UNILAG: Babalakin resigns as visitation panel submits report to FG

Fred Ezeh, Abuja  and Gabriel Dike

Dr. Wale Babalakin, yesterday, resigned as chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

He was said to have dropped his resignation letter which was also copied the Visitor to UNILAG with the education minister.

Babalakin’s media aide, Mr. Mikail Mumuni, said the letter was dated Thursday, September 17, addressed to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu and copied President Buhari.

Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) UNILAG branch, Dr. Dele Ashiru, said his resignation is a welcome development and and individual that is greater the country.

Ashiru thanked President Buhari for saving UNILAG from the recklessness of Babalakin and urged the Federal Government to be thorough when selecting people as Pro-Chancellor and chairman, Governing Council to universities.

His words: “His resignation should not be seen that he leave very inglorious footprint at UNILAG. May his type never come our way again.’

Babalakin’s resignation came  shortly after the Special Visitation Panel set up by the Federal Government to unearth the root cause of the management crisis that rocked the school which led to the untimely dissolution of the Council and the sack of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, submitted its report.

Chairman of the panel, Prof. Tukur Sa’ad, alongside six other members of the panel namely Victor Onuoha, Prof. Ikenna Onyido, Prof. Ekanem Braide, Prof. Adamu K Usman, Chief Jimoh Bankole, and Grace Ekanem, who served as Secretary, submitted the report to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu in Abuja, yesterday.

Prof. Sa’ad told the minister during his remarks that opportunity was provided for all stakeholders in the crisis to say a thing or two regarding the matter, and that was the reason for timely conclusion of the task, though he refused to divulge the content of the report.

He assured the minister that the recommendations would help the Visitor to the University, President Muhammadu Buhari, to take right decisions that would, expectedly, herald durable industrial peace and harmony in the institution.