All the industrial unions in the University of Lagos, UNILAG, operating under the aegis of Joint Staff Union, JSU, are currently holding a Congress where the issue of the sack of the institution’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, by the Governing Council is the main item on the agenda.
Our correspondent, who was on the campus on Thursday morning, learned that during the Congress, the unions would resolve to issue an ultimatum to the Council to reverse its decision.
The unions involved in the meeting are the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities SSANU, the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, and the Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU.
Though the Congress is still on, it was gathered that an ultimatum of 24 or 48 hours would be given the Council to reverse the alleged removal of the VC. Recall that the Council, headed by Dr Wale Babalakin, SAN, had on Wednesday in Abuja, announced the sack of Ogundipe. Babalakin and Ogundipe have been at loggerheads over some issues relating to the holding of this year’s convocation by the school. Babalakin accused Ogundipe of not carrying the Council along in the preparations for the event.
He petitioned the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, who ordered the National Universities Commission, NUC, to stop the ceremony,. The action led to ASUU declaring Babalakin as an unwanted visitor on campus.