TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE writes on the thoughts and perceptions of members of the Lagos State University (LASU) community as Professor Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello assumes office as the ninth substantive vice chancellor of the university.
IT is now a new dawn at the Lagos State University (LASU) Ojo. A new vice chancellor has eventually emerged and also assumed duty since last week. This was after a prolonged crisis that trailed the selection process. She is Professor Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, who is once an acting vice chancellor and twice deputy vice chancellor of the university.
Mrs Olatunji-Bello was appointed to the office by the state governor and visitor to the university, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, from among the three contenders recommended to him by the joint-selection committee, consisting of the university’s governing council members, representatives of the university Senate and that of the congregation.
The two others contenders included also a one-time female deputy vice chancellor of the university, Professor Senapon Bakre and Professor Muyiwa Awofolu, who teaches at Namibia University of Science and Technology.
According to the governor, Professor Ibiyemi-Bello, came out as the best in the interviews among the three contenders, as stated, selection committee.
Based on this development, Professor Olatunji-Bello is expected to serve for the five-year single tenure as constitutionally prescribed for the office.
However, it will be recalled that prior to the last selection exercise that produced Professor Olatunji-Bello, two different selection processes were held, with each of them marred with complaints of alleged irregularities, and the governor consequently cancelled the processes and constituted a new council to do the job.
It will also be recalled that the new vice chancellor, though consistent in putting up application on each occasion, had not made the final list in the previous two botched controversial exercises.
Now, reacting to her emergence, the various stakeholders, particularly in the university community, welcomed her appointment, describing it as a round peg put in a round the hole.
They told the Nigerian Tribune in separate interviews that they had full confidence that Professor Olatunji-Bello would certainly perform well in office.
Those who spoke to this reporter on the matter cut across various staff unions in the university. They included the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), as well as a cross section of students.
The Liberators group, which is a creation of some professors and other workers among both the academic and non-academic staff as a voice for the university in distressed situations, and which was at the forefront consistently agitating that the governor should appoint whoever came first in the interview, also bared its thought on the development.
Speaking, the chairman of ASUU, Professor Ibrahim Bakare; and his counterparts in charge of NASU and SSANU, Mr Moruf Ige and Mr Seyi Lawal respectively; and the coordinator of Liberators group, Professor Adeleke Fakoya; said their respective groups had no objection to the appointment of Professor Olatunji-Bello. They said it was not only that she had been part of LASU, having worked there for many decades; she had also at different occasions been saddled with big responsibilities without falling in any.
They made reference to the periods she was an acting vice chancellor and also twice as deputy vicechancellor, saying she did well in each of the assignments.
They said selection of officers into any competitive office and that of the vice chancellor of a university for that matter anywhere globally is often characterised with crisis, therefore, LASU’s own could not be an exception.
They said that they believed that all other contenders, from the first to the third selection exercises, including Professor Kabir Akinyemi, who is the former ASUU chairman of the university, and later, Dean of Students Affairs; Professor Olumuyiwa Odusanya; Director, Research and Innovation Management, Professor Wahab Elias; current deputy vice chancellor of the university, Professor Adewale Noah; former deputy vice chancellor of the university; and Professor Biodun Adewuya are all good and fit to occupy the seat, adding that was why there was no loser or winner in the entire race.
According to the ASUU boss, Professor Bakare, who teaches Economics , and the coordinator of Liberators group, who is a Professor of Applied Linguistics, Mr Fakoya, only one person would be appointed to the office and that person at this time is Professor Olatunji-Bello.
They said the bottom line about the matter was that the selection team found her most suitable for the role. LASU, as an institution, was known for many years, until about five years ago when the last administration, led by Professor Olanrewaju Fagbohun, came on board, as a crisis-infested university. It was also dubbed as a glorified secondary school. But the appellation had been erased during Fagbohun’s administration, which brought permanent peace and steady progress to the university, to the extent of moving from nowhere in universities’ global ranking to become the second best in the country last year.
They said that the thought in some quarters that Professor Olatunji-Bello was given the appointment by the governor because she is married to a serving commissioner in the state, Mr Tunji Bello, who is close to the seat of power, had no bearing to the issue.
They said the new vice chancellor was not only qualified, just as every other who competed with her, she equally passed through a process that found her the most suitable among the rest.
They said the woman was not only a thorough bred scholar but an administrator par excellence, and who, through dint of hard work, diligence and perseverance, and not by mere being a wife of a commissioner, had reached the pinnacle of her career.
They therefore urged those in and outside LASU with such a thought to have a rethink and join hands with the vice chancellor who, on her part, would be expected to run an all inclusive administration to move LASU to a greater height.
They said LASU must have to remain peaceful and progressing in performing its tripartite mandates of teaching, research and community service.
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