For peace in LASU

THE Lagos State University, LASU, has acquired notoriety for crises. In the past two decades, the institution the administration of Alhaji Lateef Jakande built has been shut more often than it was in session. The crises are mostly internal. LASU was once labelled one of the most restive universities in Africa.



Students are either protesting high fees or lecturers are drawing attention to their welfare. Either situation results in shutting down the school. Students had to picket the office of former Governor Babatunde Fashola, after violent public protests, before their school fees were reviewed downwards.

 The latest face-off, which has kept the school locked for eight weeks, is between LASU’s management and the unions.
The unions shut down the university last March 20, the convocation day. They wanted an immediate action on certain demands.

The unions chased the university management away. Their issues ranged from arrears of welfare packages to salary increments. Series of meetings have failed to resolve the crisis.

However, the union was said to have insisted on not resuming, though management on the directive of Governing Council tried re-opening the university as agreed with the leadership of the students union and the staff unions.

 They were also said to have ignored the plea of the Lagos State Government, the university’s Governing Council and other stakeholders to allow the Vice-Chancellor complete his term.

 They are insisting on Vice-Chancellor’s removal. At their congresses on May 18, the unions maintained that they were not on strike, but that it is the school management that shut down the institution.

The cumulative effects of all these on academic pursuits are telling. Students and staff reserve the right to aggregate their opposing views sometimes through protests on management policies and positions, but these should be done with overall interests of all.

 Closure of the university at the slightest provocation has become a culture. Do the parties involved consider the consequences of these closures on academic activities? What quality of graduates would issue from a school that is ever so often in crisis?

LASU’s unique challenges are worsened by the fact that once the institution re-opens, if there is a national strike on some union matters, LASU unions would join again, ensuring that whether the troubles are internal or external, LASU ceases academic activities. Students hardly graduate on schedule.

The Lagos State Government has to change its attitude towards the university. The askance with which it treats a school that is supposed to cater for hundreds of thousands of students in the State, and beyond, has no bearing to the excellent ways Lagos preaches.

It is time Lagos said enough was enough by changing the situation in LASU.

Source: Vanguard