Panel chairman kicks as Buhari reinstates Unilag VC

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the reinstatement of the suspended Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, after careful review of report of the special visitation panel.

Buhari also directed that the Governing Council of the University of Lagos Chaired by Dr. B. O. Babalakin be dissolved.

Following the report, he said the removal of Ogundipe as Vice Chancellor did not follow due process,  a statement yesterday by the Director Press and Public Relations of the Ministry of Education, Ben-Bem Goong, said.

He also said the process adopted by the council in the appointment of Prof. Omololu Soyombo as Acting Vice-Chancellor of the university was inconsistent with the provisions of the Law relating to the appointment of an Acting Vice Chancellor.

Buhari said he hoped these steps would bring peace, stability, focus and direction to the university.

According to the findings, Ogundipe was not granted an opportunity to defend himself on the allegations upon which his removal was based saying, “He should accordingly be re-instated.”

“All allegations made against the Vice Chancellor and the management of the University before and after the Constitution of the Special Visitation Panel should be referred to regular Visitation Panel for thorough investigation and necessary recommendations, the statement reads.”

Meanwhile, the chairman of the visitation panel, Prof. Hamman Tukur Saad, in a letter to the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, dated November 10, 2020, said he regretted signing the report of the panel.

“I didn’t want to sign the final report, but I felt that would be a slap on the face of the government and it would generate so much bad publicity in the public domain, that I would rather sign on the understanding that the matter would be referred to the Shehu of Borno as the Chancellor,” he said

He said it would be impossible for any council to manage a university in Nigeria if the recommendations of the panel were implemented in a whitepaper

Saad had, also in a separate letter to the Minister of Education, doubted the integrity of the report submitted by the panel on September 17, 2020.

He said: “When you read the report, you will notice that it was very one-sided, so to speak. The option was for the chairman to refuse to sign the report and that would have been a slap on the government’s face.

“In any case, the issue is not that the report was false, but it contained half-truth in order to protect one party and magnified the facts from the other party by pushing the blame to one side, omitting what could have balanced the report”.

Saad also said he was never in favour of the dissolution of the council, even though its chairman “has committed hara-kiri by resigning, rightly or wrongly.”