ON a day when some national newspapers
praised two Engineering students of the
Lagos State University (LASU), for
inventing an electronic voting application,
that was successfully used in an election
that produced new Students’ Union
officials, some of their colleagues chose
the otherwise auspicious moment to
unleash terror and disrupt academic
activities, leading to wanton destruction of
properties.
However, the Vice Chancellor, Prof.
Oladapo Obafunwa told ROTIMI
LAWRENCE OYEKANMI at the weekend in
Lagos that contrary to certain allegations
being peddled by some students over
what took place on January 23, the real
intention was to achieve certain
objectives. Excerpts:
YOUR students have adduced two
versions for last Thursday’s violent
protest. One is that, they could not
register for courses because the University
refused to open up the portal. The second
is that the students said the fees charged
by the university are too high. What is the
true position?
You will agree with me that when you
come into any serious academic society,
when you come into a university, apart
from paying your fees, you are supposed
to indicate the courses you’re taking in a
particular semester, and then, you register
for those courses.
And by registering for the courses,
the Heads of Departments would know
how many students are taking a particular
course. They will know how many
students they have to teach, how many
students would be examined, how many
scripts are to be marked and how many
results are to be made available.
While it is imperative for the teaching
staff to address all these issues and make
results available within a specified period,
they can only do this, if the students
themselves register and indicate what
courses they are taking at the right time.
Unfortunately, in LASU (Lagos State
University), we had a situation where
students were not registering for courses.
Only a few used to do that (register for
courses). But then, on the day of the
examination, when the respective Heads of
Departments and lecturers would have
been anticipating that 100 students would
sit for an examination, you could have
500, 1000 students turning up. That had
been the unfortunate thing in LASU.
Then, examinations are taken, and
when the students now get their results
and see which paper they passed or failed,
they would now go and register, in
arrears, for those courses they passed.
They call it ‘add’ and ‘delete.’ So, the
courses that you (student) passed, you
add. The ones that you failed, you delete.
And we said, no, you (students)
cannot do that. You must register for your
courses, so that we’ll know what exactly
you are going to sit for in an examination.
If you fail, tough luck. If you pass,
goodluck.
And I recall that even in the first
semester, apart from the fact that students
had been given several extensions (to
register for courses), they still came and
said, please extend, and the University
reluctantly bent backwards, telling them,
this will be the last time, and that was in
March 2013, when we had to open the
portal again and over 600 students
registered. We said then that ‘this will
never happen again.’
For the second semester, the portal
was opened from the 13th of May to the
24th of May for students to register, and
many of them did. Some students still
came back again, requesting that we
should give them an extension and this
was done for one month, which ended on
the 28th of June. Yet, they (students)
made another demand and the University
granted yet another extension which
ended on the 7th of July.
So, you can see that the University
bent backwards again and again, after
telling them in March, in the first semester,
that this sort of thing would never happen
again. But it shows one thing: insincerity,
lack of discipline and that cannot be
encouraged in any decent society.
If you are given the instructions to do
something, then you have to comply. At
the end of the registration exercise, out of
about 12, 800 students, over 11, 500 had
registered, with about 1, 292 students,
about 10 per cent on the total, who did
not register. And I tell you one thing: even
if you leave the portal open permanently, a
number of these students will never
register. There are those who knew that
they would not pass examinations. There
are those who would not even come for
lectures.
So, the truth of the matter is that,
these people (students that did not
register) were given ample opportunities,
but they never took advantage of it,
because they did not want to do it. And
there should orderliness in any society.
What happened on that day (January
23) went beyond the issue of portal or no
portal. You will notice that some students
were even trying to bring in the issue of
school fees, which is over two years old.
That (school fees) had been finalized and
decided long ago. So, we understand the
political dimensions to it. It is also a fact
that people from outside joined them
(students) because it was not just a
portion of damage, there was looting as
well. The magnitude of the destruction that
took place tells anybody that it goes
beyond the issue of portal or no portal.
The other thing I need to point out is
this. The students even appealed to the
governing council on this matter, and the
governing council studied the whole thing,
realized that the university management
had bent backwards, even previously, and
this time around, extensions were given
repeatedly and people still did not
register. And governing council rightly felt
that we should not condone indiscipline in
the University. It won’t happen in any
decent society and people need to get the
message.
Even the Students’ Union president, at
the (Lagos State) House of Assembly last
Friday, admitted that.
As part of our preparations for the
examination, the University had to look at
the list of the students we had registered.
We had to prepare what we refer to as
examination dockets, like a pass, which is
a document that is laminated. You have
your name, matriculation number and a
host of things on it, that would allow you
to enter the examination hall. And if you
have to open up the portal every now and
then, you will never be able to properly
organise the examination. That was
another major reason why we said no, you
cannot be making endless requests for
extensions. You have to do what you have
to do at the right time.
How did the crisis unfold on that day
(January 23) and how did you manage to
get out?
I was in the campus as early as
7.30am last Thursday. We anticipated that
there might be an attempt to disrupt the
examination and the Police were brought
in during the early hours. A lot of patrol
vehicles were inside. The DVC (Deputy
Vice Chancellor), Academics and I visited
various (examination) centres. We were at
the Faculty of Management Sciences and
people were being allowed into the
examination hall. In fact, at two locations,
examination had started. Students were
busy writing their examination.
We were at the Faculty of Social
Sciences, examination had started there
too. We went to the MBA hall, students
from Arts were entering. At the Faculty of
Law, students were seated and were about
to start. When we got the Faculty of
Science, examination was in progress.
Some people were loitering, claiming to
have papers later in the day, which was
fine.
So, the DVC (Academics) and I went
back to the office and we had to meet an
accreditation team from the National
Universities Commission (NUC), because
the process for the accreditation of our
School of Transport was commencing. We
finished the meeting and handed over the
NUC team to the Acting Dean of Transport
and that was when we started getting
reports that some people were trying to go
round the halls to disrupt the examination.
Unfortunately, our internal security
men allowed these people to come in.
Why that happened, your guess is as
good as mine. Yes, we had some RRS
(Rapid Response Squad) people around
but I would not want to comment on
whatever mandate they were given, but
naturally, they would not want to actively
engage the students.
The DVC and I went out again went
out to look at places, particularly the
Faculty of Science. A group of people tried
to come and cause disruptions, and I said
to them, sorry, you cannot do this. They
were throwing water sachets and stones,
but they stayed at a distance. I even
called our security marshals to come
around. You would have expected that our
internal security people would have been
there all the while and that some of these
groups would have been rounded up and
handed over to the police, but this never
happened.
We decided to hold meetings with the
deans of various faculties to re-strategise
for the afternoon papers. Some students
actually finished up at some centres, some
were stopped at about the time they were
to submit their papers at other centres due
to the disruption and I think at one other
centre, nothing really happened there.
Some windows were broken. We went
back to the deans in my office to discuss
and it was agreed that they (Deans) were
going to talk to the students. But when
they tried to get out of the Admin Block to
talk to the students, they (Deans) were
attacked and they quickly ran back and the
place was secured. It was then that the
students commenced the damage to
properties.
They did not only damage my Personal
Assistant’s car, they also turned it upside
down. My personal car was completely
wrecked. They destroyed the big chain
used to secure the gates leading to the
Vice Chancellor’s complex, using
sledgehammers, as those who were
outside told me. They ransacked the office
of the Director of Academic Planning, that
of the Centre for Information, Public
Relations and Press, then they went
upstairs, smashing the louvres leading to
the vice chancellor’s office and they tried
to gain entrance into the vice chancellor’s
office.
At that time, we had some
reinforcement but it was only my personal
security detail that was with me in my
office, in addition to the DVC (academics),
dean of students, dean of education, the
representative of the dean of management
sciences, one or two lecturers and some
staff of the VCs office, when these
individuals, possibly cultists mixed with
students, tried to break into the vice
chancellors office, smashing all the
window louvres on both sides, and
attempting to bring down some entrances
not normally used.
And I recall that one of them, upon
drawing aside the window blind and
identifying me, told his collaborators, ‘he
is inside.’ And he (attacker) said:
‘Obafunwa, say your last prayers because
you will not see another sunrise.’ We
heard that they were armed. And after this,
the intensity to gain entrance to where I
was increased. Eventually, a team of
policemen arrived, I think about three or
four of them, apparently they negotiated
their way through and came to my office
and tried to offer some protection.
But the intensity again increased
outside and the students actually brought
down the first steel door toward the
anteroom to the VC’s office. Again, a lot of
looting and damage took place. And it was
when they were about to get to my office
that the police officers decided to act and
tear gas was released. After that, the
police brought in an armoured vehicle and
I was assisted out of the building and
eventually out of the University.
Now, when you put all these together,
it becomes clear that it was not just about
the issue of portal or school fees. Is there
any hidden agenda? Are there some
people who feel that the present
administration has been trying to expose
some activities? Are there some people
who feel threatened by some revelations
that could be made? Is there some other
political interest? There are so many other
considerations. Would anybody want to
see the demise of the Vice Chancellor so
that an end could be put to certain things?
But we thank God. I wish them luck.
You appeared before the Lagos State
House of Assembly last week. What
transpired there?
At the end of the day, it was clear that
nobody was going to tolerate indiscipline.
They (legislators) knew what was
happening and I came out of the house
with the understanding that they fully
appreciate the dimensions. The students
were asked to apologise. Even the
students said whatever they were doing
was hijacked by hoodlums.
Of course, we know that at least two
buses, not the usual blue shuttle buses,
came into the campus from outside.
Security reports showed that while we
were in the Vice Chancellor’s office, two
yellow buses came in with some
individuals inside them. Even the student
leadership admitted that some hoodlums
joined them. We know that some people
invited or imported them. If we didn’t have
a certain template in place already, some
other thing would not have been added to
it.
The legislators agreed that the
University had bent backwards several
times and also in the past. And on the
January 25, they visited the University to
assess the damage. It was very glaring
that the situation was not just a simple
one.
However, they made a request that the
University, for the very last time, should
grant a 48-hour window for people to
register; that it would be the last time and
that it (extension) would never happen
again. Well, that would make it the third
last time.
We are supposed to quickly assess
and quantify the damage, quickly fix all the
things that were damaged, and after that,
reopen the university. Of course, it is also
a question of funding. If the fund is there,
we should be able to do all this within the
next two to three weeks after which we
could reopen.
The unfortunate thing is that the
academic calendar is going to the
disrupted, because after the ASUU strike,
the university called an emergency senate
meeting, again in the interest of the
students, and we took some outstanding
results, so that people could graduate.
Normal graduation would have been in
February. We decided to push it to March,
so that those whose results we took on
January 3 could go for the National Youth
Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. Same for
the students that would be finishing their
examination with the semester ending on
February 28, so that those that passed
would be able to graduate and join the
second batch of the NYSC scheme in
June. We were walking on a very tight
rope, in their interest. But now, with the
disruption, what will happen is that, by the
time they sit for examination and results
are taken, they are not going to meet the
NYSC batch. They have used their own
hands to destroy the whole thing.
Will the University allow those who
destroyed properties on campus go scot-
free?
One of the resolutions of the House of
Assembly is the setting up of a panel that
would look into all these things and
identify who is identifiable. We have
images. We have information and I know
some arrests were made in the early hours
of that day, by our internal security men.
Those people have to be produced. I’m
sure that eventually, the perpetrators will
be identified.
Are you discouraged by what happened,
considering that fact that you could easily
have been seriously harmed?
It’s not just that I could have been
harmed, the motive was to actually
eliminate me. That is the blunt truth. But
God has a way of doing things. Am I
discouraged? No. Will it stop me from
doing what I have to do? No. Do I feel
bad? Yes. I feel bad because, here you are,
trying to project a good image of LASU,
trying to say to the outside world, the
potential employers, that we have a new
breed of students. But unfortunately, some
of the students are still bent on destroying
themselves.
You cannot but feel bad that, despite the
fact that you are trying to do so much,
some people continue to give a negative
picture. Now, how will a potential
philanthropist view LASU, somebody that
may be thinking of putting down money?
Or an organisation that wants to provide a
grant, and you have a university where
you cannot guarantee that the session
would run? You probably want to take
your money elsewhere. Putting all these
things together, I felt very bad, but I am
not discouraged.
Source: Nigeria Guardian
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