Written by Clement Idoko and Emmanuel Adeniyi Thursday, 29 July 2010
THE National Universities Commission (NUC) has threatened to withdraw the operational licence of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomoso, if, within two weeks, the management of the institution is unable to resolve the crisis rocking the university.
NUC Executive Secretary, Professor Julius Okojie, who handed down the ultimatum in Abuja while speaking at the Mock-Institutional Accreditation Coordination meeting, on Wednesday, called on Governors Adebayo Alao-Akala and Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Oyo and Osun states to resolve the crisis amicably or lose the licence of the university.
The university is jointly owned by Oyo and Osun state governments but has been at the centre of controversy in the last few months over ownership, leading to the dissolution of its Governing Council by the Osun State governor.
The NUC boss was particularly worried that the crisis was coming at the time the commission was oiling its machinery for the conduct of Institutional Accreditation of the 104 universities in the country, adding that the commission had concluded arrangements to begin a pilot scheme of the exercise in six selected universities across the country by next month.
Okojie lamented that as a result of the crisis, students could not go to the university for post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (post-UTME) test, while lecturers too were no longer teaching, adding that NUC was worried about who the vice chancellor of the university is at the moment.
In the same vein, former NUC Executive Secretary and Chief Trainer of the institutional accreditation, Panel, Professor Peter Okebukola, speaking at the meeting on the proposed institutional accreditation expected to take off before the end of the year, revealed that about five per cent of the 104 existing universities in Nigeria would be closed down by the NUC.
According to the instrument designed for the Institutional Accreditation, which is going to be the first of its kind in the country, universities that score 40 per cent would be placed in F category, indicating that it has failed and would be denied accreditation while those that score between 40 and 49 would be placed on probation for one year to allow them to remedy their deficiencies.
Also, the institutions that score 80 per cent and above would be rated A+ and granted full accreditation for a 10-year lifespan, but those that score 70-79 will fall under A category, even though they would as well enjoy a 10-year lifespan of full accreditation.
Other categorisations include 50-54 per cent, C; 55-59 per cent, C+; 60-64 per cent, B; 65-69 per cent, B+ and would be granted Interim Accreditation for three and five years; full accreditation for eight years respectively.
Okebukola had explained that the institutional accreditation, which would be exhaustive, would be conducted in relation to the set minimum standards, including, institutional vision, mission and strategic goals, governance and administration, resources, quality of teaching, research and learning infrastructure, efficiency and effectiveness, extension service and consultancies, transparency, financial management, stability and general ethos.
“There are some universities in Nigeria that look like glorified secondary schools, but all of them would disappear when the exercise takes off fully. In 2006 when the World Bank and United Nations Education, Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) organised a world conference on institutional accreditation, it was reported that in Chile, as a consequence of institutional accreditation, 36 universities were closed permanently,” he said.
He said the polity in the nation’s universities system would be boosted if the institutional accreditation was sustained.
“We must continue to move in the direction whereby only the fittest will survive in a world of polity in the higher education,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Osun State government has warned against attacks on its citizens working in LAUTECH, Ogbomoso, while calling on Oyo State to embrace peace.
A statement issued by the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Niyi Owolade, said the warning had become necessary, following reports of attacks on the office of the acting registrar of the institution, Mr Olusegun Ojo, by some agents of the Oyo State government.
The statement added that the Attorney-General had been informed that certain persons claiming to be officials of the university had locked up the office of the acting registrar, the only principal officer of the university from Osun State.
Owolade called on security agencies to protect lives and property of all Osun State indigenes in Ogbo-moso, while assuring staff and students of the school of the commitment of the state government to ensuring peace in the university.
However, barely two days after Governor Oyinlola dissolved the governing council of LAUTECH and announced the appointment of Professor J. O. Ojerinde as the new acting vice chancellor of the institution, the appointee has rejected the offer, hinging his decision on irregular process of the appointment and personal reasons.
Oyinlola had, on Monday, announced Professor Oje-rinde, an indigene of Oyo State, as a replacement for Professor Nassar Olanre-waju, who was appointed by Governor Alao-Akala.
The governor, prior to the announcement of the acting vice chancellor, had criti-cised the decision of the Oyo State government to disengage Osun State from the joint ownership of the institution, as well as the removal of the erstwhile vice chancellor, Professor Benjamin Adeleke, by Governor Alao-Akala.
In a letter, entitled Re: Appointment as Acting Vice Chancellor, LAUTECH Ogbo-moso, addressed to the Osun State governor, a copy of which was made available to the Nigerian Tribune, Professor Ojediran thanked Governor Oyinlola for considering him worthy for the position, but said he was not ready to take it up.
“I humbly and with gratitude refer to your letter, Ref: EG/OSGH/105 of July 26, 2010 on the above subject matter. I thank your Excellency for your considerations and for counting me worthy of such great and enviable position.
“However, I regret to inform you of my inability to take up the position for two important reasons viz: 1, the process of appointment appears irregular, 2, I feel constrained in accepting the appointment also for very personal reasons,” the letter read.
Meanwhile, the Osun State government has stressed that the appointment of Professor Ojediran as the acting vice chancellor by Governor Oyinlola was normal and regular as enshrined in the edict that set up the university.
It also said it would not allow illegal persons and bodies to run the affairs of the university jointly owned by Oyo and Osun states.
A statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Oyinlola, Mr Lasisi Olagunju, in a reaction to reports of Ojediran declining to act as vice chancellor, said the state government understood the circumstances under which he was made to decline to act, two days after he got the appointment letter.
The statement said asking the deputy vice chancellor of the university to act as the vice chancellor was an administrative procedure made automatic by the university’s statutes, adding that with the decision of Ojediran, on Wednesday, the university no longer had a legal vice chancellor to oversee its affairs.
Olagunju added that it was in an effort to avoid usurpers claiming the vice chancellorship of the university that the policy makers of the institution made it clear that the deputy vice chancellor should act as vice chancellor whenever the latter proceeded on leave or was otherwise unable to function for whatever reason.
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