EDITORIAL ; OBAFUNWA, FASHOLA AND THE LIMIT OF IMPOSITION

As an Alumnus and a parent of undergrads, I have never been so humiliated and embarrassed by the goings on in LASU as I have been for the last few days. And, believe me, there were instances in the last twenty five years since I graduated,
that you got so mad and just wanna kill someone.
But while LASU was, and still is, always been the rebels' enclave, even back in the day when we kickstarted the SAP riots of 88, which led to the closure of the school for close to a year, which hastened the relocation of Babangida to Abuja a couple of years later, things have not been this bad before Tunde Fashola became the visitor.
I honestly can't put my finger on the reason why Mr. Fashola hold LASU in so much contempt. He has done everything but throw the kitchen sink at the school.
Applying the Bully Principle of killing me and saving me, Mr.Fashola holds the unenviable record of most closures of a Nigerian University. Due mostly to his high handed rigidity and his inability, or is it, refusal, to understand that sorry has both masculine and feminine interpretation.
From the ill advised closure of satellite campuses, criminal hike of fees, refusal to fund capital projects until after the protests over hiked fees, and other shenanigans too numerous to mention, it is obvious Mr.Fashola has an agenda to destroy LASU.
When Professor Obafunwa was appointed Vice Chancellor, I remember telling the late Chief Omolade Okoya Thomas that that the Governing board had finally put a round peg in a round hole, not only did he come with a reputation for fairness and godliness from CMLASU, he was also personally known to me as one of our columnists at the National Mirror.
But our ancestors, in their eternal wisdom, posited that to truly know a man's character, test him with money, or power, or both.
From day one, the professor saw his appointment as that of an emperor, master of all he surveys, instead of a leader, a father figure, first among equals.
First he cancelled outright the remedial program put in place to assist Lagos indigenous students meet up with the standards required for admission, instead of reforming it. Insisted on implementing the hike in fees without carrying the stakeholders along, insist things must be done his way or no way, and the most pathetic of all, decided to treat issues relating to labor as a personal affront, and went after their representatives with every thing in his arsenal.
And so, for the first time in my almost thirty years relationship with LASU, the three major unions on campus were united in trying to kick a sitting VC out of office.
Let me state here that I have nothing against reforms, but it must be done in an humane and considerate manner.We all know there are no bigger divas than academics, and carrying them along is far easier than daring them.
So, there I was, my daughter's convocation day a day way, a second generation Lasuite, and felt the need to touch base, so my friends would not accuse me of only coming in on convocation day, and I met both gates firmly locked, and a near unanimity of all, from security guards to administrators, from food vendors to senior lecturers, about the desire to see the back of the prof, whom they've pelted with sachets of water and who had to flee the campus like a common thief, a day earlier.
And so, the big day, and the joy of thousands of families to put a happy closure to their children's educational pursuit at LASU is defered, simply because one man, like the tortoise, thinks he has all the wisdom in the world.
My advise to Mr. Fashola; appoint an acting VC, let the man go on terminal leave, and let us have the convocation before your exit.
After all, the ambition of one man cannot be greater than the well being of an entire state.
My ten kobo.