Less than ten days to end his five-year administration, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Idowu Olayinka has launched a final attempt to ensure his deputy, Prof. Kayode Adebowale succeeds him.
OYOINSIGHT.COM recalls that the festering crisis surrounding the appointment of next UI VC seems to have reached its climax when impeccable sources confirmed that an acting VC “might be appointed to oversee the affairs of the institution.”
This newspaper recalls that the controversy took a vital turn when workers, mostly members of the Senior and Non-Academic Staff, protested the alleged plan by the outgoing VC.
The protest led to the postponement of the announcement of the next Vice-Chancellor after a shortlist of six candidates had earlier been made.
OYOINSIGHT.COM had reported that the congregation election and the election of two members of the joint selection committee was followed by multiple allegations of fraud and lack of transparency.
However, in spite of all the petitions, which informed the decision to suspend the appointment processes, the governing council and the selection committee are determined to go ahead with the process.
The decision to go ahead was contained in a confidential notice memo sent to all the members of the council to reconvene for a meeting on November 25. A copy of this memo was exclusively sighted by OYOINSIGHT.COM.
“A special meeting of the Governing Council of the University of Ibadan eill hold on Wednesday, 25 November 2020 at 10.00 in the Council Chamber. Members are hereby invited as appropriate,” the memo read. A copy of the agenda of the meeting was also sighted by this newspaper.
The agenda of the meeting includes an invitation to the six shortlisted candidates for an interaction with the selection board and an invitation to members of the joint council selection committee the following day.
According to a source, an informal meeting of the institution’s Council was called yesterday to deliberate on the “way forward”. The meeting suspiciously had ” no external member except the Chairman who was in attendance. Two internal members were also absent at the meeting.”
“With 10 days to the end of the tenure of Prof Idowu Olayinka as VC, there is a new move to proceed with the process which has been roundly condemned as fraudulent and set to favour one candidate above the others,” the source.
The source went further,”a meeting of the Council has been released and fixed for November 25 with only one item on agenda: “Update on the appointment of a new Vice Chancellor”
“But the subject is misleading. The activity list attached to the invitation showed that the Council plans to appoint a VC by all means.
This again is the handiwork of Olayinka who is very desperate. The chairman representing Council is yet to have any official notification from either the Ministry of Education or the NUC on pending matters relating to accusations of manipulation in the selection process.”
