The appointment of Prof Wale Omole as pro-chancellor and Governing Council chairman of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, is being opposed by some students of the school. Their counterparts in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State, have joined forces with them. DHIKRU AKINOLA (400-Level Political Science, OAU) writes.
The fortunes of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, sank at the height of the rift between the administrations of former Governors Adebayo Alao-Akala (Oyo) and Olagunsoye Oyinlola (Osun). The institution is owned by both states.
In the heat of the disagreement, the institution’s structures were almost divided between both states as the feuding former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors took decisions favourable to indigenes of their states.
To rescue the school from the abyss, the current Visitors – Governors Rauf Aregbesola (Osun) and Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo) – appointed Prof Wale Omole, former Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State, LAUTECH’s pro-chancellor and Governing Council chairman.
Given Omole’s vast experience in university administration and international exposure, many commend his appointment, but OAU and LAUTECH students feel he does not deserve the job.
For LAUTECH and OAU students, Omole’s selection is a misnomer, which the Visitors must correct.
Omole was VC when suspected cultists invaded OAU on July 10, 1999, killing five Students’ Union leaders. The students believe the bloody attack was sponsored from within. Three days after the killing, Omole was removed by the Federal Government following a breakdown of law and order in the institution.
To show their displeasure, some OAU students and alumni have petitioned Ajimobi and Aregbesola, detailing what they call Omole’s past “atrocities”.
A former OAU Students’ Union president, Lanre Adeleke, believed to have been the target of the July 10, 1999 attack, also petitioned the Oyo and Osun state governments over the matter.
The petition reads: “My protest to Your Excellencies is not unconnected with the performance of your appointee while he was Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, particularly the murder of the five students – George Yemi Iwilade, Ekede Efe, Tunde Oke, Yemi Ajiteru and Eviano Ekelemu – which till today remains unresolved. As a first hand witness of the events that took place in 1999, I make bold to say that a person under whose watch, a university lost five promising youths in questionable circumstances, is not fit to be pro-Chancellor of a university.”
Adeleke said the Justice Okon Etam (rtd) panel set up by the Federal Government, in its report, indicted Omole.
The petitioner added: “Your Excellencies, it is my belief that such a person should not be allowed to partake in the administration of a citadel of learning.”
A former Students’ Union president in OAU, Saburi Akinola, who was detained for eight months after the 2007 governorship election in Osun, urged the governors to rescind Omole’s appointment.
The co-ordinator of Education Rights Campaign (ERC), Taiwo Hassan, said the group was not in support of Omole’s appointment. Some OAU students expressed their opposition to Omole’s appointment on social media.
A group of OAU students, after hours of deliberations at the Obafemi Awolowo Hall Cafe, in a communiqué, signed by them under the aegis of the All Student-Activists, rejected the appointment.
They said:“In our view, he is not worthy of leading LAUTECH. We support the protest of LAUTECH students against Prof Omole’s appointment, and we call on the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to organise a demonstration to effect the termination of Prof Omole’s appointment.”