Gbenro Adesina
Following petitions raising allegations against the recent election of two members of Senate to represent it on the Joint Council/Senate Selection Board for the appointment of the 13th Vice-Chancellor, the authority of the University of Ibadan (UI) has summoned emergency Senate meeting to determine the merit of the petitions.
The Senate Meeting scheduled to hold on Thursday October 8, 2020, is in full compliance with the directive of the institution’s Governing Council, which upon the receipt of petitions against the election from two senior academic staff referred the matter to the Institution’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka, with a mandate that Senate must be convoked to deal with the petitions and get report back to it.
It would be recalled that Council received petitions from two out of the nine candidates that were on the ballot for the election held on September 21, 2020.
The persons involved are the immediate past Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Professor Ademola DaSylva of the Department of English and Professor Adesoji Fasanmade of the Department of Physiology. Their petitions have since gone viral on the social media.
However, a third candidate in the said Election into the Selection Board, Professor M. K. Akinsola, of the Department of Science and Technology Education, has stated his own views on the matters arising from the said election because the number of votes he scored at the election was made the subject of controversy by Professor DaSylva.
Akinsola, whose response to the petitions filed against the election equally went viral, has since dissociated himself from the petitions by his two fellow contestants, saying that the only authentic result could only be the one announced by the Chief Returning Officer, Mrs Olubunmi Faluyi, the registrar of the institution and Secretary to Senate.
In a chat with the Vice Chancellor of the Premier University, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka, over the weighty allegations levied against the election, he said the school authority decided that such allegations could only be entertained by the Senate.
His words, “Rather than set up an Ad-Hoc Committee whose membership may be contested by some of the aggrieved members of staff, based on wise counsel, we are asking a Committee of the whole to consider the petitions. In essence, an Emergency Meeting of Senate is being convened to look at the facts of the case and make a pronouncement. There is a lot of bad blood generated already but according to a Chinese proverb, when argument boils, the truth evaporates. Senate will look at the issues dispassionately and make a pronouncement one way or the other. The Senate of the University of Ibadan has a track record of asserting its independence in the spirit of its much jealously guarded university autonomy”.
Investigations revealed that both the petitioners and those accused of compromising the election would be appearing before the Senate.
Investigations further revealed that all concerned individuals have submitted reports to registrar, stating their views and positions concerning the election.
Meanwhile, some academic staff, who anonymously spoke with PrimeStarNews on the matter urged the Senate to ensure that the outcome of the meeting be made public.
They held that grievous sanctions should be melted on whosoever found trying to bring the name of the institution to disrepute.
“If the petitions are proven to be correct, the Senate should take decisive step against those who attempted to compromise the sanctity of the election. But if the petitions are found to be false, the petitioners should seriously be sanctioned so as to serve as deterrent for whosoever will want to do such in future. University of Ibadan is bigger than all of us and it should further be established that no one will be allowed to occupy the office of VC in an unquestionable manner”, a Professor said.
