Babalakin: Independent Body, Not Perm Sec Should Develop White Paper on UNILAG Panel Report

Accuses university VC of funds’ diversion

 Says leaked committee report vindicates him

Says leaked committee report vindicates him

Uchechukwu Nnaike, Emma Okonji and Nosa Alekhuogie

A former Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Dr. Wale Babalakin, has urged the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono to recuse himself from the process of producing a white paper from the recent report of the Presidential Visitation Panel on UNILAG.

The report, which negated the previous special visitation panel to the institution, had indicted the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof. Oluyatoyin Ogundipe, revealing that the vice-chancellor was given a fair hearing by the Babalakin-led governing council before he was previously removed.

But Babalakin, who spoke on the Morning Show on Arise News Channel, explained: “You set up a panel on the basis that there was no fair hearing, your own panel comes back to you and says there was fair hearing, you can’t sit in judgment of that document again. It is just immoral, someone else should sit on it.

“And for you to be upfront, publish the panel report and publish your own recommendations so that we know that it flows directly from it.”

He argued that the first panel set up to look into the matter was inappropriate, saying the technocrats in the ministry, without hearing his side, concluded that there was no fair hearing for the vice-chancellor.

According to him, members of the first panel were academics and their agenda was to indict him and save Ogundipe.

Babalakin also faulted the level of control the Permanent Secretary wields in universities, saying all activities at UNILAG, even appointments were wrongly done.

“What is the business of the Permanent Secretary with the universities?” he queried.

In line with the report which validated the previous council’s claim that the VC misappropriated funds, Babalakin said it would be wrong to only dismiss him, stressing that if Ogundipe is not prosecuted to send a message to everybody, then the decay in the university system would continue.

“If allegations made against Ogundipe and confirmed by the panel are found to be so, it will be unfair to only dismiss him, because contextually, he is worse than the governors that are being jailed.

“From N5 billion internally generated revenue (IGR), he diverted N1.8 billion, that is 30 per cent. The governors that are being jailed didn’t divert 30 per cent,” Babalakin alleged.

He further alleged that corruption was endemic at UNILAG, saying it did not start under Ogundipe.

While lauding the panel’s recommendation that an international accounting firm should look into the affairs of the university, the Chairman of The Bi-Courtney Group of Companies said a judicial panel with a judge knowledgeable in finance should assess all Nigerian universities, especially UNILAG.

“It will be discovered that the federal government is pumping money into these universities without getting commensurate return,” he maintained.

On the planned strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Babalakin, who was the chief negotiator at the time he presided over UNILAG council, observed that ASUU was asking for more money, and the money was not being well spent at the institution he was heading then.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria said his views on funding and administration differed with those of ASUU members who insisted that the government alone should fund the universities.

“My position was that government will not sign any document it cannot comply with. I said good education is compulsory, if government is able to fund it so be it, if government is not able to fund it, the students must not be deprived, and we must find other sources of funding apart from the federal government.

“The ASUU position is that the government must take care of everything. And I said what if the government cannot afford it. They said that is government’s business.

“I insisted that we must have key performance indicators to know whether these lecturers are actually delivering and I was called the neo capitalist, bringing World Bank’s policies. You said we shouldn’t measure you, and we should continue to give you a lot of money.”

On ways to improve the quality of education in order to produce employable graduates, he said there should be a change of mindset.

Also, he said universities should not be under the full control of the ministry.

Babalakin added: “When you free these universities, they will become their own people, we can’t run them like a factory. Every university should have its own identify.

Comparing UNILAG that is worth $200 million with Harvard University that has over $50 billion in reserve, he said “what impact can such a poverty-stricken institution make on education.”

He said no Nigerian university can have such financial base if it is government-controlled.

“I advised, take out one university per zone as a test run, put it under a dynamic leadership, and see how it works.

“Only as recent as the 70s University College Hospital, Ibadan was rated fifth in the Commonwealth, we had pro-chancellors who could profess outside Nigeria,” Babalakin said.

He argued that the university system in Nigeria has completely collapsed, due to financial fraud and diversion of funds meant to facilitate teaching and learning.

He alleged that the monthly disbursement of N500,000 to the Law Faculty of the University of Lagos for the purchase of Law Books which he used to provide when he was Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the university, was also diverted for two years.

According to him, “At the first meeting when I was the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of the University, I presented the new vision of the university to council members and stated that the university needed to create funds for research and development.

“I told them at that meeting that throughout my tenure, I would not collect remuneration or fees from the university and that I would pay for all the expenses incurred by my staff, throughout my tenure.”

He said his decision to take such position, was because the federal government struggled to fund the university system.