UNILAG crisis: Another council member resigns

Bayo Adaralegbe, a member of the governing council of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), has joined Wale Babalakin, ex-council chairman, in resignation.

Babalakin had earlier resigned in a letter addressed to Adamu Adamu, minister of education, weeks after he was suspended by the federal government amid the crisis rocking the institution.

On Friday, Adaralegbe, who works at Babalakin’s chambers, also tendered his resignation to the minister, saying his continued stay dishonours the memory of Adeniji Adaralegbe, his late father.

In the letter, Adaralegbe, who is one of the federal government appointees on the council who were staunch supporters of Babalakin, also cited the ex-council chairman’s contributions to the varsity.

“I was inaugurated along with other Federal government appointees on the 6th April 2017. In that period, Dr. Babalakin provided very strong moral leadership as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council. He kept scrupulously to the promise he made at our maiden Council meeting not to bid for, or be awarded contracts from the University,” the letter read.

“He actually did more. By December 2019, he had poured approximately N100 million of his own personal resources on different endeavors in the University. At the time this situation arose, he was in the process of transferring to the University (at no cost to it) 40 hectares of land he owned in Ogudu, Lagos to address its staff housing problems.”

Adaralegbe went ahead to accuse Toyin Ogundipe, the former vice-chancellor removed by the Babalakin-led council, of threatening to beat him up over alleged falsification of interview results.

He also said some persons were politicising his membership, adding that he served with conscience as a son of his father, who he said was an ex-deputy VC at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU).

“They have even turned my position on the Council as propaganda material, claiming that I lied about my state of origin in order to get appointed,” he added.

“My association with Dr. Babalakin since 1991, something that I am incredibly proud of, and which is very common knowledge has also been weaponised by these people.

“Recent developments have, unfortunately, made my continued stay on the Governing Council of the University of Lagos very untenable. I experienced first-hand, the vice-chancellor of a University falsifying interview results for the position of Director of Works. Professor Toyin Ogundipe threatened to beat me up during an interview session for the position of Director of Works because I resisted his attempt to falsify interview results.

“It was also in UNILAG that I experienced a VC attempting to appoint a professor in respect of a discipline that the University did not have a department, did not admit undergraduate or postgraduate students, and through a one-page memorandum to the pro-chancellor that touted the candidate as an ‘agent of change’. This is of course apart from a litany of corrupt practices.

“I consider my continued stay on the governing council of UNILAG, a dishonor and desecration of my late father’s memory, Professor Adeniji Adaralegbe one (if not the very first) of the first set First Class holders of UNN, former deputy vice-chancellor, University of Ife and Special Adviser to Professor Aliu Babatunde Fafunwa, Honourable Minister Federal Ministry of Education.”