Gbenro Adesina
As the world awaits who becomes the 13th Vice Chancellor of the University Ibadan (UI), Nigeria’s Premier University, it seems the wait will be for a long while.
PrimeStarNews reliably gathered this morning that as part of the fall out of the Council meeting of yesterday, Wednesday November 25, 2020, the process of appointment of the institution’s Vice Chancellor has been suspended.
It would be recalled that the Senate of the institution held a repeat election yesterday to appoint two representatives on the Selection Board, which saw Professors Peter Olamakinde Olapegba of the Department of Psychology with a score of 302 and Ezekiel Olusola Ayoola of the Department of Mathematics with a score of 299 emerging winners.
However, it was gathered that the Council meeting was volatile as the members disagreed on whether the election should have held in the first place.
It was gathered that a letter containing a Ministerial directive from the Federal Ministry of Education was received as email attachment on Monday November 23, 2020 by the Pro-Chancellor/Chairman of the Governing Council, Nde Joshua Mutka Waklek and the Vice Chancellor, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka.
Considering the instruction of the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu that the content of the letter be implemented immediately, the Chairman was said to have directed the Vice Chancellor, to conduct a repeat of election of the Senate Representatives on the Selection Board, and the Secretary of Senate was asked to direct the Deputy Registrar to issue a notice for an emergency Senate meeting to discuss the update on the process of appointing the incoming Vice Chancellor.
In compliance with the aspect of the ministerial directive that the Vice Chancellor should recuse himself, Olayinka directed the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), Professor Adebola Ekanola to serve as the Chairman of the Senate meeting, where the directive of the FME for a repeat election would be considered and appropriate actions taken. Subsequently, the Secretary of Senate was advised to direct the Deputy Registrar (Senate) to issue a notice for an emergency Senate meeting to discuss updates on the process of appointing a Vice Chancellor.
The Senate meeting held on Tuesday November 24, 2020, where though, the ministerial directive was considered as an infringement on the autonomy of University Senate, the Senate decided to waive its right for the sake of peace and a successful conclusion of the process of appointing a new VC, hence, where it was agreed that the repeat election should hold the following day.
It was also agreed that candidates for the election should not embark on any campaign since they were already known to the Senate members that would vote.
According to information gathered, the initial nine candidates and the Senate members were notified of the modalities for the election on Tuesday November 25, 2020. However, five of the candidates opted out of the contest, saying that the notice was too short. A sixth candidate also opted out just as the election was about to commence.
At the end of the election, 313 members of Senate voted, while some had to turn back as they could not vote due to the disruption of the electoral process by demonstrating members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) led by SSANU Chairman, Wale Akinremi, who stated that their members coordinating the electoral process should not be there as they were still on strike.
However, after about a delay of close to one and half hours, the demonstrating workers relented and voting continued and was successfully completed.
It was gathered that at the Council meeting of Wednesday November 25, 2020, which was not attended by the VC in compliance with the directive of the Minister of Education, the report of the Appeals and Petitions Committee was first considered before the issue of the appointment of Vice Chancellor. It was observed that Council members had not received copies of the letter from the Ministry of Education, although, it was already being circulated on several online news media and social media platforms.
It was gathered that four members of the Council argued that the directive of the Ministry of Education should have been presented to Council first for deliberation and decision taken before allowing the Senate to carry out the repeat election.
The Chairman noted that the email containing the ministerial directive from the Ministry of Education sent through the NUC was addressed to him and the Vice Chancellor.
He also confirmed that he advised the Vice Chancellor, based on the understanding that the ministerial directive required immediate actions, to inform Senate of the new development and for Senate to take appropriate immediate action, which resulted in the repeat Senate election of Wednesday, November 25 2020.
He pointed out that he had in the past taken some decisions on behalf of the Council as Chairman, and that doing so is still within his purview as Chairman.
However, the four members of the Council disagreed with the chairman, calling for the cancellation of the repeat election and that a third exercise should be conducted on another date.
This was put to vote and six members voted in support of the action of the Chairman of Council, a member abstained and the four council members refused to vote and walked out on the Council.
It was gathered that one of the aggrieved four rained unprintable abuses on the Chairman of the Council.
The Council meeting, however, continued since there was still a quorum of eight members and the ministerial directive was considered and decisions were taken on appropriate steps to be taken.
Despite this, however, it was gathered from reliable sources that the appointment process has to be suspended for the sake of peace in the institution and the Vice Chancellor will have to hand over to an Acting Vice Chancellor as his tenure expires on Monday November 30, 2020.
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