BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
The federal government has cleared the air on the controversies surrounding the reports of the two presidential visitation panels to University of Lagos.
The clarification became necessary following the alleged leakage of one of the reports recently submitted to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, on August 31, 2021.
The federal government had in August 2020 set up a special presidential visitation panel to UNILAG following the leadership crisis that engulfed the institution when the Vice Chancellor, Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, was removed.
The second panel was the regular presidential visitation panel which was set up for all federal universities and four inter-universities centres to which the reports were submitted to the Minister of Education on August 31, 2021.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, who addressed newsmen on the development in Abuja, said there was a need to make clarifications on the controversies being generated as a result of conflicting media reports about the two panels.
He also dismissed the media reports that the report of the regular presidential visitation panel to University of Lagos got leaked to the public, stating that the content of what was being circulated in the media was outright falsehood.
According to some media reports, the regular presidential visitation panel to UNILAG exonerated the former pro-chancellor and chairman of council, Wale Babalakin, while it indicted the vice chancellor of the university and the management.
However, Echono, while making the clarifications, warned that the government would take appropriate action against those circulating and publishing the fake report to mislead Nigerians.
He said he was baffled to read in the media that the regular presidential visitation panel to UNILAG, which submitted its report on August 31, 2021 alongside other panels, indicted Ogundipe and the management of the university, and exonerated Babalakin.
He explained that in the government circle, except a panel report was rejected, there was no way another panel would be set up to review the former one, stressing that the report of the special presidential visitation panel to UNILAG in 2020 following the leadership crisis that engulfed the institution was accepted by the government and white paper released on it, which led to the dissolution of the then governing council of the University led by Babalakin.
Echono said the federal government was in the process of setting up a white paper on the regular visitation panel reports to address all findings and recommendations, including that of UNILAG.
He described the claims in the media as false, unfounded and mischievous, as they have no bearing with the report submitted by the panel.
The Permanent Secretary said: “We have found it necessary to make some clarifications to avoid some of the misrepresentations and misinterpretations that are ongoing in the media.
“First, to clarify the workings of government, when the government sets up a panel, they are usually for a specific purpose, it is not a fishing expedition and it is not an endless exercise. The purpose is usually articulated in what we describe as terms of reference or the TOR of the panel. That TOR covers the time and direction at which the panel is expected to carry out its investigations.
“Last year, there was a crisis at University of Lagos, and a special presidential visitation panel was set up with specific terms of reference. One of the issues then was the issue of process. The governing council had removed a vice chancellor and appointed an acting vice chancellor and then the crisis.
“The special presidential visitation panel was given four terms of reference to review the process of the removal of VC; whether it was consistent with the law, and appointment of the acting VC, whether it followed the law, whether the VC was given fair hearing, and then the allegations that were presented by the pro-chancellor.
“They submitted their report and the government considered their report and issued a white paper. Now, except where the government out rightly rejects the report of a panel, it does not set up another panel to review the work of the previous one. That is not done in government.
“When they were constituted, we published all the terms of reference of the new regular visitation panels to all the universities. The regular visitation panels knew what they were supposed to do and went to work in all the universities and inter-universities centres. They only submitted their reports about three weeks ago and all the reports are in safe custody.
“It is not true that any report leaked from the Federal Ministry of Education. I have investigated, I have checked they are all in safe custody and even from the content of what was being published, it was absolute falsehood because it had no bearing whatsoever with the report of the regular visitation panels.
“The usual practice is that when government receives a report of a visitation panel, it is to set up a white paper committee, which will make its recommendations, and the government would come out and say either ‘we accept this recommendation,’ or ‘we reject this recommendation’ and modify this to that and so on.
“Thereafter, the white paper is published. Once a white paper is published, that depicts closure. The next stage is implementation and we have implemented the white paper on the special presidential visitation panel. The governing council was dissolved, the vice chancellor was reinstated and we have even gone ahead subsequently to appoint and inaugurate a new governing council led by Senator Lanre Tejuosho and they are doing a great job.
“The university has now been able to do their convocation, they are now getting their international awards; all issues have been resolved. So, this distraction is not necessary.
“The only outstanding matter from the white paper of the special presidential visitation panel is the reference that says all allegations against the vice chancellor and the management both old and new, should be presented and submitted to the regular visitation panel.
“So, the regular visitation panel had summoned everybody including the vice chancellor and former pro-chancellor to present the allegations against the university management and I am told that they did and followed it with physical appearance before the panel.
“It is only the issue of allegation against the vice chancellor and the management that came before this regular visitation panel. There was no issue of a process leading to removal of the vice chancellor or exonerating and indicting anyone in the new report. Absolutely no line, not even a word,” he said.
He regretted that the media did not make an attempt to talk to the chairman of the visitation panel or the Ministry of Education for confirmation of the information before publishing the report.
“The white paper of the previous visitation panel is now in the public domain and the media can request for it because it is very conclusive,” Echono stressed, adding that “the report of the regular visitation panel to UNILAG was very comprehensive.”
