Babalakin Vs UNILAG VC: Background of the crisis

The cat and mouse game between Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe and Wale Babalakin blew open last February when Babalakin petitioned the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, accusing the VC of running a one-man show in the preparations for the convocation ceremonies of the school.

The minister subsequently ordered the National Universities Commission, NUC, to ask the VC to suspend the graduation ceremony.

The local ASUU condemned Babalakin’s action and declared him an unwanted visitor on campus at a Congress it held.

Last June, the Council attempted to hold a meeting on campus but had to cancel it because ASUU also fixed a Congress for the same venue.

However, four senior professors in the school, including Professor Lai Olurode, decried the stance of ASUU, saying the Council ought to be allowed to sit on campus.

But ASUU said it was only a duly held Congress that could change the tag of unwanted visitor put on Babalakin and that that had not happened.

It was because of the inability to hold its meetings in Lagos that prompted the Council to relocate to Abuja.

Though the National President of ASUU, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, said the national leadership of the union was wading into the matter, Wednesday’s development was an indication that such has not yielded results.

Vanguard

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