Lagos House passes vote of no confidence on LASU VC
By Olasunkomi Akoni & Gbenga Akanmu
Lagos State House of Assembly, yesterday, after a long deliberation passed a vote of no confidence on the Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University, LASU, Prof. Lateef Hussain, and called on the visitor to the institution, Governor Babatunde Fashola, to immediately put the machinery in motion for his removal.
According to the Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, “from all that the House gathered at the hearing yesterday, it became very clear to us that since the present Vice Chancellor, Prof. Hussain took over the mantle of leadership, a lot has happened.
“It is clear to us that after his initial success, the rest of his administration has been characterised by falling academic standard, decaying infrastructure, poor human and material resources management, administrative ineptitude, poor human relations and victimisa-tion in various forms leading to exodus of committed members of staff, especially the academic staff.”
He stressed that the House has continuously and consistently intervened in the crisis engulfing the institution over a period making several recommendations, which the VC has neglected to the detriment of a sound academic environment.
He said: “The House at its executive session this morning decided to pass a vote of no confidence on the VC, Prof. Hussain; the house also decided to call on the visitor, His Excellency Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Governor of Lagos State to put in motion necessary machinery for the removal of the Vice Chancellor immediately.
“The House also decided to call on the visitor to please put in place immediately machinery to address the requirement for re-accreditation of the courses that have been denied accreditation and also to ensure no other course is denied accreditation in the future.”
Remedies
He also explained that the lawmakers are talking about putting in place all that is necessary to have the infrastructure and the required academic staff for the re-accreditation of the denied courses. He added, “That is the brief of the decision taken by this House at the Executive session.”
Ikuforiji however, put the decision to vote on the floor and all the members present at the day’s sitting voted in favour of it.
It will be recalled that the lawmakers some weeks back summoned the institution’s management, Deans of Faculties that were affected by NUC’s denial of accreditation and ASUU’s representatives to ascertain the reason for the development.
He explained that he had on several occasions in the past intervened in LASU’s crisis to ensure that the institution gets all its needs. He said he was disappointed that despite giving the Vice Chancellor a soft landing, he had refused to adhere to the advice of the lawmakers.
