By Dapo Akinrefon

The face-off between the staff unions and Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University, LASU, Professor John Obafunwa, has left the institution grounded.   In this interview, Obafunwa traces the origin of the crisis and says it is time the state government intervenes in the crisis.

Prof Obafunwa

How did the LASU management’s problem with the staff unions start?

It all started on March 16, when some of the union members were asking for one thing or the other and we had series of meetings with them. In fact, the week preceding March 16, we met with SSANU and NASU a couple of times. On March16, we were supposed to continue with the graduation programme.

I can tell you that, before this administration came in, LASU had no graduation for about five years. We came in November 2011 and we had graduation in 2012, 2014 but the one for  this year, if we had had it, it would have been four ceremonious graduation back-to-back.   We have had four matriculation ceremonies back-to-back.

We have moved away from a situation where results were being withheld, those things are strange to me and these are the things we have had to deal with.

People talk about the University of Ilorin having stable calendar, why can’t we do it? These are the things that make a university.

There are certain things I know which I would not want to touch on right now but in a situation where people were engaged in selling marks or modifying results, we have clamped down on all these things.

Is it that some people in the system are against the change you were trying to effect?

Of course. What we are dealing with in LASU is a multifaceted thing. We had those who are opposed to the system. If you start asking people to present their O’Level results, you don’t expect them to be happy. I had to present mine. You cannot build on nothing. We are talking about admission racketeering and some other things.

What about the demand for salary arrears?

LASU has always paid salaries, LASU is not owing the staff. Meanwhile, you have universities in this country today owing up to five months salaries and the staff have not gone on the rampage. The universities have not shut down, the staff are still doing what they are supposed to do. I can also tell you that LASU are better paid than those of federal universities. The professor in LASU, the salary is higher than the professor in UNILAG.

The LASU staff asked for some money to be paid based on certain agreement with the Federal Government, let us even forget about the fact that it is a state university.

It has to do with salary increase arrears. It is like you are paying me N10 per month and you say that, with effect from this June, you will start paying me N15; the extra N5, we are going to back date it by about 18 months. The government made it clear to the university at that time, in 2010, that the university would pay the arrears. It would have nothing to do with it.

The university said it would pay the money; out of the 18 months arrears, the management at that time paid one month. All the said time I was in the College of Medicine; I was not a beneficiary of the payment. The management didn’t pay anything after that. It dragged on till I became VC in November 2011.

I now inherited the backlog which was N2.2billion,don’t forget that the National Universities Commission had said we should scrap external campuses,they only granted us the relief to graduate those within the system without admitting anybody into the programme.

NUC, again, said we should shut down LASU Foundation because of certain irregularities. So, I came into a situation where there were dwindling resources. The question was: How do I raise N2.2 billion! We invited the union executives at that time, there was a level of understanding and I promised to go to the state government to seek assistance. In fairness to the government of Fashola, they came to my aid by promising to pay 50 per cent of the arrears, we even signed an MOU to that effect. We said we would find a way to pay the remaining 50 per cent from the inside. At the time I came in,they had just increased the school fees because that was the first crisis I had to deal with.

Our monthly subvention, when I first came in, was N350 million per month. I made an appeal and we got an increase of N395m by 2013. The salaries in LASU amounts to betweenN430million and N440m a month, so we had to augment that salary with aboutN30 to N40m every month. That has nothing to do with running costs. So, we had to be prudent with money.

We agreed to pay instalmentally. Of our N1.1billion, we paid 20 per cent of the arrears, we saved some money and, few months later, we paid another 20per cent. We started saving hoping to pay another 20 per cent but government said school fees was to go back to N25,000.

There is something I would like to say here and that is that some of these unions were in the forefront of inciting the students against government that the school fees must come down. After reducing the school fees, the unions still want arrears and not just that,they want some more money to be paid again.

Now, instead of paying 20 per cent when school fees were crashed, we were able to pay 15 per cent. The resultant effect was that out of the N1.1billion, we have paid N605m, we were left with N495m. Government finally paid its own share ofN1.1billion, don’t forget, it was this same administration that begged government to assist us. So, when you look at the whole thing, out of the N2.2 billion, this administration and government have paid 77.5 per cent, leaving N495 million to be paid. Then, the union members said that the money must be paid or there will be chaos, but we told them the university tried to resuscitate some programmes so that we could use that to raise money.

They were not too keen in that. Anyway, we told them to hold and we thought we had an agreement. Suddenly, March 16, the unions went on rampage, pelting the management with sachets of water, stones and what have you. I have not entered that campus since March 16.

We met in Government House on March 17, but all of a sudden, one of the unions brought out its underlining agenda that the VC must go.

If you look at the history of LASU, all the former VCs, except one were chased out.

Do you see politics in all of these?

A little bit of politics. Before the elections, we were aware of the fact that one of the political parties was trying to cause disruptions in LASU and make it look as if government was not able to run the university.

The rest is history but, like I said, the problem has many angles. There is the issue of party,there is the issue of finances, people feeling that all the avenues through which they have been making money in the past were being blocked.

People, who had certain allegiances were bent on edging the administration out. We are aware of those things. They are playing a role. Perhaps, it is time for government to come out and take a position.

There were attempts to drag in the students. In fact, I recall they had a congress at one point where they passed a vote of confidence   in the VC.

While it is true that we have reopened the university,management has not been allowed into the place. If you go to the campus, you will see vehicles used to barricade the driveway into blocks One and Two.

You will see fetish things deposited at the entrance of the VC’s building. The state government is aware of all these things, likewise security agencies. What bothers me is the physical assault.

In the heat of what happened on March 16, I got a phone call that some people were being imported to come in and that I should leave, that was when I decided to leave.

What is the way forward?

There is a big problem and if we want that university to progress, something needs to be done.

The Governing Council, the acting Pro-Chancellor had series of meetings with   the unions and the management. A communique was prepared. The unions were asked to react to it. Initially nobody did, but at some point, only NASU did; later on, SSANU and NAAT did and it was not until recently that ASUU did.

I am told that some of the unions have dropped the agenda being pursued by some people,that the VC must go. One of the unions is still insisting on that obviously for personal reasons. That is why I said that the state government must be decisive.