The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Pro-chancellor

  • Union ‘suspends’ FUNAAB V-C, pro-chancellor, others

    THE Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities  (SSANU) yesterday said it had suspended the Vice-Chancellor of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Prof. Olusola Oyewole.

    Others it claimed  to have suspended are Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe and members of university’s Governing Council.

    The union said by the suspension, the affected people were restrained from further exercising their respective functions as officials of the university until subsequent notice.

    This followed the outcome of the Congress of the SSANU at the institution’s Senate Building.

    They claimed their decision is premised on Section 5.10.1 of the university’s rules and regulations.

    But under  extant laws, the union has no power to discipline any appointed officer of an institution.

    Prof. Oyewole was questioned recently by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Commission’s Ibadan Office, Oyo State, following a petition by the university’s some workers.

    At the emergency congress, the Chairman of SSANU – FUNAAB, Rotimi Fasunwon,  announced the suspension and was unanimously supported by the whole congress.

    The congress resolved that the vice-chancellor erred in suspending three of their colleagues without fair hearing and following due process.

    According to the congress, the suspended members were neither queried nor made to seat before any disciplinary committee before action was taken against them.

    They said it was wrong and arbitrary for the VC to take such a decision when himself was still under investigation by a government agency.

    The union members then rose and marched to the Senate Building, the official residence of the VC and placed them under lock and key.

    The vice chancellor had, through a letter dated August 22 and signed by the university’s Registrar, M.O. Ayoola, suspended the three workers in connection with the petition before the anti-graft agency.

    Affected members were SSANU National Publicity Secretary Salaam Sobbor; former National Deputy President Emmanuel Bankole and FUNAAB’ former Public Relations Officer ‘Lasun Somoye.

    In the letter, Prof. Oyewole accused the three of “meddlesomeness and with confirmatory evidence of your participation in some acts prejudicial to the smooth-running and governance of the university”.

    The VC quoted FUNAB Act, 1992, No 48 and Section 17(2) in suspending the workers with half pay.

  • Oshiomhole names pro-chancellor

    Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has appointed Rt. Hon Thomas Okosun as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of Tayo Akpata University of Education, Ekiadolor.

    Okosun was a member of Edo State House of Assembly 1992-1993 and 1999-2003.

    He was Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly (1999-2000) during which time he was elected Chairman, Conference of Speakers in Nigeria, in 1999.

    The new Pro-Chancellor was also Chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) 2010-2013.

    A legal practitioner, Okosun is married with children.

     

  • Jega resumes work at Plateau Varsity

    Jega resumes work at Plateau Varsity

    Prof. Attahiru Jega, Chairman, Governing Council, Plateau State University (PLASU), Bokkos on Thursday assumed work by inspecting some projects and presiding over the council’s meeting in Bokkos, near Jos.

    The projects inspected by the former INEC boss shortly after inauguration by Governor Simon Lalong, include the N114 million TETFund Lecture Halls and Office.

    Others are the N72 million Entrepreneurship Centre and the N69 million 250-capacity theatre.

    The university’s Acting Director of Works, Mr Aku Ayok, who took the council members round the projects, said most of the projects were TETFund’s with some completed while othersat near completion.

    The PLASU Vice Chancellor, Prof Doknan Sheni, said that the greatest challenge of the university was non-accreditation and funding.

    “A total of 319 of our students could not graduate last year due the issue of non-accreditation of our courses by NUC and we still have another set of 400 students in their final year, “ the VC lamented.

    Sheni said there was need for the rapid infrastructural development in the university and recruitment of the staff to meet up with the NUC accreditation.

    Jega, who expressed gratitude to the Plateau Government over the appointment, said that the university was founded on very lofty objectives with a very good mission and vision statements.

    According to him, the role of the council is defined by law and that it will do everything possible to see that staff worked together to stimulate the growth and development of the university.

  • Emir of Bauchi is Crescent pro-chancellor

    Emir of Bauchi is Crescent pro-chancellor

    Crescent University, Abeokuta, Ogun State has appointed the Emir of Bauchi, Dr Rilwanu Adamu as its fourth Pro-Chancellor.

    The announcement was made during the ninth founder’s day lecture of the university, which coincided with the 81st birthday of its founder, Prince Bola Ajibola.

    Prince Ajibola described the new pro-chancellor as a round peg in a round hole, stressing that he was thankful to Almighty God who made the University a ‘united Nigeria’ in terms of the diversified nature of its students’ spread across all states of the country.

    The former jurist at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), said part of the vision of the university was to unite the North and South of the country for the future in order that students who lived, worked and played together on campus would be able to live in peace and harmony in different geo-political zones of the country.

    Delighted by the university’s progress, the new Pro-chancellor pledged to contribute his quota to the development of the university and “to serve as a bridge between our people for unity and progress of our nation”.

    The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ibraheem Gbajabiamila, said the university had produced more first-class female students, noting that crescent University was poised to nurture female students to better the society at large.

  • Pro- Chancellor’s daughter weds

    Pro- Chancellor’s daughter weds

    When Chief Ramon Adedoyin, the President of Oduduwa University, Ile Ife, Osun State; Our Savior’s University, United States of America and The Polytechnic, Ife, Osun State, celebrated his birthday early in the year, many wondered why he did not invite many of his friends to The Source, as Ile Ife is fondly called. The answer to the question will be answered this morning as the historical town witnessed a huge influx of people as the educationist gives out his daughter’s hand in marriage.

    Adedoyin is, no doubt, in cloud nine at the moment. While he derives a lot of joy from education and philanthropy, his main source of joy today would be neither of these but the marriage of his daughter billed to hold at the Hilton Hotel, Ile-Ife. The event actually began yesterday with an engagement ceremony at his magnificent mansion at Eleyele part of Ife.

    “I will appreciate your presence as it will add a lot of glamour to the occasion,” Adedoyin wrote in the invitation he sent out to would-be guests.

  • Students’ performance at contest stuns pro-chancellor

    The Pro-Chancellor of McPherson University (MU) Prof Israel Adu, has commended the students of the institution for their impressive performance in the Information Technology programme.

    However, he warned the university representatives not to rest on their oars, but to keep working at becoming better to bring the highest laurels from the competition next year.

    The event, which was organised by the Ogun State chapter of Nigerian Computer Society (NCS), was held at Covenant University, Ota, (CU) in Ogun State. The two-day event was tagged Enhancing information technology capacity.

    The Vice-Chancellor Prof Adeniyi Agunbiade, promised that students of the university would be given more national and international exposure through academic competitions.

    Receiving the team at the Administrative Block of the institution, Adu expressed satisfaction with Team McPherson which comprised of five students and two academic staff. They included Enyabine Chineye, Lasisi Dara, Michael Magnus, Obayomi Dolapo and Soremekun Tosin. The team was led by Prof Oladimeji Atanda and Mr Kehinde Ogunyemi.

    Prof Oladimeji Atanda, who led the team, said he was excited that his team excelled during the event saying that they performed well during the debate section.

    He expressed optimism that the students would perform well in the coming edition.

    The objective of the event was to enhance the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills, interest and attitudes of students of tertiary institutions in the state and to provide the needed medium of interaction between international organisations and students of tertiary institutions.

  • Forces against a pro-chancellor

    Forces against a pro-chancellor

    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.”

  • Don’t tempt us, says new FUNAAB Pro-Chancellor

    Don’t tempt us, says new FUNAAB Pro-Chancellor

    Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, the new Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) has charged members of the university community not to go out of their way to impress council members with benefits they are not entitled to.

    The former Minister of Works spoke at the inauguration of the governing councils of 21 federal universities in Abuja.

    Speaking after he was inaugurated as chairman of the FUNAAB Council by President Goodluck Jonathan, Ogunlewe appealed to lecturers, workers, students and others not to bend university rules in their favour.

    “Please I want to beg you, anything that we are not entitled to, don’t give us. Don’t bend the rules because of us, don’t attract us with any largesse, we don’t need it, don’t tarnish our image by giving us concession that we don’t deserve”, he declared.

    Having served as a former Permanent Secretary in the Lagos State Civil Service, Ogunlewe said he had learnt that a public servant who allows civil servants to spoil him with undeserved largesse does so to his peril.

    “I have been in the Civil Service from 1966 to 1991. I was Permanent Secretary in Lagos. I started as a clerk; I was working in 1965, joined the University of Ibadan and came back. I moved from level eight to seventeen and I became a Permanent Secretary. I know what all of you can do if you want to catch us. You give us concession that you know we are not entitled to and we believe that you are nice people. If civil servants want to catch you, they are nice but when it turns to enquiry now, you will say, ‘I showed them oo. I showed them the regulation they said no.’ We are not interested. Once you are caught with that kind of thing you can never escape. Guidelines and rules are sacrosanct in government, once you go outside it you are culpable, there is no explanation,” he said.

    Rather than ‘tempt’ or ‘trap’ them, the Pro-Chancellor enjoined other stakeholders in the university to guide the Council from going astray to give FUNAAB credible leadership.

    “We can assure you, if you guide us properly we will not infringe on or perpetrate illegality in the university,” he said.

    Earlier, when inaugurating Council, the Minister of Education, Prof. Raqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i who represented President Jonathan, said the council, which should serve for four years, can be dissolved by the Visitor at anytime.

    “The councils so constituted shall have tenure of four years from the date of its inauguration provided the council is not found to be incompetent or corrupt. The powers of the Council shall be exercised as in the law and statues of each University. Government constitutes the governing councils for good management, growth and development,” she said.

    In his remarks, Prof Julius Okojie, Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) admonished members of the new councils to be accountable, and maintain good relationships with their university managements to collectively address the challenges in the university system.

    Okojie, who was once Vice-Chancellor of UNAAB now FUNAAB, urged the Vice-Chancellors not to run unaccredited programmes, stating that President Jonathan had given the Commission instructions to sanction any Vice-Chancellor who disobeyed the directive.

    Other members of the FUNAAB Governing Council include Hon. Ghali Umar Na’Abb’a, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Kayode Akindele, Professor Femi Otubanjo and Alhaji Abba Dasuki.

  • Pro-chancellor donates to Danfodiyo varsity

    Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Alhaji Bilya Sanda has established a multi-million naira organic fertiliser industry to encourage academic research and generate revenue for the institution.

    The Katsina State-born Sanda, aims to promote academic excellence and standard.

    He has also begun the construction of a befitting 50-student capacity hostel accommodation for the university’s post-graduate school.

    Alhaji Sanda who announced the endowment of a special fund for the university’s Pro-Chancellor, also donated two brand new Peugeot 406 cars to the university for logistics purposes.

    Speaking to reporters in Sokoto, Sanda, who was among the six that bagged honorary degrees of science, laws, letters and philosophy awarded by the University, said his vision was to transform the institution and take it to greater academic heights.

    He said he was inspired by the principles of transparency, prudence, accountability, service to humanity, stressing that philanthropy is imperative in his life.

    He added: “During our inauguration, we all took the oath with commitment that we will conduct our affairs to assist and not to take from the university.”

    He explained that construction work on the factory was at an advanced stage, adding that it will serve as an academic resource centre for research as well as enable the diversification of the institution’s source of funding for the institution.

    “The hostel will soon be commissioned,” he said.

    The Governing Council chair maintained that the industry would source its material locally, pointing out that ”its operations will require phosphate rocks as key raw material which Sokoto has in commercial quantity.”

    He said it is rewarding to assist those in need especially contributing to the advancement of an institution of learning.

    Alhaji Sanda who is involved with a number of philanthropy associations in different parts of the country, said teh state would soon begin to benefit from those associations.

    “It is fulfilling as a humanitarian gesture aimed at creating hope among the hopeless,” he pointed out.