Another UNILAG governing council member resigns

Another external member of the governing council of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Bayo Adaralegbe, has tendered his resignation letter.

Adaralegbe said his decision hinged on the crisis rocking the university and accused the substantive vice-chancellor, Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, of falsifying the result of an interview conducted for applicants into the position of director of works on the campus.

“Recent developments have, unfortunately, made my continued stay on the Governing Council of the University of Lagos very untenable,” Adaralegbe said.

“Professor Toyin Ogundipe threatened to beat me up during an interview session for the position of Director of Works because I resisted his attempt to falsify interview results,” Adaralegbe said. 

“It was also in University of Lagos that I experienced a Vice-Chancellor attempting to appoint a Professor in respect of a discipline that the University did not have a department, did not admit undergraduate or postgraduate students, and through a one-page Memorandum to the Pro-Chancellor that touted the candidate as an “agent of change.” This is of course apart from a litany of corrupt practices.”

Adaralegbe’s resignation came a day after Wale Babalakin resigned as the pro-chancellor and chairman of the governing council of the university.

President Muhammadu Buhari had constituted a visitation panel to investigate the leadership crisis in the school and dissolved the council which Babalakin served as chairman.

Babalakin and Ogundipe were at loggerheads over the leadership of the institution with members of the school governing council divided in pro and against groups for the pro-chancellor and the vice-chancellor.

In his resignation letter, Adaralegbe extolled the leadership qualities of the erstwhile chairman of the council. He said Babalakin committed his personal resources into the university without seeking any favour from the institution.

“He (Babalakin) kept scrupulously to the promise he made at our maiden Council meeting not to bid for, or be awarded contracts from the University,” Adaralegbe said. 

“He actually did more. By December 2019 he had poured approximately N100 million of his own personal resources on different endeavours in the University. At the time this situation arose, he was in the process of transferring to the University (at no cost to it) 40 hectares of land he owned in Ogudu, Lagos to address its staff housing problems.”

On the other hand, Adaralegbe lamented that the standards of UNILAG had fallen drastically under Ogundipe’s leadership as vice-chancellor.