'Lagos education' It's criminal to manhandle principal officers, Tokunbo Wahab says

Special Adviser to Lagos State Government on Education, Tokunbo Wahab, has revealed the extent to which unions can go in expressing their grievances in schools and the reason behind shortages in applications to Colleges of Education in Lagos State.

In an interview monitored by Freelanews reporter recently, the legal eagle, who spoke on many issues in tertiary institutions, stated that resolving the problems bedeviling education in the state is a top priority for the government.

It was noted that some lecturers are disenfranchised due to the undertone on succession as the tenure of the Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University will expire by January.

Wahab insisted that what is utmost for the government is to maintain peace regardless any ambition.

First, let me say there is no crisis in LASU. Besides, there is nothing that stops people from having ambition, so long as it is within the confines of the enabling law. Prof (Lanre) Fagbohun (LASU Vice-Chancellor) will be leaving by January 11, so it is natural that people will realign forces to be vice chancellor. However, what you can’t take away from him is that he (together with the Governing Council) has brought peace to the campus. The university has had unprecedented back to back convocation for four and half years. Our desire is to maintain that peace.

On the recent altercation between members of the union and some top principal officers of Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, the Lagos SA on Education said that the union’s members went overboard and must be held accountable for their misdeeds.

I’m a stickler for rules, and you have to show me where the law allows the union to beat up top principal officers of the school. I’m a lawyer by profession, so the unions are free to challenge me if my stance is wrong.
The unionists, 24 of them, beat up the Bursar, Registrar and Chief Security Officer (CSO); locked up their offices, pasted obituary of them on campus. As the SAE to the Governor, I have a dual role. I will act as surrogate council first and then take up the report as SAE. I have issued them a query demanding explanation for their actions. However because of the rule of fair hearing, I won’t sit in panel over them. I won’t be a judge in my own case.
To me, what they did was not explainable under any tenet of unionism. The workers were claiming that both the Bursar and Registrar did certain things that were not normal. But is that enough reason for them to take the law into their hands? They are supposed to have reached the government via a petition and we shall draw the attention of the affected principal officers to the allegations. It might interest you to know that we also issued these people (Bursar and Registrar) a query mandating them to respond to the allegations within 24 hours, which they have since done. However, that will not take away the error the unions committed by manhandling top principal officers. That is a criminal case. I won’t take my eyes off that.

On other matters, especially regarding the newly appointed acting rector of the Lagos State Polytechnic, with workers demanding for the release of the White Paper by the visitation panel set up to look into the crisis that rocked the institution for the better part of 2019, Wahab revealed that the state the Lagos State Polytechnic was not satisfactory when the government assumed. The school was shut down for six months and then reopened.

He confirmed that the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, made good of his promise to set up a visitation panel, which has its report ready now. Even though this came late because of the interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Interestingly, the tenure of the outgoing Rector lapsed on the 31st of May. The Law is very clear on this. We must appoint an acting rector, usually for a six-month period. However, the newly appointed acting rector who is currently the most senior of the principal officers has also applied. So, logically, we made him Ag. Rector for a period of three months instead of six months – because we want to give everybody a level-playing field.
We have shortlisted 17 people for the rectorship. As a government, we will play our own part dispassionately.

The Special Adviser on Education also revealed in the chat that after the demise of immediate past provost of Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED), a lot of financial holes were discovered. This was the cause of agitation by the workers over unpaid arrears.

“On appointment of another provost,” he said, “the state had to give them a bailout fund in hundreds of millions to clear arrears that were owed.”

When he was informed that the unions have described the bailout as a drop in the ocean, he opined;

Unions are like that; they will continue to crave for more. They have to look inwards and find ways to make that place viable, so that more people will apply there as students.
We have given both of them the option of looking at universities they can partner with which will make them viable. MOCPED is for primary education, while AOCOED is for secondary. They need to look at a bigger picture. Lots of jobs will become redundant. The government will keep funding them to meet up their personnel, but while we do that, they must also make up for research and other things. I’m happy both of them now have affiliations with universities and changing the narratives.