Acclaimed Nigeria’s premiere tertiary institution, the University of Ibadan, is presently in turmoil over the issue of the selection of the university’s next Vice Chancellor(the 13th).
The first big scare that emanated from the ivory tower came up on Monday, September 21st, 2020 via the election of the Senate Representatives on the Joint Council and Senate Selection Board for the Appointment of Vice Chancellor (2020-2025).
According to Comrade Bala Ayodele, the Coordinator of The Gaskiya Group(TGG):”Before that election, The Gaskiya Group (TGG) had made certain predictions which have now come to pass. Recall that we noted and condemned the incubation of the ugly trend of ‘ordination’ and ‘predestination’, a situation in which a particular candidate had already been ordained and predestined to occupy the office by some cabals in the University even before the commencement of the race. We also revealed the clandestine move by the so-called cabals to ensure the election of Prof. Ezekiel Olusola Ayoola of the Department of Mathematics and Prof. Peter Olamakinde Olapegba of the Department of Psychology into the Selection Board so as to ensure or force the candidacy of the current Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Administration, Professor Kayode Adebowale on the University community.
“Noting that this unfortunate arrangement would affect the integrity of the process, as well as rob the other contestants of their right to fairness and level playing ground, we also called on Professors Ayoola and Olapegba to pull out of the contest because they had become tainted and could not be fair or objective if they won. We concluded by calling on the University Council, the Federal Government and the general public to take technical note of this dangerous politics that might plunge the university into an unprecedented calamity.
“Upon the circulation of our message, some members of the University of Ibadan community frowned at our audacity to reveal the trend and to say the truth. With the outcome of the election and the concomitant petitions by two of the contestants (Prof Ademola Dasylva and Prof Adesoji Fasanmade) which have gone far and wide, TGG has been vindicated.
“For your information, TGG is on ground monitoring the process of the selection of the new Vice Chancellor for the University of Ibadan and our Intelligence is very strong and unbeatable. Our checks showed that the campaign team of Professor Adebowale met regularly with Professors Ayoola and Olapegba in two locations, one of which was the official residence of the current Vice Chancellor, Prof. Idowu Olayinka. To be precise, Prof Idowu Olayinka used the facilities of the Vice Chancellor’s Lodge to hold Adebowale’s campaign meetings on August 24 and 25, 2020. We are therefore not surprised by the outcome of the election, because we knew from the onset that Professors Ayoola and Olapegba were going to be aided and declared winners by electronic fraud. Our early warning sign was either ignored nor attacked.
“Thus, we still insist that Professors Ayoola and Olapegba, the two so-called winners of the Senate election into the VC Selection Board, are incapable of transparency, having been unmasked as agents of Prof. Idowu Olayinka doing business for Prof. Kayode Adebowale.
“The import of the on-going scenario is that Prof. Idowu Olayinka has demonstrated his inability to be an impartial umpire through his show of support for his DVC Admin, coupled with his boast in private and public functions to install his own candidate, namely, his DVC Admin, in the person of Professor Adebowale.
“This is in spite of his denial of partiality, a denial that is both tenuous and laughable. At the appropriate time, TGG will release the manifest evidence of other notable desperate actions of the outgoing Vice Chancellor to install his stooge.
“We, therefore, wish to repeat our earlier call on the University Council, the Federal Government and the general public to take technical note of this dangerous politics that may plunge the university into an unprecedented calamity.
“TGG hereby requests an immediate constitution of a panel of enquiry to investigate the damning allegations raised in the petitions of Professors Dasylva and Fasanmade to safeguard the integrity of the selection process. We hold that every autocratic act must be challenged; due process must be followed; the will of the representative majority of UI Senate must prevail.”
In a petition addressed to the university’s Pro-Chancellor/Chairman of Governing Council and copied the Minister of Education, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities(SSANU), University of Ibadan chapter registered “in clear terms its displeasure about the process of appointment of the next Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan.”
In conclusion the SSANU petition signed by S. A. Akinremi(Chairman) and A. R. Omisore(Secretary) stated: “We cannot afford to have a replay of what happened in Obafemi Awolowo University(OAU) and University of Lagos in the University of Ibadan.”
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