Motorists and commuters on Ojo- Iyana-Iba Road in Lagos were once again stranded for many hours yesterday as the students of the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, embarked on a protest. The students barricaded the road to protest what they described as the abrupt postponement of their first semester examination for the 2014/2015 academic session. The examination was earlier scheduled to begin on Monday.
The protesters led by the Students’ Union President, Adeyemi Onikoro, had earlier locked the two entrance gates of the university, barring members of the institution’s management and the workers from gaining entrance into the campus. The immediate past president of the union, Nurudeen Yusuff, said the university, which had resumed since January 23 for the semester, had refused to conduct examination because of the protracted conflict between the workers’ unions on the campus and the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. John Obafunwa.
The protesters were, however, dispersed by armed policemen, who reportedly fired canisters of tear gas into the air to remove the barricade and restore the free flow of traffic on the road. The workers’ unions had staged a mass protest on March 16 forcing the VC out of the campus, while they called on the Lagos State Government to appoint another vicechancellor for the university.
The workers accused Obafunwa of high-handedness, victimisation of workers including the withdrawal of the PhD certificates of some lecturers. They also alleged that Obafunwa was combining two appointments being the VC and the state chief pathologist, which, according to them, is against labour laws.
Addressing a media briefing at the university’s College of Medicine in Ikeja on Monday, the students’ union had given the Governor Akinwumi Ambode-led administration a 48-hour ultimatum to resolve the crisis.
The protest was, therefore, a follow-up to the ultimatum, which expired on Wednesday. The students also called on the governor to release the report of the committee he set up on resumption of office to resolve the crisis. Yusuff said: “You can imagine running a single semester for more than six months without any hope that examination will hold.
“The VC has been barred from entering the campus since March and the tenure of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Academics, Prof. Sena Bakre, who is supposed to sit on the academic decisions on the campus, has expired. So we are really unsure of what future awaits us.”
Meanwhile, in his reaction to the development, the Dean of Students’ Affairs, Prof. Kabir Akinyemi, said the protest was not only unnecessary but uncalled for. Akinyemi said the workers’ unions had made the campus ungovernable for the vice-chancellor and since the atmosphere had not been conducive for the Senate to sit and approve the school calendar, it was difficult to conduct examination in such atmosphere.
He said: “The students should also understand that about 3,000 of them have not been able to register because of the issue of school fees refund and we cannot run into the same trouble witnessed during the last session when about 1,000 had refused to register and yet the students disrupted the exams.”
Akinyemi said the students should be patient because the new government in the state was working very hard to resolve all the contradictions, saying the postponement of the examination was not to commit illegality.
He urged the workers to sheathe their swords and allow peace to reign on the campus for the sake of posterity. Meanwhile, investigation has shown that Ambode may soon relieve the vice-chancellor of his appointment based on the recommendation of the committee which looked into the crisis.
According to a source, who craved anonymity, the committee, which was chaired by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Tunji Bello, with the Deputy Governor, Dr. Idiat Adebule and representatives of the workers’ unions as members, had since submitted its report to the governor. The source added that the committee recommended Obafunwa’s removal, over his inability to work harmoniously with the workers and the students.
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