THISDAYonline

Many who read the newspaper reports of the submission made by the authorities of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede at the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) that sat in Lagos last December were either surprised, or shocked, or both.

Under cross-examination, Oloyede had stated that the 49 dons were neither sacked for misconduct nor for participating in the 2001 Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike.

The Federal Government had dragged ASUU to the IAP in June last year to resolve the impasse. Prof. Oloyede was reported to have also admitted that the 44 lecturers (less the five members of the ASUU executive) were not taken before any disciplinary panel before their appointments were summarily terminated.

Who would not be shocked considering how long the charge against the dons had lasted and how firmly it stuck, such that President Olusegun Obasanjo went on national television to call them names. It is even more shocking that the refuttal came from the same source as the accusations.

The questions on the lips of those who have followed the saga is, why and who deliberately worked on the President to take sides in the matter? How many more of such official misinformation exist?

When Professor Shamsudeen Amali was announced as Vice Chancellor of the institution, many thought the fate of the 'UNILORIN 49' was sealed as he was seen as a stooge of his predecessor, Professor Shuaib Oba Abdulraheem. That was until Oloyede's appearance before the IAP, which has been interpreted as the offering of an olive branch.

More shocking, a few days later, the university went to the Federal High Court in Ilorin and filed papers that absolved the lecturers of the charges against them. Many commended the sincerity of developmental attitude of the University authorities.

A parent, Chief (Mrs.) Iyabo Bamigbade, told journalists recently that the sacked lecturers should see the entire struggle and what they have been through as part of the developmental efforts to make the university a better place.

The retired Chief Nursing Officer observed that, "anyone familiar with the university will realise that they (the sacked lecturers) are the heart of the academic world here. They are a section of the most brilliant lecturers in the university's employ. They have been vindicated at last."

She saw Oloyede's submission as a demonstration of the university administration's willingness to solve the problem. "Every right thinking Nigerian must impress it on both parties to be magnanimous especially the sacked lecturers" she has stressed.

In the Federal High Court Ilorin suit number FHC/IL/CS/28/200, between the ASUU leadership and the University of Ilorin , the University's Counsel, Yusuf Olaolu Alli (SAN) filed a further amendment to the university's statement of defence in which the lecturers were absolved of any act of misconduct.

In an earlier statement of defence (paragraphs 15, 18 and 21) the University had stated that the "plaintiffs singled themselves out and embarked on an unreasonable, unwarranted, illegal and indefinite strike; That the plaintiffs refused, abandoned and/or neglected their academic responsibilities; that the plaintiffs were hell bent on disrupting the academic activities of the university."

However, the university presented a motion to withdraw these allegations and to amend the statement of defence, saying that: "the termination of the plaintiffs appointment has nothing to do with the strike or any act of the plaintiffs." The university further stated that it did not sack any of the plaintiffs over allegation of disrupting examinations in May 2001.

The university in her "Further Amended Statement of Defence" filed on November 1 last year, paragraph 27, averred that "the defendants state that paragraph 24 of the Amended Statement of Claim is not true and shall place reliance on the letters by which the plaintiffs appointments with the third defendant were brought to an end. The defendants shall also contend that the events referred to in the paragraph under reference are extraneous and should be discountenanced by the Honourable Court".

Whereas, the plaintiffs in the said paragraph 24 averred that, "the defendants actually sacked the plaintiffs for the allegation of disrupting examination in May 2001 without giving the plaintiffs the opportunity of being heard at all and without subjecting them to due process".

On its part, ASUU had vigorously contested the sack, insisting that it is unlawful to sack persons who merely exercised their right to go on strike. Most of the sacked persons were not union executive members but academics and medical professionals who only stayed away from work on the directive of their union.

The Union's position was corroborated by the Federal Government Implementation Committee of the FGN-ASUU Agreement led by Professor Emeritus Ayo Banjo, which investigated the matter at the time. The Committee had concluded that the academics could only have been sacked for the strike action based on the content of the sack letters.

Prof. Banjo's panel also observed that "the university was not able to show any other offence or any misconduct on the part of the sacked lecturers. The nation's university system was disrupted for about six months this year partly on the insistence of ASUU on the recall of the sacked dons."

In what can be described as 'Pathological Stress", the Faculty of Health Sciences of the university and the Department of Pathology were the most affected by the strike. Twelve of their lecturers were affected in the now infamous sack.

The sacked lecturers in the faculty of Health Sciences include, Professor E. O. O. Odelowo, a professor of Cardio-thoracic surgery; Drs M. D. Adeshina and I. O. Olaoye, both lecturer/Consultant in General Surgery; Dr. Babatunde Solagberu, lecturer/Consultant in Orthopaedic surgery; Professor Albert S. Anjorin, a professor of Morbid Anatomy; and Dr. E. A. O. Afolayan, senior lecturer/Consultant in Morbid Anatomy.

Others are Dr. K. A. Adeniji, a Senior lecturer/Consultant in Morbid Anatomy; Dr. P. O. Olatunji, Senior lecturer/Consultant in Haematology; Dr. R. J. E. Ndom, Senior lecturer in Behavioural Sciences; Dr. A. B. Makanjuola, a lecturer in Behavioural Sciences; Dr. I. K. Kolawole lecturer/Consultant in Anaethesiology and Dr. (Mrs.) A. A. Olatunji lecturer/Consultant in Radiology.

Also tactically affected were two former Vice Chancellors of the University, Professor Adeoye Adeniyi (Paediatrics) and Professor J. O. Oyinloye (Physics). Also affected is Professor Olatunde (Pharmacology) whose contracts were unceremoniously terminated despite earlier recommendations by the appropriate departments and faculty to the contrary.

The picture is not brighter in other faculties. The university's only Professor of Music was sent away along with the only professors of English, Yoruba, Theatre Arts, Zoology and Physics. One of the two Professors of Electrical Engineering and the same in Geology were equally sacked. This is not to talk about the senior lecturers and doctors that were also affected.

Prior to the sack, Pathology had three academic/professional members of staff. The three were all sacked! At the time they were sacked, Introductory Pathology was taught and examined. Results were released. Resit examinations were conducted and Block II also covered, but not examined before the problem started on January 31, 2001.

By May 2002, a young lecturer, Dr. Babatunde Ojo was recruited. He conducted fresh progressive assessment examinations in Morbid Anatomy for which ordinarily he was unqualified. He also conducted MBBS Part I final degree examinations without any external examiner!

For two other sessions, the faculty had to lower, by waiver the academic standards to allow students pass and go on. Attempts to raise the standards last year were resisted by the students.

On two different occasions, the lives of some lecturers were threatened. Two names recur in the two strikes: Dr Yinka Buhari, past National President of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), and Dr. Babatunde Ojo. Both incidentally have resigned their appointments with the university.

Although Ojo's appointment had been controversial since he lacked the requisite qualification,Their resignation meant that there are no academic staff in the Pathology Department. This is far from the minimum standard of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.

The Medical and Dental Council had written that, "University of Ilorin has not complied with the requirements of the Guidelines on minimum standards of Medical Education in Nigeria with regard to academic staffing in Hispathology. Council directs that University of Ilorin MUST employ at least one qualified Hispathologist of the minimum status of a senior lecturer within three months of this correspondence".

Naturally, the students have suffered as a result of the crisis. Some were openly punished for supporting the sacked lecturers, some for being children of the lecturers and some for using their profession to project the belief of the sacked lecturers. Many had their results withheld.

Prominent among them was a law student, Miss Victoria I. Oyalana, who was allegedly set up, molested, beaten and accused of certificate forgery by the university administration. Inside sources say she is the daughter to a staff who is on the side of ASUU. She could not attend Law School with her course mates. She took the university to the Federal High Court and was awarded N3.2million in damages.

Some other students who were variously victimised for their stand against the university administration include Rasheedat Adeshina, Lanre Akinola, Tosin Akinrogunde, Ahmed Balogun and Segun Magbojuri. Some of the university staff that were students like Femi Dunmade, a PhD student of English, also got a bit of the bitter pill.

However, a further confirmation of the inadequacy of medical standards of the University was the report of External examiners in a letter dated July 7 2003 to the Vice Chancellor, which forced the university administration to write the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) for Resident doctors to join its training programme.

The VC had requested UITH to co-opt her Resident Doctors into the teaching of pathology in order to "further improve the quality of our doctor graduates". However, the import of this latest move is very clear. Resident Doctors are trainees themselves and are not qualified to teach specialised courses.

It would be recalled that the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Professor Soladoye had admitted the problems of the Faculty as it is affected by the sacked lecturers who he categorized as part of the best crop of lecturers in the university.

Like social workers would say, there is time for re-examination of the cost of the war. The time to count the lost soldiers, the thoroughly wounded, the amputated and the permanently maimed victims.

How does Amali want to rebuild 'Baghdad' after the war? To take a cue, Professor Banjo's committee had recommended that, "having discovered that the staff were sacked on account of the strike action, the just and natural thing to do is to reabsorb them unconditionally. The affected staff have already been made to suffer unduly for about three years. Even so, the union was willing to accept a compromise by suggesting that the staff, on re-absorption, could proceed on a one year leave to allow for reconciliation and the calming of the frayed nerves within the community."

Sounds reasonable but UNILORIN can ill afford that luxury given the very tight straits it is in.

The national body of ASUU ought to participate in encouraging the Amali initiative to thrive with a quicker reconstruction of the psyche of the affected individuals and the system as a whole.

It should be noted that when this matter came up recently at the National Inter-Religious Committee (NAIREC), the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, offered to facilitate reconciliation and the calming of nerves within the larger community.

As a royal father, whom both parties in the conflict had always looked up to, the Emir should be able to use his wealth of experience to muster the internal efforts of the present administration to make the university come back to life.