There is no end in sight to the crisis over the appointment of Vice-Chancellor for the Lagos State University (LASU) as a group of Lagos indigenes insisted that the next VC must be an indigene of Lagos.
The State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had on Monday received the report of a six-man panel set up to look at the controversy trailing the appointment of a new VC.
The panel, chaired by a former VC of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Prof. Bamitale Omole, turned in three volumes of a report to the Governor 37 days after it was constituted to examine if the extant laws of the university and other relevant guidelines were followed in the process of appointing new VC.
Daily Trust gathered that the panel in its report recommended a new selection process for the appointment of the VC.
But the group, known as Ọmọ Eko Pataki (Genuine Lagos Indigenes), through its Trustee, Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju rtd, insisted the next Vice-Chancellor must be an indigene of the state.
The group stressed that it would resist “with all legal tools the stark, duplicitous manoeuvre to impose another non-native in a very crucial institution like LASU.”
In a statement, Major Olanrewaju said, “It is rather disingenuous and sad the recourse to a brazen, untidy subterfuge and the deliberate attempt by Governor Sanwo-Olu and other wielders of power in Lagos State who are bent on short-changing Lagosian natives by attempting a crude imposition of a non-native as LASU Vice-Chancellor.”
According to him, the group “will continue to defend the Lagosian culture and our collective heritage.”
He added that three well qualified Lagosians had been shortlisted and asked Sanwo-Olu to do the needful by picking one.
“There is no need for this Russian roulette. This rigmarole is offensive, wrong-footed and inappropriate.
“We at Ọmọ Eko Pataki are once again asking Governor Sanwo-Olu for the umpteenth time to do what is right and what is just by appointing a qualified Lagosian as LASU VC.
“This is the normative pattern all over the nation. Nothing else will do. We remain stout and firm in this crucial and historic crusade to protect our native earth.”
The Governor had, while receiving the panel’s report, pledged to give all stakeholders an equal opportunity.
He said the panel was raised in the overall interest of students and the image of the institution.
He said: “Today, I received reports of the special visitation panel on the Vice Chancellorship of LASU, which looked into the issues surrounding the appointment of the 9th Vice-Chancellor, especially the remote causes of the impasse into the selection process and procedures for the appointment.
“This effort is geared towards ensuring that there is equality, fairness, transparency, openness and level playground for all in the process of selection and to ensure that the best and the most qualified person that will drive the established vision of the school’s founding fathers emerges at the end of the process.”
