Sanwo-Olu Must Allow Merit In Selection Of LASU VC – Group

A group of lecturers at the Lagos State University, LASU, The Liberators and members of the Alumni Association of the institution have come out to urge Babajide Sanwo-Olu to allow merit to prevail in the selection of the ninth substantive Vice Chancellor of the institution.

They recently revealed this via a statement signed by Professors Adeleke Fakoya, Biodun Akinpelu and Sola Fosudo on behalf of other members of the group.

According to them, institutional peace among other factors helped propelled the university to number two in the country and among the best on the continent, so this value cannot be thrown away now.

They added that the liberators have been the voice of the New LASU in the last five years, and they won’t stop anytime soon.

His words, “The Liberators have been the voice of the New LASU in the last five years –beginning with the remarkable appointment of Prof. Olanrewaju Adigun Fagbohun, SAN, as Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University (2016- 2021).”

“In those five years, we worked with the university management, and staff and students to ensure a hitch-free teaching-and-learning system. We also worked with many prominent people in the Lagos State Civil Service to procure support and understanding for the university that offers us and our children something more than the ordinary Nigerian university gives its staff and students: a sense of pride.”

“This sense of pride is the product of communal love, institutional peace and administrative wisdom – three main ingredients that won for LASU all the accolades arising from very impressive local and global rating,” the group said.The Liberators wondered why two selection exercises of a new VC were truncated when the processes involved were approved and done with the knowledge of the state government, the owner of the school.They challenged the state government to let the interviews conducted for candidates be aired on public television.”

“We would like to point out the obvious: Lagos State is called the Centre of Excellence. As such, we expect us to recognize and honour excellence in all our conduct, especially if the process that produced that excellence is democratic.”

“Thus, we would like to ask the following questions: “Who should be the most authoritative person to know who becomes the next Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University? Is it the Governor to whom the entire recorded process was submitted (as we gathered), or a few people who only want to create disorder in the system for their own self-interest?”

“Has the government seen or not seen the recording of the whole process? Did the government not have representatives at the interviews? Was there any misconduct associated with the interviews or with any of the interviewers? Would it be fair to the candidates or exemplary to our students and other citizens to keep cancelling a process as simple as the present one and expect commendation from observers across the world?”

“Why can’t the Governor go by the decision of the Governing Council that he himself empowered to conduct the interviews and allow anyone contesting the result to seek redress in court? Contrary to government’s allegation of an impasse arising from the interviews conducted to appoint the next Vice Chancellor for LASU, we (the Liberators) would like to disabuse the government itself that not to conclude the process that it consciously set in motion is the real catalyst for the impasse. While we do not want to hold brief for any of the candidates who were interviewed, we think it’s a gross disservice to academia to truncate a process that the government itself initiated. The fall-out of the truncation is predictably a termination of all meaningful academic work and of institutional growth.”
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Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu (born June 25, 1965) is a Nigerian Politician and the current Governor of Lagos State. He was announced the governor under the platform of the All Progressives Congress after contesting and unexpectedly winning the gubernatorial primaries under the All Progressives Congress against incumbent governor, Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State in October 2018.

He is a graduate of the University of Lagos, as well as the London Business School, Lagos Business School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Before his gubernatorial ambition, He was the Managing Director/CEO of Lagos State Property Development Corporation (LSPDC).

Sanwo-Olu has a B.Sc in Surveying and an MBA from the University of Lagos. He is an alumnus of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, the London Business School and the Lagos Business School.

He is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) and fellow of the Nigeria Institute of Training and Development (NITAD).