OAU, LAUTECH Students Go Against Appointment of LAUTECH's New Pro Chancellor
The appointment of Prof
Wale Omole as pro-chancellor and Governing Council chairman of Ladoke
Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, is
being opposed by some students of the school. Their counterparts in
Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State, have joined
forces with them. DHIKRU AKINOLA (400-Level Political Science, OAU)
writes.
The fortunes of Ladoke Akintola
University of Technology (LAUTECH) in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, sank at the
height of the rift between
the administrations of former Governors
Adebayo Alao-Akala (Oyo) and Olagunsoye Oyinlola (Osun). The institution
is owned by both states.
In the heat of the disagreement, the
institution’s structures were almost divided between both states as the
feuding former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors took decisions
favourable to indigenes of their states.
To rescue the school from the abyss, the
current Visitors – Governors Rauf Aregbesola (Osun) and Abiola Ajimobi
(Oyo) – appointed Prof Wale Omole, former Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the
Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State, LAUTECH’s
pro-chancellor and Governing Council chairman.
Given Omole’s vast experience in
university administration and international exposure, many commend his
appointment, but OAU and LAUTECH students feel he does not deserve the
job.
For LAUTECH and OAU students, Omole’s selection is a misnomer, which the Visitors must correct.
Omole was VC when suspected cultists
invaded OAU on July 10, 1999, killing five Students’ Union leaders. The
students believe the bloody attack was sponsored from within. Three days
after the killing, Omole was removed by the Federal Government
following a breakdown of law and order in the institution.
To show their displeasure, some OAU
students and alumni have petitioned Ajimobi and Aregbesola, detailing
what they call Omole’s past “atrocities”.
A former OAU Students’ Union president,
Lanre Adeleke, believed to have been the target of the July 10, 1999
attack, also petitioned the Oyo and Osun state governments over the
matter.
The petition reads: “My protest to Your
Excellencies is not unconnected with the performance of your appointee
while he was Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, particularly
the murder of the five students – George Yemi Iwilade, Ekede Efe, Tunde
Oke, Yemi Ajiteru and Eviano Ekelemu – which till today remains
unresolved. As a first hand witness of the events that took place in
1999, I make bold to say that a person under whose watch, a university
lost five promising youths in questionable circumstances, is not fit to
be pro-Chancellor of a university.”
Adeleke said the Justice Okon Etam (rtd) panel set up by the Federal Government, in its report, indicted Omole.
The petitioner added: “Your
Excellencies, it is my belief that such a person should not be allowed
to partake in the administration of a citadel of learning.”
A former Students’ Union president in
OAU, Saburi Akinola, who was detained for eight months after the 2007
governorship election in Osun, urged the governors to rescind Omole’s
appointment.
The co-ordinator of Education Rights
Campaign (ERC), Taiwo Hassan, said the group was not in support of
Omole’s appointment. Some OAU students expressed their opposition to
Omole’s appointment on social media.
A group of OAU students, after hours of
deliberations at the Obafemi Awolowo Hall Cafe, in a communiqué, signed
by them under the aegis of the All Student-Activists, rejected the
appointment.
They said:“In our view, he is not worthy
of leading LAUTECH. We support the protest of LAUTECH students against
Prof Omole’s appointment, and we call on the National Association of
Nigerian Students (NANS) to organise a demonstration to effect the
termination of Prof Omole’s appointment.”
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