The dust raised before Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu cancelled the appointment of a new vice chancellor for Lagos State University (LASU) has not settled down as the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), Concerned LASU College of Medicine Staff and a don have appealed to the Visitor to ask the Governing Council members involved in the aborted process to rescue themselves from the fresh exercise.
In their petitions to Governor Sanwo-Olu, ERC, concerned LASUCOM staff and Dr. Dideolu Awofoju informed the Visitor that the governing council chairman, Prof. Adebayo Ninalowo and members of the Joint Council and Senate Selection Committee went against his directive for fresh start of the appointment process.
They appealed to Sanwo-Olu to ask Prof. Ninalowo and members of the selection committee to hands off from the appointment process and allow new governing council and Senate members to take charge and do a diligently job based on the rules and regulations guiding the selection exercise.
ERC, LASUCOM staff and Dr. Awofoju faulted the advertisement placed in a national daily by the council chairman without the deliberation and inputs of other governing council members. They wondered why the contentious issues of PhD and Fellowship was lumped together, making it look like both are equal and the reduction of the number of years required by a professor to apply for the VC position.
In its letter dated January 21, signed by ERC Deputy National Coordinator, Ogunjimi Ayobami and National Mobilization Officer, Michael Lenin, the group warned against Prof. Ninalowo moves to once again compromise and shipwreck the fresh selection process ordered by the Visitor for the appointment of a substantive VC for the university.
The group demanded for a merit-based, fair and democratic process to appoint a substantive VC for the LASU and rejected the attempts by Prof. Ninalowo and the committee to use intrigues, subterfuge and unilateral actions to undermine the new selection process ordered by the governor in order to accomplish an agenda to foist on the university a preferred candidate at the cost of bringing the institution to disrepute and stoking the fire of crises.
“In ordering a fresh exercise, it is our own contention that the integrity of the selection process and the enablers of the series of infractions and deviations have been called to question. Therefore the only way to objectively fulfil the instruction of the Visitor is to democratically reconstitute a fresh Joint Council and Senate selection committee to be saddled with the tasks of conducting a fresh, merit-based and transparent process of appointing a new VC.’’
ERC described the new advert for VC position as shocking as they are embarrassing for a university that seeks global acclaim, which demand a professor of at least five years standing with several years of teaching and research in a university, possess a PhD degree/Fellowship of world renowned medical college.
“What is most shocking is that this new criteria are not improvement over the previous selection exercise but a worsening of it. First, the year of post-professorial experience which is meant to ensure that only the most distinguished gets appointed was reduced from 10 to 5 years. Secondly, Fellowship is presented as equal to PhD in contravention of subsisting academic tradition including a National Universities Commission (NUC) circular of 3rd March 2020 which makes possession of Fellowship compulsory requirement for eligibility to pursue a PhD by medical practitioners.’’
The concerned LASUCOM staff in their petition dated January 25, said it is aware of some publications in circulation and sent to Sanwo-Olu by some vested interests in the medical profession, to defend the anomalous pairing of PhD with Fellowship of a Medical College in the new advertisement for the position of VC of LASU, as allegedly done singlehandedly by Prof. Ninalowo to the exclusion of members of the governing council, in spite of the opportunity the Visitor gave him to redeem himself.
‘’We make bold to say that PhD and Fellowship of the Medical College are not equivalent, are not the same, as they serve different purposes and run through different systems. We wish to show that Nigerian universities have over the last five years or thereabout began to depart from the process of appointing professors without PhD as VC of universities in Nigeria, with the increasing recognition of the difference between the PhD degree and a fellowship.’’
The LASUCOM staff appealed to the governor to cancel the second advert placed by the university, solely on the instructions of the council chairman. They described the advertisement as faulty, and that it did not emanate from the consideration of the entire governing council.
The medical staff called for the removal of Prof. Ninalowo from the selection process, as he seems fixated on achieving a preconceived agenda with the personalization of the selection process, stating ‘’a new process should be started with council urgently meeting to deliberate on a new advert that meets best practices, followed by a fresh election of members of the Selection Committee both on the floor of council, and at Senate.’’
In his petition to Sanwo-Olu, Dr. Awofoju said Prof. Ninalowo’s absolute impunity on the LASU’s selection process of the 9th VC got to the height of it when he unilaterally directed the Registrar, Mr. Olayinka Amuni, to publish a new advertisement for the post of VC without recourse to or in consultation with the members of the university governing council.
‘’The new advertisement has been watered-down with requirements less standard than what has been obtainable in the university over the years. The new advertisement seems to have been done for deliberate justifications of reasons that the last Joint Council and Senate Selection Committee shortlisted candidates that were prima facie unqualified. The new advertisement appears to favour those candidates upon which the violations were originally made,’’ he observed.
Awofoju explained that the act of impunity seems to question the authority of the governor and Visitor to LASU itself, and comes across as though Prof. Ninalowo is a lord unto himself in LASU affairs. He said with this mind set, it is difficult to imagine that anyone will get a fair treatment, other than the favoured candidate(s), in the fresh selection process with the same Joint Council and Senate Selection Committee headed by the council chairman.
He urged the governor to dissolve the Joint Council and Senate Selection Committee and direct the council chairman to recuse himself from heading the new committee so as to truly have a fresh process. ‘’Prof. Ninalowo cannot maintain neutrality in this fresh selection process as he seems to be too emotionally neck-deep in the meddlesomeness of the entire process.’’
Ninalowo did not respond to calls and also did not answer questions sent to his WhatsApp or text message on the issues raised by the petitioners.

Related News