Vice-Chancellor, LASU, Prof. John Obafunwa
The Vice-Chancellor of the Lagos State University, Ojo, Prof. John Obafunwa, says his critics in the institution are those who have skeletons in their cupboards.
This came as he said that the institution had uncovered a large number of workers with questionable school certificate results.
Obafunwa, who made this known while speaking to journalists in Lagos, however, did not give further details about the certificate fraud.
He only stated that an investigating panel was compiling the data with a view to making it public soon.
The university, in 2014, also withdrew the PhD certificates of 19 persons, including that of the ASUU-LASU Chairman, Dr. Adekunle Idris. The action has since put the VC and the ASUU leadership in the school at loggerheads with the latter claiming that the motive was to embarrass Idris.
The leadership of ASUU-LASU as well as some other stakeholders had criticised the VC of intimidating and harassing students and lecturers “to cover up his incompetence.” The union also accused him of sponsoring a parallel ASUU in the ivory tower.
But describing his critics as “mischief makers” Obafunwa noted that his leadership had restored sanity as well as stable academic calendar in the school.
He said, “For instance, we have had four matriculation ceremonies back to back and with the forthcoming convocation, it will be the fourth convocation back to back. This is unprecedented in the history of the 32-year-old institution. In other words, a student admitted for a four-year programme four years ago, who has met all the requirements, is graduating this year.
“Again, one of the things that the students are happy about is the pursuit of having a stable academic calendar. You cannot compromise this and my leadership has succeeded in accomplishing it in the university.”
On the panel set up to examine the Ph.D certificates saga, the VC said the committee had completed its job.
Obafunwa added, “That investigation has been completed, but it has yet to be presented to the Senate. It was to be presented in the last Senate meeting, unfortunately, the chairman of the panel was not around to make the presentation. Definitely, the panel will present the report at the next Senate meeting.
“The chairman of the panel did a great job by asking questions to all concerned and they made their submissions. Some made their submissions with their lawyers in attendance. Meanwhile, I wouldn’t want to preempt the committee’s findings, but I know that at the end of the day, it will be obvious to everyone that the university has done the right thing by withdrawing the certificates and re-awarding some of them.”
The VC, who spoke on the recent threat by SSANU in the school, added that claim about salary arrears by the union were not the main issue.
He explained, “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, recently, we are asking and scrutinising the school certificate of everybody, and we have a large number of people already with questionable O’level. I mean members of staff. I know what some of these people are bothered about. This threat is just an excuse for a different thing.”
BY CHARLES ABAH
