Extraordinary Adviser to the Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola on Education, Mr. Fatai Olukoga, tells BAYO AKINLOYE that the reviving of the Lagos State University depends, not on the school's powers, but rather on the understudies and staff unions
At the point when will Lagos State University be revived?
The Lagos State University will be revived when the unions come to thinking or change their position for peace to rule. I can't say accurately when they will do that. Be that as it may, we are conversing with them and ideally, something positive will turn out.
How would you think the unions ought to go to a comprehension?
Promotion
In the first example, let me let you know the reason for this emergency. In March, we were in an official meeting when the Vice Chancellor, Prof. John Obafunwa, and his group came to let us know that they were bolted out by the unions. We inquired as to why. We set up a little official bureau and welcomed the unions. At first, the unions declined to respect the welcome however they chose to come the second day. The meeting was to begin by 10am however they didn't appear until 2pm. The meeting was held till 11pm that day. We spoke to them. We recognized the way that the college was owing them N435m which constitutes around 45 every penny of laborers' 17 months back payments. The foundation concurred they owed and they would pay, saying that the unions ought to permit the school to be revived so that the school's administration could take a shot at expanding its inside produced income and pay staff as they used to pay them.
To the extent the legislature is concerned, the retirement bundle was N2.2bn. The Lagos State government guaranteed to pay 50% of that cash (which was paid) even before different organizations were paid. The LASU administration was to pay the remaining measure of cash. That was settled upon by everybody including the unions. Besides, the college's conference was to hang on April 19, yet the unions said it would not hold unless the VC was uprooted and supplanted by another person. We let them know that the VC couldn't be changed simply like that. All the more along these lines, he had 18 months to go. They blamed him for oppression and deferring advancements, in addition to other things. We let them know we would consider all the essential focuses they had raised. We again encouraged them to permit the college's doors to be opened. They guaranteed to hit us up the second day (that was Tuesday). By Wednesday, they said they were not going to open the entryways. They didn't come and they didn't open the doors. On Thursday, I composed a letter including all the things we settled upon at the meeting and sent it to them, asking them to permit the school's doors to be opened.
I think they got the letter on Monday. I needed to report back to the senator (Babatunde Fashola) that the unions were inflexible. The unions said they needed the representative to want the meeting however they didn't need the VC to be there. In the long run, the representative gave a mandate that the doors ought to be opened for the meeting to hold. Taking after that order, the police opened the entryways, uprooting the two vehicles the unions used to piece the passageway to the school. The unions later turned out to say the vehicles were harmed by the administration, fingering the Commissioner for Education, Olayinka Oladunjoye and me as being in charge of the harm and requesting that the administration purchase them new vehicles. From that point, we told the understudies that the school's doors would be opened, yet in perspective of the advancing general decisions (then), it would be shut till after the surveys to evade any appalling occurrences. In addition, the establishment does not have on-grounds inns and that could incorporate the danger of being gotten up to speed in any political change. We encouraged them to stay at home under the watch of their guardians and the understudies concurred.
Be that as it may, the school wasn't opened after the April 11 decision. What was the deal?
After the April 11 survey, we requested that the college administration outfit us with a bit of data. We discovered that they (the unions) didn't permit the VC to enter the school; they didn't permit the administration to work. We required a bit of data to process a few installments of the understudies, however we couldn't get it. I had a meeting with the representative and displayed to him what the route forward would be. Another meeting was held with the administration of the college and they were advised to figure out how to open the college. We likewise guided them to meet with all the partners in the school. The administration answered to us that the unions boycotted the meeting called by the Pro-Chancellor (Mr. Olabode Agusto). Since I saw that, I called the understudies and let them know about the senator's mandate that the college ought to be opened asking them to resume their studies while we prepare their repayment.
After this meeting, what we got was a letter from the Students' Union Government of LASU expressing that unless we took care of the requests and states of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union, they would not do a reversal to class. In place for the state government not to dally in the emergency of the college pointlessly — since it has an administration and a representing board with fit men of respectability — I requested that the school's administration call the understudies and let them know what plans the administration had for them. A meeting was called yet the unions did not appear. The VC had been denied passage into the college. He was running the school from the Lagos State University College of Medicine, Ikeja. Instead of honor the meeting, they conveyed bulletins and set out toward the senator's office the following day. The reason I said these occurrences is to show the way that the unions and the understudies were the ones obstructing quiet resolutions of the emergency.
In this manner, unless all the staff unions, scholarly and non-scholastic, including the understudies' union, sheathe the sword, take a seat and reason, the school may not revive.
Is the Lagos State government willing to uproot the Vice Chancellor?
The administration won't change the VC right now. This has been the example of the school; at whatever point the residency of a VC is reaching an end they will say they don't need him any longer. That situation is playing out once more. Why do we need to change him? That can just happen on the off chance that we discover him needing.
At the same time, the unions had leveled genuine claims against him. What has the administration done about that?
We investigated all the claims on that day — that is the reason the meeting finished late (from 2pm to 11pm). From every one of our discoveries, all the affirmations shouldn't have prompted the unions going on strike. They were matters that ought to have been determined genially without the administration's inclusion. Basically, all the charges were things that were determined at that meeting.
Would you say this standoff is being supported?
Previously, we thought they (LASU unions) were supported by the Peoples Democratic Party in light of the fact that a percentage of the individuals from the unions were going about all things considered. However, we say thanks to God that, in any event, the legislature in the state did not change; there's coherence. What's more, we will proceed to dialog. My recommendation to the unions is to sheathe the sword so we can take a seat and examine these issues (further).
Wouldn't you say this is still a posse up against the school's administration?
Yes, I concur with you. It is a pack up by the unions; that is reality. I think this entire scene is being supported.
Anyhow, the understudies have said they are prepared to about-face to their classes.
These are the individuals giving conditions before they could continue their studies. They don't have any business dallying into the current issue in any case as respects the staff unions. The letter they composed is there; I can demonstrate to you.
Who close the college on March 23?
It was shut by the school's administration.
Has the administration made any declaration concerning the reviving of the school?
To me, the administration has revived the school aside from that there are a few restraints.
How was the reviving done?
To the extent I know, from the last meeting I held with them on April 22, they were prepared to revive the school.
On the off chance that the school administration was really prepared to resume scholastic exercises in the college, why didn't it declare to understudies that the establishment had been revived?
From what I learnt, the purpose behind the postponement in reviving the school was because of security reasons. Once the security hazard evaluation has been closed and the result is sure, the school will be
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