UNILAG Crisis: Babalakin resigns as pro-chancellor

The embattled pro-chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, Wale Babalakin, has resigned from the position.

Mr Babalakin’s spokesman, Mikail Mumini, who confirmed the development to PREMIUM TIMES, said his boss submitted the letter to the education minister in Abuja, today.

“Yes, it is true. He did in Abuja today. That is the nature of the country we have found ourselves.”

PREMIUM TIMES also learnt that the former pro-chancellor has also resigned his position as the chairman of the negotiation committee on the federal government and universities’ workers’ unions, saying he will no longer be available for the role he had been playing since 2017 without a headway.

Sources at the ministry confirmed to our reporter that shortly after the visitation panel that was set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to look into the crisis that had persistently rocked the university submitted its report, Mr Babalakin visited the minister to tender his resignation letter.

The crisis rocking the university reached the peak when on August 12 at an emergency meeting held at the National Universities Commission (NUC), in Abuja, the Babalakin-led governing council announced the removal of the institution’s substantive vice-chancellor, Oluwatoyin Ogundipe.

In reaction, the president announced the composition of a seven-member visitation panel led by a former vice-chancellor of Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, Niger State, Tukur Sa’ad.

The panel also has Victor Onuoha, Ikenna Onyido, Ekanem Braide, Adamu Usman, Jimoh Bankole, and Grace Ekanem as secretary.

Mr Onuoha, a lawyer, retired in 2019 as a deputy executive secretary in charge of administration at the National Universities Commission (NUC). He also holds Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from UNILAG, while Mr Onyido is a professor of Chemistry and was between 2006 and 2011, the vice-chancellor of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Abia State.

The panel, which was given two weeks to complete its task, sought a week extension and finally submitted its report, on Thursday.