.

ASUU and Its Worrisome Contributions To The Collapse of The Nigerian Educational Sector.


Gone are those days when the Academic Staff Union of Universities used to be a platform to push for development in the educational sector. The days of sincere unionism, driven public interest and principled leadership have now made way for cheap blackmail, tissue of lies, evil and desperation driven a gang of morally bankrupt 'comrades'.

Recent events at the Lagos State University are quite disturbing. Some months ago, fifteen academic staff of the Lagos State University were dismissed by the institution's governing council for proven allegations ranging from extortion of students to alteration of student results. This action of the university authority was greeted with applauds from the general public.

Unfortunately, instead of admitting its own shortcomings and sanitizing its ranks, the Executives of the University's ASUU branch have rather chosen to toe a failed path by circulating lies and promoting falsehood. All these in a bid to blackmail the university vice chancellor; and paint a disciplinary process that followed all laid down procedures as "victimization". The Governing Council, which is the highest decision making body of the university earned a darling status from ASUU - LASU Executives a year ago for the rightful demotion of some staff but suddenly became irritating to this same crop of unionists following another rightful dismissal of erring staff (two of which used to be members of ASUU-LASU excos whose allegations against them have even been substantiated by their own students)!

I was on vanguard news page some hours ago and the statement from the ASUU Lagos Zonal leadership made me weep for Nigeria. If ASUU - LASU excos, its accomplices at the zonal and perhaps national level are shying away from hard facts and reality, on what moral grounds do they now hold the Nigerian government to accountability when its own house stinks? Of what essence is a union that frustrates processes that will bring transparency and development to the Nigerian educational system and ensure university students have a better future?

The founding fathers of ASUU who toiled to institutionalize the association in Nigeria will never forgive this crop of blackmailers and stained 'comrades' presently leading the union if they fail to retrace their steps.

Moshood Success writes from Abeokuta, Nigeria.

babmal:
Honestly i wonder too...20 years....That guy is btw 28 and 32.With this semi bald head am seeing

Haba. He is even yet to clock 21. I know him personally. People age differently. I already got beards when I was in SS1 and he is yet to have as a final year student.The balding hair is as a result of carving

Ogashub:
Abeg this bros is 26

Lol. He may look older in the pictures but I know him personally in LASU(they call him Ambode of LASU). He is just 20 to be honest. You can look him up on Facebook.

makky555:
The last time i represented Nigeria in the Olympics...i dinor comman be shouting it oo

I don't like showing myself too much dahz why

Lol. You wish. Were you a runner or a jumper?

Olabodedennis:
nice one
But he looks older than his age

Lol. He even looks younger than 20. He got no beards yet self(which 16-17 boys already got). You can follow him on Facebook or here on nairaland.

I'm just proud he is making the country proud abroad while still schooling in a local state university.

Pelumi and the U.S Youth Observer to the United Nations - Munira Khalif who is also a student at Harvard University.

Cc

olawalebabs, Fynestboi, Richiez Lalasticlala

With a Nigerian staff at the World Bank

Pelumi in a group photograph with the President of the World Bank

More

Photo credits : facebook.come/olugbenga.pelumi

Straight to FP. Lalasticlala . Let's celebrate our own.

20-Year Old LASU Student Represents Africa At World Bank Youth Summit, Meets World Bank President.



There is no doubt that the future of Africa belongs to the youths and one of those who are pushing for that great future is a university student in Lagos named Pelumi Olugbenga. Pelumi who is one of the youngest ever minds to be selected for the annual Summit by the World Bank Group represented the voice of African youths at the just concluded World Bank Youth Summit for Innovation and Technology that held at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC, United States of America. The 400-level LASU student engaged the international community on the challenge of brain drain in Africa and why Africa must start its growth towards sustainable development with what it presently has. Pelumi who is the Country Manager of NIGUSACO, a nonprofit organization based in Georgia, United States as well as the Founder of Save The Future Project explained why investment in quality education will be a driving force for innovation and technological development in Nigeria and Africa. The LASU student of History and International Studies was part of an interactive session with the World Bank President - Jim Yong Kim in the course of Summit. The President of the World Bank commended the youths present at the Summit. He declared that he was quite impressed with the quality of their applications which gave the World Bank some hard time in selecting the best out of the very best. According to the World Bank, over 2,800 young people across 140 countries applied to attend the Summit and only exceptional applicants were selected.

Pelumi is also said to have met with members of the Nigerian community at the World Bank.

This is not the first time Pelumi will be representing Africa on the global stage. He recently completed a Fellowship Programme at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as well as a selected Delegate for the Commonwealth Youth Summit that held in Malaysia some weeks ago.

He is here on nairaland as @AmbodOfLASU

Let's celebrate this great ambassador of Africa.

ehemwhy:
Lasu and wahala ...took me 7 years to collect my result ...i thank God for his mercies I was able to get a good offer ...but there are still others who graduated in 2007 like me and are yet to graduate ....how many lecturers should we name ....Abiola...alhaja ...ojo ....Yussuf ....dem plenty God will judge all of them

My brother, you owe your country and certificate a duty. You also should join the revolution train by exposing these people. You can substantiate the sack of the corrupt lecturers by sharing and circulating your own narrative.

Nigeria must be greater than it is!

H8ta:
Jesus, and I'm an aspirant

LASU is now greatly better. All these stories are what happened years ago. But the current VC(Professor Fagbohun) in LASU is trying all what is possible to change the story of the university and he is achieving great results. Mind you, the results issues lie with part time students - not full time students(which you are aspiring to be). In fact, the VC already scrapped the part time programme that was plagued with all these unpleasant stories.


LASU is presently rated the best state university in the country and boast of the best law faculty and college of medicine.

dammywapes:
Thank God LASU did not offer me admission back then

LASU is now very great and better now. They've rebranded the university and the bad eggs in the system are being flushed out.

Kingjags:
Internal strike loading

Internal strike can never happen over this. They did not lie against them now. They are guilty as charged.

Homeboiy:
Too long

Iam hungry

Lol. It's very insightful. Try to read it.

maxti:
Ghost Petition Indeed!

Don't mind them. Many Unionists in Nigeria are not sincere. You sit on the same seat with your accuser in Panel and you come out to lie to the media that he is a "Ghost Petitioner" all because you want to blackmail the university VC into dropping the charges against you.

This is pure wickedness! Some of these Lecturers are heartless. Read the story from beginning to the end.



Cc

Fynestboi, Lalasticlala, Ishilove, Olawalebabs Richiez

Seun

Like a season movie that is yet to climax, the last seems not to have been heard of the sacking of 15 lecturers, two non-academic staff and the demotion of two others by the Governing Council of the Lagos State University, as more facts have continued to emerge about the issue.

One of the sacked lecturers, Dr. Isaac Oyewunmi, who was the branch chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in LASU, said recently that the allegations against him were mere victimisation and that it was “shameful” that LASU relied on “ghost petition” to sack him.

He had said, “If you can even prove that I demanded some amount of money from those students, nothing more than that, and some people actually collected money, it is politics of activism and we are used to it. But it is actually shameful.

“When you have incidents of a ghost petition and then you use the evidence of a third party to rubbish the career of another – well, it’s interesting; we are enjoying it honestly.”

But, as it turns out, the person who wrote the petition against Oyewunmi has come out to state his side of the story. In an exclusive interview with our correspondent earlier in the week, the petitioner, Mr. Alabi Abiodun, an ex-student of LASU, revealed how the sacked lecturer allegedly delayed the processing of the result of seven students of the (2007) set for six years because they refused to pay the N50,000 bribes he allegedly demanded from each of them.

In the course of the delay, Alabi said he lost two job offers because his result was not ready and that it took the intervention of the former governor of the state, Babatunde Fashola, to get their results.

In a narrative that turned out to be very interesting, Alabi said he gained admission into LASU in 2003 to study Political Science under the sandwich programme. It was a three-year course, but due to strike actions along the line, he graduated in 2007, instead of 2006. He noted that his experience while the programme lasted was sweet and productive.

But after graduation, that sweet experience was soon replaced with frustration, Alabi said.

He continued, “At the end of the programme in 2007, we were made to know that Dr. Isaac Oyewunmi would be the one to coordinate and process our result for onward submission, as he performed that responsibility for the entire department. We were optimistic that in no time, our results would be ready, more so that we were just seven in the class.”

Alabi noted that most of them sponsored themselves to school and so they could not wait to lay their hands on their result to start looking for job and earn better living. But throughout that year, there was no update about the result.

“By 2008, we discovered that nothing was happening as regards our result, so we approached Dr. Oyewunmi again. He said yes, he wanted to help us but that he had been using his money to make photocopies of the result, which had been delaying the work.

“On hearing that, I told my colleagues to let us motivate him and speed things up. We contributed among ourselves and gave him N10,000, even though he didn’t ask for it. We just wanted to facilitate the process and maybe that was our undoing. When we gave him the money, we then assumed that things would be faster. But sadly, that was the beginning of a torturous journey.”

Throughout 2008, 2009 and 2010; making three years after graduation, there was no update about their result. Even though they kept meeting Oyewunmi to know the update about their result, Alabi said he kept promising them he would do it and at the graduation every year, Alabi said he would always dress up like one of the graduates but would always come back deflated.

Apart from holding them to ransom, Alabi said the delay cost him two job opportunities. “In 2009, I got a job offer from the Federal Government but I lost it because I didn’t have a result to present; same thing in 2010 when I got another offer from the Lagos State government and I lost it because of no result,” he added.






When the delay became costly to bear, Alabi said himself and his colleagues went to meet the lecturer to know what was happening and that to their greatest dismay, Oyewunmi said he could not lay his hands on the result.

He said, “There was a heavy rain that period; such that it rained for about 16 hours in Lagos. Dr. Oyewunmi told us that after the rain, he could not find our result.

“On the day we agreed to meet him, before I got there, he called the two people that first got there and took them to the tree beside the three-in-one building very close to sandwich building. He told them the rain swept away our results but that he would help us out. He said each of us should pay N50,000 if we really wanted to get our result.

“When I got there and I was told, I went to his office to ask if what they said was true and he told me that each of us should pay N50,000 before we could get our result. I’m not the type to buy result, so I told my colleagues we won’t do that and we all agreed because even in our four years, I never paid any lecturer.”

Alabi, who was sponsoring himself, explained that even if he was to raise the N50,000, he would have to work for three months without eating. “We agreed not to pay,” he added.

Dazed by the delay and the unfolding drama, Alabi said he ran to one of his lecturers named Dr. Muda, who expressed shock over the report. He said the lecturer took him to the Acting Director of Sandwich Programme, Dr. MOB Mohammed, who was equally shocked by the report.

“That day, I cried because the trouble was becoming too much and then felt suddenly helpless. Why did I go to school if I had nothing to show for it. We all know the rate of unemployment in Nigeria, so when you lose two job offers, you can imagine how it feels.”

Based on the promise by the acting director that something would be done about the result, during the next convocation in 2010, Alabi said he was prepared for the programme as one of the graduands but on getting to school, he found out his name and those of his colleagues were not included. Thus, he went back home deflated.

In fact, instead of doing the needful, Alabi alleged that Oyewunmi started using an agent in the person of one of the students in the department, known as Alhaji, who gained admission the same year Alabi graduated. “Alhaji was the one encouraging us to pay the money, in accordance with what Dr. Oyewunmi had said,” he said.

In 2011, four years after graduation, Alabi took the bull by the horn when he attended the convocation of that year and found that their names were not in the programme.

He said, “Former governor Babatunde Fashola was the visitor to the school, so I got a bulletin where his name and number was. At that point, I couldn’t bear it again. After the programme, I sent a ‘SOS’ message to the governor and I titled the text message ‘LASU result only worth N50,000’. I appealed to him to save us from Dr. Isaac Oyewunmi, through his agent, Alhaji, so that they could release our result.

“As it turned out, when Fashola received that message, he forwarded it to the then VC, Prof. Obafunwa, who couldn’t hesitate, given where the message came from. The VC called the Director of External Programmes, Dr. Abanikonda, who also called Dr. Muda, whom I had reported to earlier.

“That was how investigation into the matter began. At a point, the VC (Obafunwa) called me into his office and asked if I could repeat the allegations in front of the lecturers and I told him I was ready. I didn’t have any reason to lie, not to even talk of destroying another man’s career. I wouldn’t do that. I learnt the VC ordered that our results should be retrieved from him and released as soon as possible. But the damage had been done.”

Asked why he didn’t take other steps to put pressure on the lecturer, as six years appears a long time, Alabi said they never knew it could take that long, as they renewed their hope of graduating every year. “Initially, we didn’t see the need to petition
the authorities until it dawned on us and I had to involve the governor,” he said.

Overall, Alabi said he and his colleagues spent 10 years to get their first degree, as their result was eventually released in 2013 when all the joy of being a graduate had already faded out. But that didn’t seem to be the end to the drama. Alabi said in 2015, he started receiving threats as some unknown persons were visiting where he was living, telling people to warn him to desist from trying to report or implicate their boss/lecturer.

He said, “When it got to a level, I wrote LASU, notifying the authorities of the threat. And I also told them that it was because nothing was done about it that was why people could still be threatening me on his behalf. I asked the management that if someone sat on my result for six years, should threats be the next line of action?

“They acknowledged the receipt of the letter and they set up a panel. They invited me and I went there to state my side of the story. I appeared before the panel about five times, and each of those times, I used to sit beside Dr. Oyewunmi in front of the panel.

“With the things going on in LASU now, I know they would be going about, making concocted report of what did not happen and that is why I like to talk about it. I decided to say my own story for the entire world to hear and put things in perspective, without bias.

“I’m not judging him, but what he did was a violation of our rights for him as the coordinator of our results to make a demand. It is also against the teaching etiquette for a teacher to give the result of other students to somebody else to prepare, especially when the person is also a student of the same institution.”

While there have been accusations that Oyewunmi was sacked based on his union activities as ASUU chairman in LASU, given the reported disagreement between the management and the union, Alabi, while thanking the management, his “wonderful lecturers” and his colleagues for their cooperation, stressed that people should separate the individual from the union.

He said, “Was LASU branch of ASUU on trial? No. Was it LASU branch of ASUU that delayed our result? No; it was Dr. Oyewunmi. If the authorities of the school, in their own wisdom, feel that dismissing him is the best judgment for him, so be it. Whoever that wants to be the sympathiser of Oyewunmi should separate ASUU from his person. Let us judge the matter on the basis of merit, not with bias.”

Specifically, ASUU, Lagos Zone, had claimed that the exercise by the management of LASU was to implicate the leadership of the union in the school, but Alabi insisted that anyone with conscience should put his children in their shoes.

“They should imagine that a child whose fees they are paying should finish school and would not get result for six years, not to talk of people who sponsored themselves. I sponsored myself. My parents are very rich, on the other side; likewise some of us. So, you can understand our pain,” he added.

Quoting Revelation 22 to stress that Oyewunmi would get the reward of what he did to them, Alabi added that if he had got those jobs he was offered, his life would have been better than what it is at the moment.


Oyewunmi, in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Friday, said, “The gentleman said he was admitted in 2003 when I was not even a member of staff.

“I joined LASU in 2004. If he was admitted in 2003, he was supposed to graduate in 2007, whereas I became the subject coordinator for the political science education students in 2011. And 2007 to 2011 would give us about four years, yet, I was the one who delayed his graduation all this while.

“The point is that there is this systemic problem in LASU and not until we come to stand up to our shortcomings collectively and not use anybody as a scapegoat, we won’t be moving forward.

“There is no substance in all of these and if the school finds it difficult to reverse itself, the court of law in some days from now would look at it and we are very sure we would be victorious.”

On September 8, 2017, the institution had said that the sacking of the staff members was due to different acts of misconduct and that there was thorough investigation of specific documented allegations of misconduct levelled against them.

The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Olanrewaju Fagbohun, had also said at a press briefing on Monday that the decision was part of efforts to sanitise the system and that it was not in any way politically motivated.

Copyright PUNCH


http://punchng.com/for-six-years-sacked-lasu-lecturer-delayed-our-results-for-not-paying-n50000-bribe-alabi-ex-student/

tolexy123:
I learnt this while travelling from Amsterdam last month

What's the panacea? Swallowing of saliva does not really work when landing.

tolexy123:
Dont forget to add earpiece while taking off and landing. It can make you go deaf due to rapid change in air pressure

As in

Some weeks ago, I was traveling from Canada and when we got close to Lagos, it was as if my ears were going to fall off. I had headsets on for most part of the flight but once the air pressure changed, I didn't know whether to use headset or not. It was very aching.

jamace:
Great!

Sad that our citadel of learning turned to citadel of corruption.

Well done, VC.

Buhari should take note of that VC because he is a Minister for Education material.

The students have the greatest role to play. Why should you feel threatened by a Lecturer that extorts money from students?

If today, all Nigerian students rise up and start exposing corrupt lecturers in their schools, I bet you it will end in a year. Corruption and evil thrives when we keep quiet.

Even ASUU has a role to play as well. They should not shield anybody or put up the crocodile tears of "they are victimizing us". If they continue this way, then they are a big problem in the educational sector.

NoToPile:



False false and false.

Its one thing to upgrade and alter a stidents result to a 2.0. and its another thing for you to earn enough marks to get a first class. You have to be exteemely good to get that first class it can't be bought that's just the truth.


Even when Lasu was far more corrupt back then you can't bribe or sleep your way to a first class even a 2.1.


They will soon chase the VC prof Fagbohun like they did to prof Hussein that's the only bad side in all these. Prof Hussein did a lot of cleansing in Lasu just like this and last last they flushed him out, though they later regretted sha.


Proudly Lasu alumni

Yes. LASU needs more cleansing.

They cannot blackmail the current VC. He is very principled and has a high level of integrity. Do you how ASUU has tried to wrestle him down in past months but they failed? They started cooking up exagerrated claims just to create crisis but the university managed it well.

People in LASU are wiser now. If ASUU and their cohorts try to create any crisis with this, then they will end up in greater shame. The university students, majority of the staff and even members of the ALUMNI are ready for them. Let them just make a stupid move and see the power of the people.

Haba! These people have held that university back for too long. How will a whole Acting H.O.D and ASUU - LASU Vice Chair turn himself to the university senate and go ahead to alter several results of students that have been withdrawn from the school? Nobody is untouchable! It's unfair for other students to read hard while someone sit somewhere to alter results because he was paid and he is the Vice Chairman of ASUU-LASU.

BlueRayDick:
All these bloggers! Damn! See how u guys are sharing people's facebook posts anyhow and making them open for victimization

No one can victimize anybody for saying the truth. If students continue to fear their lecturers because they are part of ASUU Executives, then when will we grow as a country?

I was even told by a student in University of Ibadan, that what they do in ASUU - LASU(using union to extort money from students as well as blackmail people) is also obtainable in ASUU - U.I, is it fair?

Produke:
These are the idiots that want FG largesse in the name of building suitable academic environment.

ASUU is not a bad union. It's just the bad eggs among them like the ones in the LASU branch. Many of them use the union as a shield to perpetrate various atrocities. That's why you see them blackmailing. It's not all the time ASUU cry that they are crying for the people. Many a times, they are doing so for their private pockets and devilish interest. Do you know how the ASUU-LASU chairman and his boys brought up false allegations against LASU VC all to put him under pressure to drop the charges against them?

I don't blame ASUU anyway, I blame those that vote and support pseudo comrades.

DISMISSAL OF DRs OYEWUNMI, SUENU AND 13 OTHER LASU LECTURERS - A BOLD STEP FOR NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES TO EMULATE.


It is widely believed that progress and development are impossible without change. More importantly, these changes are direly needed when a system has been held back by a few mischievous fellows renowned for their illegalities. For the uninitiated, members of the Lagos State University Community and the world at large,yesterday; Friday,8th of september, 2017 woke up to the news of the dismissal of fifteen lecturers from the Lagos State University. Noticeable among these lecturers is Dr Oyewunmi ; "ASUU chair" and Dr Suenu Adebowale ; "ASUU Vice Chair". The established allegations against these two did not come up overnight. It is a snowball of illegalities, malpractices and grievous offences that draw back to years before now. For Oyewunmi, his intolerable crime draws back to 2013 when he held students to ransome as a staff in the LASU external system. Oyewunmi was revered for his track records of mindblowing extortion of money from students, all under the guise of helping them to graduate. Evil can not last forever, if at all it fortunately survives too long. Oyewunmi eventually bit more than he could chew when he told the students involved at the LASU external system that they should each contribute a sum of #50,000 if they want him to "process their results which has been swept away by rain". This will go on to hunt him later, more shamefully as an ASUU - Chairman.

For Suenu Adebowale Adeyemi, it was a time bomb that was bound to explode. Adeyemi Suenu until his dismissal was the Acting Head of Department, History and International Studies as well as the Vice Chairman of ASUU - LASU. Suenu was established to have altered the results of several students as Head of Department. Many of these students had already been withdrawn by the university senate. Suenu threw caution and morality to the dogs when he abused his privilege as a H.O.D by using his "window on LASU student results website" to carry out shocking alterations that illegally upgraded students that on normal grounds have no business in the university. More shockingly, extra year students were turned overnight graduates by this same "ASUU - VICE CHAIR" when he singlehandedly upgraded and cleared the results of these straggling students. One would ask : IS THE DISMISSED ASUU VICE CHAIRMAN running a parallel university senate?

Unsurprisingly, many LASU students have taken to the social media to applaud the university authorities while urging them to prosecute other bad eggs in the system. Their message shows frustration and relief. Their hardwork must start paying off. "Enough of illegalities, how will we read and one H.O.D because he is the vice chairman of ASUU upgrade other people's results because they paid him to do so? They should throw out the remaining ones", wrote a student on the social media.

In all of these, ASUU is not culpable. It is just unfortunate for ASUU that serial opportunists, blackmailers, evil geniuses and psedo-comrades led this great union for just too long. This explains why the now dismissed self glorified warlords tried(albeit in futility) to use the union as a tool to blackmail the university Vice Chancellor - Professor Olanrewaju Adigun Fagbohun towards dropping the heavy charges against them. In different press statements, ASUU had thrown up several concocted and exaggerated claims against the vice chancellor. In search of anything to use against the VC, they brought up the issue of single term tenure for other principal officers which is obviously beyond the powers of a vice chancellor but Oyewunmi and his ASUU-LASU's desperation to drag the LASU VC to the mud only lightened up their(ASUU-LASU) infamy and ignonimy. They attempted to wrestle down the VC alongside some other targetted fellows. But as nature would always have it, the truth will always defeat falsehood - even if it suffers blackmail for a while.



ASUU is a great union that has contributed immensely to the growth of education in Nigeria and its sacredness should no longer be raped by desperadoes who use it as a smokescreen to perpetrate various illegalities and evil. On this note, true and principled comrades should rescue the union from the claws of evil and set it on course for progressive unionism.


Above all, this is a victory for LASU and those who have strived for its progress. Academic staff like Bola Ademeso(another dismissed Lecturer) should be occupied with groundbreaking research and not sexual harassments of female students, extortion of money from male students and ultimately : illegal alterations of student results. Non-academic staff don't enjoy many of the privileges their academic counterpart enjoy. Yet, many of these PhD holders still get students to bed instead of to the zenith of their career.

To the university management led by Professor Fagbohun,let there continue to be fairness and justice in all the operations and dealings of the university. The peace in the university is enjoyable and it is in the interest of all that it continues this way. The university authorities must remain focused and committed to due process, transparency, inclusion and all members of LASU community will have more reasons to be happy.

We are LASU...........

"JUSTICE FALL ON THEM"

Cc
Lalalsticlala Fynetboi olawalebabs Richiez Seun


Good morning

Redoil:
Lasu is so bad in the practice that first class is always awarded to the richest money bag

This is totally false. It does not represent the present reality in the school. LASU is not known to churn out first class anyhow. Check their convocation list.

In fact, the rightful dismissal of the corrupt "big fishes' has made other lectures to sit very tight. It's either you stay clean or get booted out now.

If they can dismiss a whole ASUU-LASU Chair and his Vice for extortion of money and alteration of results, now tell me the Lecturer that won't sit tight?

I'm in support of LASU over this. Other universities should follow suit. There are too many rot in our education system and most of those culpable are the big names. It's very sad.

Lalasticlala , don't you think all Nigerian students should start calling out the corrupt lecturers in their various departments and faculties?