EXACTLY 296 days (nine months and 21 days) after a consortium of workers of the Lagos State University (LASU), comprising of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) banished the immediate past vice chancellor, Prof. Oladapo Obafunwa, and other principal officers from the university campus, as preparations for the 2015 convocation ceremonies got underway, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode named Prof. Olanrewaju Adigun Fagbohun, as the new head. This was after Obafunwa’s tenure elapsed while he was still on forced exile.

In the recent past, the situation in the institution has been so bad that when an editor of a national daily asked the immediate past governor of Lagos State and current Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), during a session if he was proud of LASU as its visitor and if he would love to study for a doctorate in the institution, having attended the University of Benin and University of Lagos (two of the best institutions in the country), the erstwhile visitor to the institution was incapable of giving a monosyllabic response.

Instead, Fashola busied himself giving a panoptic view of the rot, which had engulfed the institution and efforts his administration was making to make the place a citadel in words and in deeds. After the circumlocution, it was clear that he would not pursue a PhD programme in the institution.

Furthering an unpopular tradition

Following the expiration of Obafunwa’s tenure, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), Prof. Fidelis Njokanma, assumed the position of acting vice chancellor on October 31, 2015 to, at least, give direction to the ship, which was at best rudderless.

Banishing Obafunwa from campus by the unions was not the first time LASU vice chancellor would be chased out of campus. The last but one vice chancellor of the school, Prof. Lateef Hussein, suffered the same fate in the hands of the same unions. Like the immediate past, Hussein was accused of a number of misdeeds.

Professor of law and the institution’s first female vice chancellor, the late Jadesola Akande, who was in office between 1989 and 1993, within which period she transformed the institution’s law faculty, was also chased out of campus.

For some strange reasons, Professor of Biochemistry, Enitan Bababunmi, who replaced Akande in 1993 could also not strike the right cord with the unions. Consequently, barely three years after his appointment, he resigned abruptly in 1996.

Prof. Peter Okebukola, who was appointed acting vice chancellor by the defunct Col. Buba Marwa’s administration in 1996 had, soon after his appointment engaged a higher gear to reposition the institution, but among other things, his not being an indigene of the state suddenly became an issue and he was even sent death threats while on the job.

Chronicle of recent spats

Apart from the regular verbal jousting between school authorities and workers’ unions over issues like arrears of salaries and allowances, victimisation of members as well as casualisation of labour, two of the major bones of contention between the erstwhile vice chancellor and the workers were the school’s senate’s approval of the withdrawal of 19 PhD certificates from their holders including the ASUU-LASU chairman, Dr. Adekunle Idris and Adeoye Yusuf another ASUU chieftain over what it described as “error in the titles of the certificates.” The other contentious issues was the screening of O’ Level certificate of staff members.

Shortly before he was barred from the campus, Obafunwa while speaking to a select group of reporters reiterated his administration’s commitment to rid the school of impurities, remake its battered image and make a world-class institution out of it.

According to him, “LASU is an institution where excellence in all areas is a watch word, and my administration will not stop until the entire system is scrutinised. Last week, I submitted my own O’ level result, so it could be examined, people have certain skeletons in their cupboards and they are bothered about what might happen and so, they are bringing up issues to cause distractions. With the ongoing screening I learnt that we already have large number of people with questionable certificates.”

“After the findings, the next thing will be to ask affected workers to explain certain things. And that explanation would be provided at the relevant forum. It is after that, that certain decisions can be taken, which will allow the governing council to take the final decision.”

Sadly, he never had the opportunity to realise his vision, which the unions believed were more of a witch-hunt than a sanitisation exercise.

On the withdrawn PhD certificates, he said the investigation had been completed and the report will be presented by the “next senate meeting.” That did not happen as barely weeks after its inauguration, the new governing council directed the institution’s management to re-issue the withdrawn to Idris.

“The governing council had deliberated and taught it wise to re-issue the certificate, and as such gave a directive, so our responsibility is to implement the directive,” the institution’s registrar, Akin Lewis stated

Mr. Idris also confirmed the directive to be true but said he was yet to receive the re-issued certificate.

Before the show your certificate debacle, which snowballed into a full-blown face-off between the school management and the workers’ union, Fashola had jolted many including parents with the introduction of a new fee regime, which was aimed at shoring up the university’s dismal financial situation.

Expectedly, the students rejected the fee hike, which they severally described as abysmal. Some of the students had their fees jerked up by over 500 per cent. With the student registering an all-out war against the school’s management and the state government, the latter had no choice than to do a volte-face to allow peace reign.
Perennial dearth of infrastructure

LASU has seven faculties, six of which are located at Ojo and one, – the Faculty of Engineering, at Epe. There are also two schools. The School of Communications is located at Surulere, while the School of Transport is located at Ojo. The university, which has an estimated student population of about 10, 000 students, also has its College of Medicine situated at Ikeja. Across all these locations, it would be a misnomer to say that all the facilities there support contemporary learning and knowledge acquisition.

Some of the reasons ex-governor Fashola advanced for the mind-boggling tuition increment was to enable the government shore up funds to facelift infrastructure at the resource-poor institution, which he admitted have remained largely in a parlous state.

Since the fee increase was reverted, the pace of work on ongoing projects in the school have slowed down and the school still yet to come of age in infrastructural terms. Since the status quo ante remains, decrepit state of laboratories, office complexes and lecture theatres still abound in the school.

Gradual return of sanity to LASU

In his bid to fully understand the issues, Governor Ambode, met with the university’s management and the unions shortly after his inauguration. A few days after the meeting, he approved the payment of the balance of the school fees paid by students of the institution, totalling N162.5 million, as a first step aimed at dousing the tension.

Few months later, he approved the composition of a new governing council for the institution along side that of four other institutions. Prof. Adebayo Ninalowo is the school’s Pro-Chancellor/Chairman, Governing Council.

Another step the governor took in his bid to return sanity to the institution was the approval of a five-year single-term for vice chancellors of the school five days after its approval by the state House of Assembly.

Ambode, who endorsed the amended version of the law governing the school, also approved on-campus residency for the students and a 70-year retirement age for professors. These new provisions were part of recommendations of the state House of Assembly to put an end to unending crisis in the 32-year-old institution.

In signing the LASU Amendment Bill 2015 into law, Ambode said, “We want a LASU that would often turn out professionals, who will within few years be captains of industries and leaders of the country.”

Enter Olanrewaju Fagbohun, the ‘team player’
The appointment of Fagbohun, a Professor of Environmental Law, as the eighth substantive vice chancellor of the school is seen by many, as the icing on the cake, as far as efforts aimed at calming the storm at LASU are concerned.

Until his appointment last week, the new VC was the Director of Research at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of Lagos.

Born on October 16, 1966, the new vice chancellor, who hails from Akesan in the Alimosho council area of Lagos State, joined LASU’s Faculty of Law as an assistant lecturer in January 1991 and rose through the ranks, becoming an associate professor in 2004.

Upon the completion of his law degree at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), he obtained his Master’s of Law degree at the University of Lagos and attended the Obafemi Awolowo University for his doctoral degree programme.

At different times, he served as a member of Senate of the Lagos State University; Head of Department of Business Law and later Department of Private and Property Law; Coordinator, Law Centre; Coordinator of the Department of Environmental Law and Allied Disciplines of the Centre for Environment and Science Education of the Lagos State University, and was, for several years, the Editor-in-Chief of the LASU Law Journal.

Task before the new administration

From an institution where tens of thousands of degrees belonging to students that had graduated lay unsigned; which millions of naira seeped away through highly questionable avenues; which academic standards had plunged and which is characterised by third-rate infrastructure, the school, in fairness to Obafunwa, was on its way to redemption.

Unfortunately, his worsening relationship with staff members, approach to the reforms he initiated and the mutual suspicion between him and the workforce, joined forces to abruptly halt the reform process midstream.

Some of these instances, analysts say can serve as nuggets of information Fagbohun needs to successfully navigate the waters as he sets sail. That some major demands by ASUU have already been met by the state government, also remain an added impetus that would facilitate the process of peace building and engineering harmony on campus appear, which many agree, should necessarily constitute the first set of tasks that the erudite professor should execute.

The fact that there is a groundswell that needs to be done in the school is not lost on Fagbohun. That perhaps explains why he, upon assumption of office Monday promised to restore the lost glory of the institution. He has also promised to restore peace, foster high-level scholarship and consolidate on previous gains.

Speaking as he assumed office at the new Faculty of Science Complex, Fagbohun said, “This is the beginning of a new dawn. The name of the game is inclusive governance and I am going to work with you to make LASU the greatest. I can’t do it alone. I need everybody. We will think together and leverage on each other’s capacities. The opportunities in Lagos are enormous.”

He promised that within two weeks of his assumption of office, there would be provision of suggestion boxes in strategic places across the school in other to allow members of staff to drop their suggestions, which he promised to work on them.

“… Within the next two weeks, the university will have 28 committees, which will include members of staff across all cadres. Put on your thinking caps and be ready to exert your intellects. It is the decisions of these committees that will guide us,” he stated.

Speaking earlier at his inauguration by the state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, he said, “LASU truly is a citadel of academic excellence that must be let out of its present bondage. I therefore invite all stakeholders in the LASU project to join hands with me in the task of putting it back on the front row of academic excellence where it rightly belongs.”

Ambode in his remarks charged the new LASU helmsman to rebuild confidence in the institution after its protracted crisis.

The governor said, “This appointment was made after a thorough screening and selection process by the governing council.

“Over the past few years, LASU has had a fair share of successes and challenges; as a result, there is a lot of work to be done to propel the university to a world-class status. I urge that we all use today’s event as a rallying call for all to join hands to move LASU forward.

“We are fully conscious of the unique position that LASU occupies, thus, the desire of all that the institution should refocus on intellectual engagement is very imperative,” he said.