By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie and Chris Oji, Enugu
University of Lagos (UNILAG) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has passed a vote of no confidence in the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Dr. Wale Babalakin.
The union called for his removal from the council.
ASUU passed the resolution yesterday at its congress where it declared Babalakin a persona non grata and warned him to steer clear of the campus.
ASUU-UNILAG Chairman, Dr. Dele Ashiru, told The Nation that the union would enforce its resolution on the pro-chancellor.
The union leader urged the Federal Ministry of Education to remove him, claiming he had caused more harm than good.
He said: “We are asking the Federal Government to remove Babalakin as Pro-Chancellor because our union is going to enforce that resolution. Babalakin cannot be seen anywhere on this campus as from today.
“We want him removed for deliberately misinforming the Ministry of Education, which led to the cancellation of our convocation. His prayer to the ministry was that Council did not approve the convocation.
“Available evidence in the minutes states that the Council, during its January 21 and 22 meeting, was informed about the convocation and approved the budget for the convocation.”
Ashiru said during last year’s convocation, Babalakin also caused disaffection.
“Last year, the Pro-Chancellor unilaterally stepped down the name of Prof. Dele Oluwokudejo from the list of distinguished professors selected by the university’s Senate. He returned the name after people went to beg him.
“Consequent upon all of these infractions, our congress declared that he has done incalculable damage to the image of the university and should be removed,” he said.
Following the congress, the lecturers moved round the campus, making a stop outside the institution’s main gate where they sang solidarity songs and carried placards bearing messages for Babalakin’s removal.
Some of the placards read: “Dictator Pro-Chancellor must GO”; “Remove Babalakin. When? Remove him NOW!”
They expressed disappointment that at a time the suspension of the convocation was causing ruckus on campus, Babalakin travelled to London to attend a birthday party.
Also, striking ASUU members yesterday disrupted the maiden distinguished personality lecture organised by the Department of Political Science of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN).
Anambra State House of Assembly Speaker Uche Okafor, an alumnus of the university, was billed to deliver the lecture.
But ASUU members besieged the venue and frustrated the event.
The lecture, which was expected to start by 11 a.m at the Princess Alexandria Auditorium, did not take off until 3 p.m.
The Speaker and other dignitaries were forced to relocate to a smaller hall at the Christ Church inside the campus.
Following the declaration of a two-week warning strike on Monday, members of the union at UNN, on Tuesday, deployed a monitoring team to enforce the warning strike.
The team, led by the UNN chairman of the union, invaded lecture halls to fish out defaulting lecturers.
The strike has grounded academic activities at the university, turning it into a ghost community, following mass departure of students.
Also, an official of Kwara State University (KWASU) in Malete has said the institution had not joined ASUU’s two-week warning strike.
Chairman of a faction of ASUU in the institution, called Congress of University Academics (CONUA), Dr Issa Abdulraheem, announced this to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
Abdulraheem said workers of the institution belonged to CONUA, as such, they had nothing to do with ASUUs’s warning strike.
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