Gbenro Adesina
All eyes are on the 71-year-old Plateau born Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, University of Ibadan (UI), Nde Joshua Mutka Waklek, as he presides over the Council meeting to deliberate on the insistence of the non-academic staff of the institution that the incumbent Deputy Vice Chancellor, (Admin), Professor Kayode Adebowale and the former Vice Chancellor of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba, Ondo State, Professor Olufemi Mimiko, be excluded from participating in the last stage of the process of selecting the 13th Vice Chancellor of the Premier University.
On Wednesday October 27, 2020, the non-academic staff led by UI Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Wale Akinremi, in a protest, stormed the Senate Building in hundreds and disrupted the Selection Board meeting convoked to select the most suitable candidate among the six that made the final list out of the18 candidates jostling for the exalted position.
In order of performance as obtained by PrimeStarNews, the six candidates that made the list are: Professors Kayode Oyebode ADEBOWALE, Ebenezer Olatunde FAROMBI, Olusegun George ADEMOWO, Adeyinka Abideen ADERINTO, Femi MIMIKO, and Babatunde Lawal SALAKO,
The protesting staff had barricaded the University gates, thereby preventing free movement and also locked the Senate Chamber where the 5-Man Selection Board was meeting for about four hours to ensure that the process was forcefully stopped.
To find a way forward, Waklek, who was accompanied by the institution’s Registrar, Olubunmi Faluyi, and the Chief Security Officer of the school were later allowed to come out of the Senate Chamber by the protesting staff to listen to their grievances.
Unequivocally, the Chairman of SSANU, Akinremi, ordered the institution’s Council to remove the names of Adebowale and Mimiko from the list that made the final stage.
He went further to threaten that if the the Council goes ahead with the process and Adebowale emerged as the 13th VC, he would not be allowed to resume and if he does, he would be stoned.
Addressing the staff, Akinremi said, “You asked for the Chairman of the Council to see you. Calm down. He knows why we are here. We met the Chairman of the Council on Saturday. We are not fools. We explained everything to him and he has heard us. He has seen that we are angry. He has seen that we will not take the imposition of Professor Adebowale”.
He went further, “We don’t want two people on the list. We don’t want Professor Adebowale and Professor Mimiko. Now our chairman of Council is an elderly man… He was scared. They have told him that we are tigers and hyena and all that. But he has accepted to come and face us to say one or two words. We will take our chairman of council’s words for it. We will be sure that it is our father that is talking to us. We will believe him. We will trust him… The onus will now be on our father…Two basic things you have asked for. One, that the council has also kept quiet for long. They tolerated Professor Olayinka for long. Professor Olayinka is a disappointment to the University of Ibadan. We have been on strike for long.. If not for Covid-19, we have already moved for the removal of Professor Olayinka and the Bursar. The two thieves of Bagdad, All the demands of January must be met otherwise, we want to die. Until all the demands of January is met, we will not open UI. Bring Odogbo, we will not go to anywhere”.
“Secondly, the process of the appointment of the vice chancellor must be suspended. Thirdly allow Professor Olayinka to proceed on leave now. He is a bias arbiter. He cannot midwife the transition from his regime to another administration. We do not want to see Professor Olayinka in UI again from today on. We are going to lock that gate. We are going to his house today . We are going to make sure that he does not have a space in UI”, he added.
Responding, Waklek assured them that their demands would be granted, proclaiming, “So the processes of appointing the new VC has been suspended”.
He said, “The issue of appointment is a matter of Council. I can’t stand here as chairman and say I remove that and this, it cannot happen. The Council will sit down and consider all the points you have raised. And then, we will get back to you by the grace of God. Thank you very much”.
Swiftly responding, Akinremi said, “Sir, we told you and we are still saying it, you say Council does not have the right, se bi we will all sleep together, let council appoint what we don’t want. When we say we will die here, we are not the only one that will die”.
He stressed, “We are serious about it. Give us a VC that will behave like Olayinka, we will not take it. He will not resume”.
He explained, “What we are saying in essence is that we want a VC that will enter this place and take pure water and drink with us. We want a VC that will be free with us. We don’t want a VC that is attending to people and he is only talking to himself. The same thing Olayinka did and we tolerated him for five years. For five years, we suffered. People are celebrating that we are here. The part he is taking you to will not give you any glory. The Chairman is our friend. The Registrar that accompanied him, we will give our mama 53 per cent, she is our friend, others that do not come out, external or internal, we will give you -10 over 100”.
“UI belongs to Nigeria. The Chairman has spoken with us. We know all of them. We know their addresses. We know their families. Those that have girl friends we know. Those that go to beer palour to eat pepper soup, we know. We know your churches and mosques that you go. We will trace you. Do not give us VC that we will stone to death”, he concluded.
In a telephone chat, the Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Ayo Akinwale declined to comment on the crisis.
Akinwale said, “ASUU do not just make pronouncements. We have procedure. The procedure is that, first, we will convoke a congress and discuss the matter. It is after that that I can now speak on whatever we have agreed on”.
However, the world awaits the resolution of the Institution’s Council over the whole crisis.
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