By Williams Anuku,Abuja
The Special Presidential Visitation Panel set up by President Muhammadu Buhari on the crisis rocking the University of Lagos (UNILAG) on Thursday formally presented its report to Adamu Adamu, the Minister of Education.
The panel was constituted by the President to look into immediate and remote causes that culminated in the removal of the Vice- Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe.
The Chairman of the panel, Prof Tukur Sa’ad submitted the report on behalf of other members of the Panel.
The panel was given two- weeks time frame to complete its assignment following its inauguration on August 26, 2020.
Adamu, while receiving the report on behalf of Buhari, said: “The visitor of the university, after due consideration of the report, will take a decision on the matter as appropriate in order to restore peace and conducive learning atmosphere in the university of Lagos and the university system as a whole.”
It would be recalled that Prof Ogundipe was removed from office by the Wale Babalakin-led Governing Council over allegations of misappropriation of funds, including other salient misdemeanor.
While the crisis brewed, various stakeholders in the education sector suggested way out of the quagmire, a development that may have necessitated the composition of a special visitation panel by the visitor of the university.
The Minister said the recommendations will enable the visitor to the university take appropriate actions to quell further crisis in the tertiary institution.
“I am very happy to learn that the panel worked very hard during the two weeks given to it in order to arrive at recommendations which I hope will assist the visitor in taking an informed decision to solve the lingering crisis,” he said.
“It is my hope that the panel interacted with all officials and all stakeholders who had something to contribute towards the solution of the crisis in the course of its assignment in order to have a fair balance of issues at hand.
“The visitor of the university, after due consideration of the report, will take a decision on the matter as appropriate in order to restore peace and conducive learning atmosphere in the university of Lagos and the university system as a whole.
“I can assure you that we are for justice whoever it is for or against. This report we are going to subject it to the closest scrutiny. Nobody will despair of justice at hands. This report, I believe, is what we are looking for but we will look at it so closely if there is something we are not looking for we will tell you and we will reject it.”
Chairman of the panel, Professor Sa’ad, was however economical with recommendations contained in the report, but revealed that for over a year, there has been disquiet in the University, mostly between the management, council members and other critical stakeholders.
He said the panel was optimistic that the submitted report will bring an end to the crisis rocking the institution.
“There had been disquiet within the university in the past one year among management, council and some stakeholders, arising from allegations of mismanagement against the management of the university.
“We cannot divulge any content of the report but we are happy that we have completed this work and we hope this special presidential visitation panel would have made some contributions towards resolving the problem in the university of Lagos and towards preventing similar problems in other universities all over the country, ” he stated.
