The Lagos State University, (LASU) is going ahead with its plan to make a professor whose internal documents falsified his age multiple times to manipulate the system and extend his years of service, the first emeritus professor at the university.
A former executive secretary of the Nigerian University Commission (NUC), Peter Okebukola, will be named the university’s first emeritus professor of the university’s 25th Convocation ceremony on Thursday.
Plans that the University intended to appoint Mr Okebukola an emeritus professor while being fully employed by the university was made pubic in October 2020. The norm in universities across the world is that meritorious honours such as that of an emeritus professorship are awarded to retired and outstanding professors.
He was nominated for the role in August 2020 by the department for Science and Technology Education because of “his outstanding contribution to the university in general and his extensive research and publication.”
His nomination was backed by a letter by the dean of the Faculty of Education dated September 1, 2020, which referenced Section K of the university’s rule, which states +that “the candidate must have successfully supervised the PhD Thesis of at least five (5) candidates; he must have produced at least a student who had attained Professorial cadre.”
“He must enjoy the overwhelming support from his department; as an ambassador of the University, such candidate should consistently attract funds or grants from which the younger generations would benefit; a certain percentage of the funds which the Emeritus Professor attracted should be given as Honorarium to the Emeritus Professor; he must be a team player and be good at conflict resolution; he must be someone highly respected and with high dignity; scoring template should be developed to accommodate the above criteria; attendance at Senate meetings should not be made mandatory for the Emeritus Professor”.
Mr Okebukola, whose emeritus-status was practically sealed by the immediate past vice-chancellor of the university, Olanrewaju Fagbohun, (who was a protégé of Mr Okebukola, before he left office) at various times presented three different birth dates to the university during his more than 30-year career at the institution, internal LASU documents obtained by the newspaper revealed.
The original birth date he presented when he was first employed was February 17, 1949. He later changed that to February 17, 1948, and February 17, 1951, at different times.
The university management noticed the discrepancy in 2014 but turned a blind eye and was not appropriately punished as stipulated by the university rule. If LASU management had followed its own rule to the letter, Mr Okebukola should have been dismissed immediately the age discrepancies were found out.
Documents obtained by this newspaper showed that on October 2, 2014, Olayinka Amuni – the then deputy registrar (who is now the substantive registrar of the university) – raised the irregularities in Mr Okebukola’s birth dates to the registrar of the university.
Mr Amuni explained that the professor, who was employed in 1984, with the birth date of February 17, 1949, was due for mandatory retirement on February 17, 2014, the day he turned 65.
“Professor P.A.O Okebukola was granted approval for three hundred and thirty-six (336) days deferred leave, which should be utilised as terminal leave preparatory to final retirement from the service of the university,” he wrote in the letter with reference number LASU/ASE/REG/002.
Besides Mr Amuni who raised the concern, the university’s Academic Staff Establishment, the division of the university that oversees matters of staff recruitment, promotion, discipline and welfare, also flagged the discrepancies in Mr Okebukola’s birth dates after he applied for sabbatical leave in July 2014, and consequently refused to approve the leave.
After his request for a sabbatical was declined, Mr Okebukola on December 5, 2015, wrote to the university stating he was prepared to resign.
But on January 18, 2016, less than a month after he expressed his desire to retire, he wrote another letter withdrawing his notice of retirement. He did this five months before the then Lagos governor Akinwunmi Ambode signed the amendment to the LASU law, which extended the retirement age from 65 to 70 in May 2016.
Upon the withdrawal of his notice of retirement, Mr Fagbohun swiftly, quickly approved Mr Okebukola’s February 2016 sabbatical to February 2017. But the directive was again countered by Mr Amuni, who noted that the VC’s approval of Mr Okebukola’s request to withdraw his notice of retirement was out of tune with the university’s law. Mr Amuni said this in a letter dated February 9, 2016, describing the approval as an anomaly.
Mr Amuni argued in the letter addressed to the registrar at the time that the subsisting policy of the university under which the sabbatical leave was approved was that “an academic staff who is sixty-five (65) years old shall compulsorily retire on age grounds.”
“In view of the law enacted by the Lagos State House of Assembly establishing the contributory Pension Scheme for Employees in the Public Service of Lagos State and for connected purpose, Professor Okebukola ought to have retired statutorily by the 17th February 2014 on the strength of the first date of birth he presented i.e 17th February 1949,” he wrote.
“In the view of the above background information/irregularities observed, vis-a-vis the positions of regulations, the Registrar may wish to recommend to the vice-chancellor that to redress the anomalies, Professor Okebukola’s sabbatical leave is terminated forthwith and; his letter seeking to withdraw his earlier retirement be discountenanced”, the deputy registrar pointed out then.
How Mr Fagbohun-led management of LASU lied to protect Okebukola
After this newspaper’s exclusive, the Fagbohun-led management of the university released a statement claiming it relied on the date of birth forwarded to it by Mr Okebukola’s former employer, Oyo State College of Education when he was employed by the university.
“Professor Peter Okebukola joined the service of Lagos State University transferring his service from the then Oyo State College of Education, Ilesa and the date of birth on his Record of Service forwarded to the University by his former employer is 17th February 1951. The University is bound to stand by that date because the Record of Service is the officially recognized record of his past service.
“The affirmation of the Date of Birth of Professor Okebukola in the Record of Service forwarded to the University by the Oyo State College of Education, Ilesa confirmed the assertion by Professor Okebukola that he was born on 17th February 1951,” the management of the university stated.
But official documents obtained from the university showed the school management was aware of Mr Okebukola’s multiple birth dates.
The documents also revealed that the university vice-chancellor, Mr Fagbohun, was not only aware of calls by the university’s Academic Staff Establishment division for Mr Okebukola to retire having exceeded his statutory retirement age but also actively prevented the division from ordering him to retire.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
