Professor Ademola Dasylva, a lecturer, the Department of English, the University of Ibadan (UI) has petitioned the governing council of the institution over the election of members of the community as part of the Joint Council Senate Committee of the institution in the selection of its new Vice-Chancellor.
Professor Idowu Olayinka, the incumbent Vice-Chancellor’s tenure expires in November 2020, according to report.
Consequently, no fewer than eighteen professors from within and outside the institution expressed willingness to succeed Olayinka on December 1st 2020.
Hence, a lecturer in the institution has kicked against the joint Senate Council Committee of the University for electing two of its members to join other top authorities of the institution in selecting a new Vice-Chancellor.
The lecturer faulted the method used in the election of the two members.
In his petition, he decried the whole exercise and outcome of the activities of the committee as been “a far cry from credible”.
He noted that the platform for e-voting by the committee to select a new vice-chancellor for the institution was allegedly compromised and manipulated.
“There were two windows associated with the platform, one was meant to display the cumulative votes for each candidate. The other was to display the actual votes that accrued to each of the contestants”, he said.
“At the beginning of the exercise, a request was made for the open display of the voting process for close public viewing to ensure transparency; unfortunately, this was not done, instead, the tellers were given a link through which they could check vote counts.
“What was accessible through the link was the first window, which displayed the cumulative votes, denying the tellers access to the second window which should display the actual votes accruing to each of the contestants”, he observed.
Mr. Tunji Oladejo, the Director of Public Communication at the university, however, while reacting to the views of Prof. Dasylva said that the petition is not new to the university.
“This development is not new in the University. Petitions were written in 2010 and 2015. However, the management will look into the current petitions appropriately”, he said.
