Dr Anthony Dansu is one of the three executive members of the Lagos State University (LASU) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) who were dismissed alongside five others recently by the governing council of the institution. He and the assistant secretary of the union, Adeolu Oyekan and the treasurer, Kemi Abodunrin-Shonibare, were accused of stealing classified documents of the university and using same for selfish gains. Dr Dansu tells TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE in this interview the reasons he and his colleagues were dismissed. Excerpts:
How would you react to your dismissal?
The issue is like comparing light and darkness or between truth and falsehood. It is now glaring to the whole world that the chairman and vice-chairman of LASU-ASUU who were dismissed in 2017 by the school authorities were subjects of victimisation. It was an attempt to destroy and weaken our vibrant union. It has become very obvious to the whole world that we the ASUU are actually saying the truth. Now we have exposed the vice chancellor for his illegal occupation of the position he is holding. He is not qualified to be the vice chancellor of LASU by virtue of the documents he used to apply for that office. This is the truth.
Explain these claims?
What I am saying is that the current vice chancellor is not qualified to sit in that office and I will explain this. He applied and joined the services of LASU in 1991 as an Assistant Lecturer and rose through the ranks to become associate professor. In 2004, he wanted to become a professor without a PhD and the university’s Senate at that time said that it was only a privilege before when you asked to become a professor without a PhD. They then asked him to go and get his PhD. So, he went and as of the time he came back, he was found not be qualified. And so, he left the system on August 16, 2011, for the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. When his immediate predecessor, Professor John Obafunwa, became the vice chancellor, that one influenced the governing council. I will try to shorten the entire story.
By 2014, the governing council illegally promoted the vice chancellor and that is somebody who was no longer in the system because he had left the system three years earlier. That is one problem about his promotion. He was promoted while he wasn’t in the system. After the promotion, the then registrar communicated the decision of the council to him. The council said the promotion took effect from May 7, 2014, but in communicating that decision to him, he backdated the promotion to October 1, 2008 – that is six years difference.
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That is the second issue. The registrar unilaterally backdated the promotion to 2008. There was another condition in that letter. The letter says his promotion is subject to his acceptance which must be in written form and that he must also resume and work in LASU. Because if you have not resumed and worked as part of the conditions, it means you have not accepted the promotion. But he never resumed in the university until he became the vice chancellor in 2016. And it is on the basis of this illegal promotion, which was also backdated illegally, that he applied for the position he is in today.
The professorship he used to become LASU VC is the one backdated to 2008. This is the crux of the issue and what ASUU is asking them to address but rather than doing that, they are accusing us of stealing confidential documents that were already in public domain.
To us as ASUU, no documents are missing and what they are calling confidential documents are everywhere. How can a promotion letter become a confidential document if there is no more to it? How can the document they are using in communicating to the entire university community become a confidential document? They are simply using their power to cover up. Instead of addressing the illegality in that promotion, they are now trying to cook up something; that the document is missing.
Even this matter had been taken to the industrial court and the court ruled in our favour, yet they are still after us for saying the truth.
The provision of FOI Act 2011 cannot be sidetracked using the expediency of any disciplinary process. The interpretation of this is that even if we got that document without authorisation, we are at liberty to use it. They know this but they don’t want to go by it. And even at that, am I LASU-ASUU? I am only a secretary and signed on behalf of the union. And that is why when I was queried over this issue, the congress came up with a position that I was only acting on their behalf to carry out the responsibility. But all they have in mind is to kill LASU-ASUU and nothing more. They are not comfortable with our criticisms.
But what actually accounted for ASUU’s turn against an administration it once declared total support for?
It is simple. The school authorities said the system was corrupt and wanted to sanitise it. That is also what they said when they dismissed the ASUU chairman and vice chairman in 2017. The union came out that time to say (and is still saying) that it is victimisation of the union leaders. We then told the vice chancellor that if truly he wanted to clear the rot in the system, there was still one genuine rot in the system that was left untouched. We told him this several times without anything done about it until we got the documents and told him that the rot was about him. Even at that, what we were asking him to do was to investigate the person who unilaterally backdated his promotion.
Then what happened?
What we saw was that we became victims of victimisation. This is because instead of addressing the issue, they said we stole confidential documents and based on that, we were dismissed. You can see that this is so funny in this age of Freedom of Information Act. Do they want to say that the conditions of service in LASU are superior to FOI Act? They are trying to cover up their illegal act. They want to silence anything ASUU permanently in LASU because they have already succeeded in caging all other unions in the system. ASUU is the only vibrant union left talking and they don’t want that. They dismissed us so that nobody will oppose them on any matter.
So, the three of you ASUU officials that were sacked committed the same offence?
Well, the accusation levelled against me and the assistant secretary was 100 per cent the same. That of the treasurer is similar but a little bit difference. The woman had applied for promotion from senior lecturer to associate professorship several times but she was denied and she believed the refusal was because of her unionism. Eventually, she was granted her request but she had lost all her seniority and that was why she asked the authorities to backdate the promotion to the year she was actually due for it. And instead of backdating the promotion to 2011\2012, they gave her 2016 or thereabouts. This is four years difference which means a lot for any staff in service. So, she requested for backdating just as every other staff in similar situation had done and got their promotions backdated. The only thing they are losing is the monetary aspect of it. But because of unionism, the school didn’t respond and so she needed to attach proof that she was actually due for promotion at so and so time; that she was already assessed and found qualified for the promotion, which she did. They then took her up and queried her to tell the authorities where she got the document she attached as a testament to her due time of promotion. It is on this basis that she was dismissed from service.
What is your next line of action?
It is a national issue and it is to be taken up by the leadership. We will ensure that justice is delivered on the matter.
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