had stepped aside, Ashiru said he was not recognised by the law in the first place.
“And for the so-called vice-chancellor – the surrogate vice-chancellor, he need not step down because he never existed in the face of the law,” he said.
When asked to react to the backing out of the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) from the joint resolution of workers’ congress to protest Prof. Toyin Ogundipe’s sack, Ashiru said, “That question should be better answered by SSANU and NASU. But I feel sorry for them. I feel very sorry for them.”
On his part, NASU-UNILAG chairman, Comrade Kehinde Ajibade, said: “It is a welcome and good development.”
Commenting on the matter, SSANU Chairman, Sola Sowunmi, said the union is calling for calm among its members and prays for the University for the Bad Publicity.
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“I don’t have any comment. My only side of it is that we are just urging our members to be prayerful, be calm, and peaceful and we just believe that God’s counsel will prevail.
“It is a development that is not too pleasant for us because the university’s name has been dented one way or the other,” he said.
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