The Lagos State University Chapter of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, has advised Governor Babatunde Fashola to warn the institution’s Vice-Chancellor, John Obafunwa, to desist from interfering in student union matters.
The Union Chairman, Saheed Oseni, said in Lagos on Saturday that the warning was necessary to prevent the VC from heating up the university system with politics.
Mr. Oseni said it is wrong for the Vice Chancellor to unduly interfere in students union elections which led to the disqualification of some aspirants and postponement of the election.
He said that members of any union had every right to choose their leadership and the university authority had no right to interfere in union electioneering matters.
“The involvement of the VC in the rancour within the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in LASU can also incite crisis which will be harmful to the institutions’ image,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nurudeen Yusuf, the outgoing Students Union President in LASU, said that the interference of the management in students union elections was caused by the gullibility of the chairman of the union’s electoral commission, IEC, Momoh Mustapha, who discussed the electoral issues with the management.
“The IEC Chairman sees himself incapable to handle the electoral matters and this prompted him to discuss them with the management,’’ he said.
Mr. Yusuf said that the authorities were not supposed to interfere in the election process, but expected to be observers.
(NAN)
