Reactions have swiftly trailed the sudden resignation of Dr Wale Babalakin as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of the crisis-ridden University of Lagos, Akoka.
Babalakin
On the one side, members of the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) who are prime supporters of the ousted Vice-Chancellor, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, are celebrating Babalakin’s exit as very timely and a good riddance.
On the other side, many concerned stakeholders of UNILAG particularly those who sees Babalakin as a reformer are pained that there are too many vested interests who have covered the corruption in the system and that the University has missed a great opportunity of being sanitized..
A retired Don in the University who also was past President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Prof Boniface Oye-Adeniran, is of the opinion that no right thinking internal stakeholder of the institution should rejoice that a reformer like Babalakin under whose tenure the university has witnessed pragmatic governance, was exiting the system.
Education Minister, Malam Adamu Adamu
Oye-Adeniran is also a former member of Governing Council of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), opined that the issues surrounding the crisis in UNILAG are deeper than can be imagined.
Prof Oye-Adeniran, former Council member
Reacting to the resignation of Babalakin, he is of the viewpoint that his exit from the university is principles driven, submitting that history will vindicate him.
Ogundipe
The retired former lecturer at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department, College of Medicine, University of Lagos said he was saddened by the current development, which he sees as a bad omen to the anti-corruption posture of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a press statement, Oye-Adeniran said: “This is a sad day in the history of this country.
Soyombo, former Ag. VC
“Babalakin’s role was noble. His resignation is a bad omen for the Anti-Corruption Policy of the Federal Government. It is damaging to the image of the country internationally.
“His resignation is principle driven. History will vindicate him. He is on the right side of history”.
The over one year crisis at the University of Lagos came to a head last month when the Babalakin-led Governing Council met and took a decision to remove the then Vice-Chancellor,, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe over alleged corruption, financial recklessness and forgery amongst other.
Ogunsola, current Ag. VC
In the last one year, ASUU, which also threw itself into the crisis had declared Babalakin a personae non-grata on the campus, spearheading hostilities with threats that the Pro-Chancellor should dare not step physically into the campus.
This was the reason why the Council took the decisive meeting faraway to Abuja, at the conference room of the National University Commission(NUC).
An Acting Vice-Chancellor in the person of Prof Omololu Soyombo, was appointed by the Babalakin-led Council. This lasted for two weeks until he too stepped down from overseeing the affairs of the university.
Consequently, the Federal government set up Visitation Panel to look into the crisis leading to the removal of the former Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ogundipe.
While ASUU roundly condemned Ogundipe’s removal, the other three unions in the institution, namely, Senior Staff Association of Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union(NASU) and the National Association of Technology and Technical Staff(NATTS) lauded the Babalakin-led Council for the removal of Ogundipe.
