LASU shut, as workers continue protest

A cross-section of protesting workers on Monday. Inset:

 

For eight days running, the Lagos State University, Ojo, has not known peace, CHARLES ABAH and EMEKA OBI report

The story of the Lagos State University Vice-Chancellor, Prof. John Obafunwa, is akin to that of a king without a domain. The VC, like an embattled monarch, is at present superintending the affairs of his subjects from outside of his province. Indeed, for the eighth day running, Obafunwa is not calling the shot from his official Vice-Chancellor Office at Ojo. Rather, he is dishing out directives from his residential home.

Reason: his subjects – this time around workers – have sent him on a forced vacation, shutting the gates of the institution against him.

Even on Monday (yesterday), the ivory tower was home to security operatives, who converged on the gates to stop any further disruption of academic and social activities in the school. With more than six security vans and no less than 20 riot policemen on one hand and aggrieved workers on the other, it looked as if the battle line was drawn.

The authorities, sensing further tension on campus, hurriedly shut down the school.

But in a telephone text by the Director of Public Relations, Mrs. Ronke Osho, the authorities linked the closure to the forthcoming elections in the country.

Part of the text read, “In view of the forthcoming national and state elections scheduled for March 28 and April 11 respectively, the management of the Lagos State University has declared a recess for both members of staff and students with effect from Monday, March 23, 2015. Students and members of staff are therefore advised to vacate the campus immediately. The date of resumption will be announced later.”

Workers under the auspices of the LASU Staff Union last Monday forcibly closed the two major gates to the university, thereby preventing the VC’s car or any other vehicle from entering or exiting the school. They carried out the action to protest the leadership style of Obafunwa.

The workers, comprising the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff of Universities members, alleged that the VC was incompetent, as he was plunging the school into one form of crisis or another.

The action of the workers resulted in the postponement of the institution’s 16th convocation. The convocation was to hold last Thursday and Friday.

Interestingly, the allegations and sudden postponement of the convocation came at a time Obafunwa boasted that normalcy had returned to the ivory tower. The VC only two weeks ago, had declared that with the planned convocation, his administration would have successfully conducted four convocation and matriculation ceremonies back to back. According to him, it is unprecedented in the annals of the university.

However, while the VC was rolling out his scorecard of achievements, little did he know that his workers were planning siege to rubbish his records. The protesting workers indeed, found an auspicious time a few days ahead of the convocation.

Amid these controversies, commentators and analysts say that there is something deeper in the crisis than meets the eye. According to them, the ongoing “drama” in the school has only succeeded in awakening the bottled-up longings and anger among the dramatis personae. In the thinking of many observers, the race for who becomes the next VC is at the heart of the controversies.

Obafunwa’s first five-year-tenure is to end by October this year. Whereas VCs in many universities, especially the federal-owned ones, can only hold forte for one term of five years, the rule is not operational in some state-owned universities, such as LASU.

But Obafunwa has denied the link to the crisis at LASU to the second term agenda. Some of the aggrieved workers, the VC argued, were only uncomfortable with his policies, which, he claimed, were gradually returning the institution to the path of glory and loftier heights.

According to him, the blocking of the many financial drainpipes as well as his opposition to “milking the institution dry” is at the centre of vexation against his leadership.

He also pointed to his determination to cleanse the institution of academic fraud as another major reason why they were conspiring to frustrate his leadership. The VC had instituted panels of enquiries to look into the authenticity of school certificate results of the workers and PhD certificates of 19 persons, including that of the ASUU-LASU Chairman, Dr. Adekunle Idris.

He said, “The truth of the matter is that the so-called demand is not the main issue. It is just an excuse for a different agenda. The main thing is, do we still want the person who has blocked the entire avenue through which we used to embezzle money? Do we still want the person who has tried to counter things like admission racketeering? In fact,   currently, we are asking and scrutinising the school certificate of everybody, and we have a large number of people already with questionable O’level results.”

The workers, nonetheless, disagrees with the VC. At a congress last Tuesday, they had resolved that peace would remain in abeyance in the institution until Obafunwa leaves as its helmsman. In fact, they requested the Visitor to the school, Governor Babatunde Fashola, to appoint urgently an acting VC to oversee the affairs of the institution.

Meanwhile, the workers embarked on another protest on Monday (yesterday), armed with placards and chanting solidarity songs for the sacking of Obafunwa.

Giving insight for the protest, the NASU-LASU Chairman, Albert Agosu, said the workers were no longer comfortable with the VC and wanted him to go on terminal leave.

He said, “We are protesting against victimisation and intimidation. We made several demands to the management that have yet to be attended to. Also, in a meeting with the state government, we asked that the VC should proceed on terminal leave, since his tenure will expire by October 31 this year. Negotiations are still ongoing, we were even expecting to hold another round of talks before this incident. The reason for this protest is to make our voices heard.”

One of the union leaders, who craved anonymity, said workers had earlier on Monday resisted moves by policemen to stop them from meeting on campus.

He said, “We stood our ground and resisted attempts to scuttle our gathering. That is why you see policemen outside the gate and not inside the school. The plan was to prevent us from gathering or taking further actions, but they have failed.”

The LASU-SSANU Chairman, Saheed Oseni, faulted the government’s action of deploying policemen in the school. According to him, the state government should be neutral and play the role of a mediator since the issue at hand is between the union and the management led by Obafunwa.

“It is appropriate to state categorically that the issue at hand is between the unions and the management. It is wrong for the state government to take sides with the management on this matter by deploying policemen to harass and intimate union members. The blocking of the school’s gates does not affect academic and administrative activities in the school. It is just a way of letting the world to know that there are issues yet to be resolved.

“Nobody is talking about the constant harassment and intimidation that workers have been going through in the hands of the VC. The state government is not addressing the issue of promotion, victimisation, casualisation, monies owed to workers and the fact that we operate under the most unfavourable work environment. We will not stop until our demands are met,” he said.

For the LASU-ASUU Secretary, Dr. Adebowale Adeyemi-Suenu, “The VC has lost legitimacy. He may still possess some form of authority as given to him by the state government but the legitimacy is no longer there. He has been going about disparaging us before the public. Having caused us enough harm, we have decided that he should no longer lead us,” he said.