PROFESSORIAL CORRUPTION IN THE ACADEMIA 2: A LITMUS TEST FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS SPECIAL VISITATION PANEL.

When the leadership of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, in its press release tagged, "SSANU OBSERVATIONS", at the inauguration of the Special Visitation Panel (SVP), frowned at the composition of the SVP, alleging its failure to meet the basic requirement of fairness, by having the panel membership skewed in favor of the academic, not few persons agreed with the position of the Union.

A Visitation Panel, whose members are made up of four academics, and all the four of the professor status, out of a total of seven members, and three of the four have served, at various times, as Vice chancellors. It was a natural consequence to assume that Professors would naturally be inclined to protect one of their own.
Without doubt, there has been a Committee of Vice chancellors in Nigeria. A body who, at the break of the news of the removal of the Vice chancellor of University of Lagos, for corrupt practices, has left nobody in doubt as to its solidarity with one of its own. The body was quick to raise its objection to the removal without touching on the allegation of corruption.

The Senate of University of Lagos shared similar views, proferred by the Committee of vice chancellors, as it was equally silent on the issue of corruption but was busy echoing "due process" in its submission to the SVP. The Senate of the University of Lagos didn't stop at that, but went on to pray for the sack of the Pro chancellor along with the Council. It must be noted the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is also in cahoot with the Senate, and the Committe of the vice chancellors, on this matter. The three groups are peopled by the academics, and are all unanimous on the silence on the corruption charges.

The strong suspicion on the SVP as a pre arranged set up to save the academics in the eye of the storm, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe.and Prof. Folashade Ogunsola, became stronger when it became clear that the two indicted professors belong to the Nigeria Academy of Science, NAS, a professional body whose president is Prof Ekanem Braide who is also a member of the SVP. It is instructive to note that Profs. Ogundipe and Ogunsola are botanist and microbiologist respectively, while Prof. Braide is a parasitologist, and a former Vice chancellor. Unconfirmed source quoted Prof. Ekanem Braide as referring to the idea of her participating in an exercise that will crucify her Academy fellows as unimaginable. Such report cannot be simply waved aside in the light of the agitations from ASUU, Senate of University of Lagos and the preponderance of academics in the composition of the SVP, and the position of the Committee of Vice chancellors on the matter.

Another down side, of the SVP, was the deliberate isolation and shutting out of several memoranda, by not democratizing the whole process as to allow online submission of memoranda. It was also a minus for the SVP as many groups/persons who submitted memoranda were not invited to speak to their papers. These shortcomings will no doubt impact on the quality of the report.

All of the observations, so highlighted, point to one thing; the high probability that the SVP has been compromised. And if all of these conjectures were to be real, it places a serious burden on the anti corruption stance of the federal government.

If the pressure mounted by the academic interest groups should influence their compatriots in the SVP, then the anti corruption fight, in the federal Universities is as good as lost.

This is a litmus test, no doubt.Q

The academic has forsaken its first love of research and training. It is now engrossed with the filthy lucre of money. They are now emergency contractors and general merchants.
The University, to the academic, today is one huge market, where profit is the motivation, as opposed to the traditional values of scholarship.
One may blame the poverty in the land. But for Christmas sake, the academic are not faring worse than most civil servants. The blame should be on the moral bankruptcy that has ravaged the land.
Re engineering and moral renewal and reorientation is panacea to the reclaim of the most glory in the academia.