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The Vice Chancellor and Chairman of the Lagos State University Senate, Professor Ibiyemi Ibilola #Olatunji-Bello mni, has granted executive approval on behalf of Senate for the extension of resumption date for academic activities at the University.

This was contained in a communique issued by the Varsity of choice Centre for Information and Public Relations #CIPPR.

The rescheduling is in view of the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly General Elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from Saturday, 11th March to Saturday, 18th March 2023.

Students are now expected to resume on Tuesday, 21st March 2023 and examinations would continue on Wednesday, 22nd March 2023.

Recall that Senate at its 295th Statutory Meeting held on Thursday, 23rd February 2023, had reviewed its decision at the Emergency Meeting held on Monday, 13th February 2023, on the Ministerial Directive on closure of all Universities and Inter University Centres during the upcoming 2023 General Elections.

Olatunji-Bello re-affirmed that other activities of the University would continue to run such as the provision of skeletal services by staff members from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm and other essential services by the University; and

Also, students who have registered for their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVC) and have their polling unit 24-17-05-065 at the open space at #LASU gate would be allowed to exercise their franchise.

The Lagos State University has partnered Michael Imodu National Institute for Labour Studies.

The duo signed an MoU on Tuesday to partner on training workshops and other areas of interest.

The signing was led by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ibiyemi #Olatunji-Bello, and the Director General of the institute Comrade Issa Aremu.

The Lagos State University Sports Centre has formally presented the trophy won by the Varsity's Tennis team at the Asoju Oba Cup 2022 to the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ibiyemi #Olatunji-Bello.

The Director, Dr. Segun Olawunmi, on Monday, 6th February 2023, made the presentation of the trophy in the company of the team to the University Management at the Vice Chancellor's Conference Room, 6th floor, Babatunde Raji Fashola Senate Building, Main Campus, Ojo, Lagos

The competition served off in December, 2022, at the indoor sports hall, Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

In his words, the Director said:

[quote]“As a directorate, we are proud to be a part of the Vice-Chancellor’s developmental goal of promoting participation in sports and recreation activities by winning medals at the Asoju Oba Championship. We promise to give our best as we seek more support and prepare for the All Africa University Games.”[/quote]

An elated Vice-Chancellor congratulated the medalists and thanked them for making the university proud.

She said [quote]"I am happy to receive you all, when I was told we are medalists again, I was happy. You have compensated for the NUGA games with the Africa University games and now the Asoju-Oba Cup”.[/quote]

The medalists also got rewarded with cash prizes with the gold medalist rewarded with ₦50,000, silver medalist got ₦30,000 while the bronze medalist got ₦20,000 from the Vice-Chancellor.

The Medalists are Adegoke Muiz who won 2 gold (singles and doubles category) and 1 bronze (mixed doubles); Akanbi Rilwan won 1 Silver (doubles category) and 1 bronze (singles category) while Surmer Zainab won 1 bronze (singles category) and 1 bronze (doubles category).

The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ibiyemi #Olatunji-Bello, has led the Movement of Men and Women in Lagos State Tertiary Institutions (MOWLAS).

The team moved across major towns in the state on its medical outreach which also doubled as a campaign exercise for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, and other candidates of the party in the state

The outreach was held in Epe, Badagry, Onikan, Agege, and Ejigbo, among others places in the state.

The group comprised of academic and non-academic staff of all the tertiary institutions in Lagos State.

With the twist of events over the naira shortfalls across the nation especially in Lagos State, LASUites are calling on the school's management to reconsider the stand on elections.

Recall that the #LASU Senate had on Monday, 13th February stated that exams will go on as planned but declared breaks on certain dates.

The naira crises also prompted the #LASUSU to lift students from the Igando axis to school on Friday when most living within the axis were stranded - a pain shared by the Management who also moved exams slated for 8sm till 10am.

Now that the situation is not getting any better from the weekend, several LASUites are now calling on the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello and other Management team to follow the NUC declaration and close the school for at least 3 weeks when then elections will be done with.

On Twitter, a student known as Ella Baby wrote:

This school has misplaced priorities.The leadership of the Lagos State University needs to get something done as soon as possible:

1.Avoiding student's to vote by imposing school exam
2. The VC ignored the 3 weeks school closure putting our life's at risk.
3. No bus, no money but you must be in school to write exam.

Na who get dey breathe fit write exam, Y'all should do something about it.

Another concerned LASUite, Temilade wrote:

Despite the fight and protest going on in the country, the Lagos state university management has refused the students of going home, exams is still going on as we speak, there's a protest going on right now around Igando and the school provided transport to convey the students to school instead of the putting exams on hold
Should we say the safety of students of the Lagos state university is not the managements priority

Johannnes Edoreh tweeted: Lagos State University @LASUOfficial this is to make you aware that students are encountering many dangers in the process of coming to school to write exams or returning from school. There is a riot that has been going on for days making it difficult and unsafe for students.

Abisoye said: With this present unrest in Lagos state, students should be safe at home with their parents but guess which school chose otherwise??
Lagos state private university 🥹💔

Kanyinsola: We legit need to repot our vc. The government should come and close Lagos state University themselves because this woman is putting the students lives at risk.

Futurism: Please who know the handle of NUC should please tag and call their attention to this. lagos state university is not adhering to the directive of NUC to allow students go home so that they can vote.

Following resistance by the Lagos State University Students Union #LASUSU, the Senate of the Lagos State University (LASU) on Thursday made a U-turn on the directive of the Federal Government for institutions to shut down from Wednesday, February 22nd.

#LASU Senate at its 295the statutory meeting on Thursday, February 23rd suspended academic activities including the ongoing examinations in line with the ministerial directive.

The Senate directed students to vacate the campus on Thursday, February 23rd and resume on Tuesday, March 14th.

The students union had kicked against the earlier decision of the Senate not to fully comply with the ministerial directive.

LASU Senate had varied the ministerial directive by asking students to go on break on Thursday, February 23rd and resume academic activities on Tuesday, February 28th instead of Tuesday, March 14th,2023 directed by the government.

The Vice-Chancellor of LASU, Prof. Ibiyemi #Olatunji-Bello met with LASUSU executives led by the outgoing President, Adeoye Adelakun. The students insisted on full compliance of the government directive and the meeting ended in a deadlock.

A statement by the university dated Thursday, February 23rd said the Senate reviewed its earlier decision on the directives of the Federal Government through the National Universities Commission (NUC) on closure of all universities and Inter University Centres in view of the prevailing circumstances and the non-availability of new naira notes in different parts of the country and decided that students vacate the campus from Thursday, February 23 and resume on Tuesday, 14th March 2023.

The Senate further directed that other activities of the university should continue to run.

The activities include the provision of skeletal services by staff members from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm and other essential services by the university.

It also directed that students, who have registered for their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVC) in the university be allowed to stay on the campus to exercise their franchise.

A senior lecturer at the Lagos State University (LASU) Ojo, Dr Wulemat Adeyinka Bello-Olarinmoye has refuted the claim that the state government had directed some public school teachers to submit photocopies of their permanent voter’s cards and fingerprints ahead of the forthcoming general elections.

Bello-Olarinmoye is the director, education directorate of the Independent Campaign Council for the re-election bid of governorship candidate Babajide Sanwo-Olu and All Progressives Congress candidates.

She debunked the news which has made rounds on social media in a statement on Wednesday.

According to her, the group’s attention was drawn to the report, and it wouldn’t have bothered to react to it but now done so to set the record straight so as not to confuse the good people of Lagos State.

She said the report was certainly the handiwork of mischief makers, who are on the mission to smear the re-election bid of the incumbent governor of the state, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Even as I struggle amidst deep pains, sorrow and tribulations to scribble an Elergy for departed activist, public intellectual, erudite scholar, accomplished journalist and professor of Political Science, Ayodele Samuel Olukotun, I’m nudged into some hallucination whether this brilliant and highly resourceful scholar, who was a regular face at many high profile conferences is really gone.

Don’t blame me. Some persons evoke a larger than life image that I’ve found it difficult coming to the reality of their death.

So it was with acclaimed activist and former President, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Festus Ikhuoria Iyayi whose tribute I only summoned the will to do five years after his passing in 2018.

Olukotun was another. Though I circulated the information asking friends and associates to send tributes to a particular e-mail address, it was an uphill task finding the will to discuss him in past tense.

Olukotun’s self effacing mien belies his intimidating profile and invaluable contributions to intellection and media development in Nigeria but his deep concerns and thoughts on rebuilding our tottering nation negated his joining hordes of Nigerian intellectuals who had taken a walk abroad owing to increasing decrepit working environment in our varsities.

From teaching at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, he also taught at his alma mater, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, Onabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) and Leads University, Ibadan.

I’m wondering how LASU managed with its star studded team when Olukotun was in the Department of Political Science with two of the world’s most published scholars, Abubakar Momoh and Said Adejumobi, Dele Seteolu and others.

He was the pioneer Oba (Dr) Sikiru Kayode Adetona Professorial Chair of Governance at OOU. He was also Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leads City University.

Apart from writing a weekly column at The Punch for 12 years, Olukotun was at different times chair of Editorial Board at the Daily Times and Compass Newspapers.

Winner of the Diamond Award for Media Excellence (DAME) on Informed Commentary in 2013, Olukotun was a recipient of several international grants from organizations such as The Ford Foundation, Carnegie Endowment and Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

He published over 60 articles and authored the “Repressive State and Resurgent Media in Nigeria” (Upsalla, Nordic African Institute, 2004), “Political Communication in Africa” (co-edited with Sharon Omotoso, Berlin Springer, 2016) and his recent edited book, “Watchdogs or Captured Media? A Study of the Role of the Media in Nigeria’s Emergent Democracy 1999-2016”.

He has also co-edited, along with Professor Femi Sonaike, a book on the media mogul, Babatunde Jose, titled “Jose: The Ideas Man”. He edited Foreign Policy of the Babangida Government: Muritala Muhammed Times Lecture Series, among others.

Since our path crossed over 40 years ago when he gave a moving talk at a tribute session for victims of the June 12, 1981 killing of four students of the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) by the Police, he had remained a mentor, brother, friend, senior colleague and discourse partner. We later met in the Daily Times in early 1991 where he had joined the Editorial Board with acclaimed Literary Scholar, Dr Chidi Amuta as chairman.

With Olukotun presiding, the Editorial Board was not only a compendium of ideas, but was intellectually stimulating. He was never tired of chewing on engaging discourses which we shared from time to time.

He was virtually on my neck to undertake a PhD programme. “I’ve seen your work and presentations and that of your close friend, Lanre Arogundade and can tell that both of you have trod around many interesting areas of research. You should just work on an area and deliver your PhD,” he always admonished.

He also turned down my plea for him to do a forward for a forthcoming book that I had to change its scope. “I appreciate the depth of your work and cannot afford to vitiate that. I have so much on my hands to deliver now and do not wish to do a wishy washy job,” he quipped.

Olukotun was in the mold of former Zambian President, Levy Manawasa whose mother died in a public bus and he explained that his mother was like any private citizen who was not elected and could not enjoy state privileges.

Riding from Ibadan to Lagos, Olukotun’s son, Tope was once victim of a kidnapping gang that diverted their trip to Delta State. I made some frantic calls after receiving Olukotun’s distressing calls that his som was dropped off somewhere in Igbusa. I wasn’t surprised because he wasn’t that kind of father that would pamper his children with the ride of a limousine. He dined with kings but opted to live his life and kept his integrity.

Ogbogodor who had previously served as Commissionser in five ministries in the old Bendel State was in the habit of sharing thoughts on Olukotun in Yoruba. “Se oti gbo lati ore wa,” he would usually say.

As I shared news of his passing on January 4th which I stumbled on on Daily Times Alumni platform to friends, colleagues and associates and some media platforms, I was moved to tears with the sudden gloom that flowed from the renditions to his death.

I also received immediate calls from former President, Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Gbenga Adefaye and Prof Segun Awonusi who wanted to confirm that Olukotun was really gone. “Haaaaa…..didn’t he just celebrate his birthday? This is shattering. Na wah ooooo! Tears have rolled down my eyes...” exclaimed Arogundade, executive director, International Press Centre (IPC).

Amuta who was Olukotun’s contemporary at Ife also went down memory lane: “This is a grave loss. Ayo was indeed a fine scholar and fertile mind. I recall our Ife days. He was active in Students Union politics in our student days. He used to come from ABU to stay with me and Adebayo Williams in our modest abodes.
May his soul rest in peace.”

As for the last moments of his death, I turned to his close pal and professor of International Relations, Kayode Soremekun.

“Just hearing this too. He had been ill-hospitalized in Babcock. A lot of rallying round by his friends and associates. Then the inevitable happened. Only God lives for ever!” was how Soremekun, also immediate past vice chancellor, Federal University Oye Ekiti solemnly puts it. On knowing the cause of his death, Amuta was in shock: “Oh no! May his soul find peaceful rest.”

Known simply as Ayo Olukotun, not many would ever contemplate he would kiss the dust about now when our environment is politically heated and citizens are ensconced in the process of weaning a new leadership to rescue our dear country from a near rudderless path.

For a man who lived and stewed in discourses, I could imagine his pains as he grappled with life on his sick bed as sunset beckons at Babcock University Teaching Hospital, Ilishan where he was rushed to when stroke took a better part of him on the eve of Christmas on December 21st, 2022.

Olukotun did all his degrees in Ife Varsity where he was an acclaimed student leader and activist. He was Assistant Secretary General climbing up to become Secretary General and President of the Students’ Union in the 73/74 and 74/75 sessions respectively.

He was the stormy petrel of the latter days of the military regime of Gen Yakubu Gowon and was at the head of the students protests dubbed “We Shall Trek” that saw the end of the Gowon era particularly after the regime made mincemeat of its pledge to hand over to civilians in 1976. The Gowon regime was on edge as students of the University of Ife led by Olukotun made bold their resolve to match to Lagos.

Perhaps Olukotun’s close friends and associates led by his Ife classmate, Toyin Falola, professor of History at University of Texas, Austin who had generously pooled huge resources within a short time to save his life, had looked forward to loudly celebrating his Platinum Jubilee on May 12 this year with pomp and peasantry.

As we lower this war horse, let’s remember that he casted lot to live his life for a better Nigeria. Adieu our famed intellectual giant until the resurrection morning when we shall meet to part no more.

Iyare is a Senior International, Journalist and Communication & Development Expert

Culled from The News Guru

The Lagos State University of Science and Technology #LASUSTECH has appointed a new registrar and bursar for the institution.

The university’s governing council approved the appointments of Hakeem Oki and David Ogungbe as Bursar and Registrar respectively, according to a statement by the institution’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Lanre Kuye.

The duo’s predecessors were said to have completed their five-year tenure which started when the university was formerly Lagos State Polytechnic #LASPOTECH.

Until their appointment, Mr Ogungbe was a Deputy Registrar at the Lagos State University, (LASU) Ojo, while Mr Oki was the Deputy Director of the Internal Audit Unit of the Lagos State University College of Medicine #LASUCOM.

Mr Kuye on Friday said that while the new bursar assumed duty on 1 February, the new registrar resumed on 9 February, adding that Shakirudeen Bello, the former registrar, has gone on a sabbatical, while Jerry Jinadu, the former bursar, has returned to LASU, his place of primary assignment.

Mr Kuye said they have both exhausted their five-year tenure, which started when the university was formerly Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH)

According to a statement from the university, Mr Ogungbe, an indigene of Badagry West Local Council Development Area of Lagos State, bagged a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Industrial Relations and Personnel Management and a Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Human Resources and Industrial Relations from the Lagos State University (LASU).

The new registrar is also a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arts and Management Professionals (FCIAP) USA, a Fellow of the Institute of Corporate and Public Sector Professionals (FICPSP), a member of the Association of Nigeria University Professional Administrators (ANUPA), Member, Nigeria Institute of Management (MNIM), and member, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (MCIPM).

On the other hand, Mr Oki, who hails from the Lagos Island area of the state, obtained a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accounting and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA).

He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA). He was said to have commenced his career in 1989 at Chams Nigeria Limited in Lagos.