Sacking Of 49 UNILORIN Lecturers Regrettable – Ex Vice-Chancellor

Immediate past chairman of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Prof
Shuaib AbdulRaheem, has regretted some of his actions during his tenure as
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), particularly the widely
publicized issue of the sacked 49 lecturers of the institution.

The Supreme Court reinstated the sacked lecturers in 2009 eight years after
the then VC approved their disengagement from the institution.
Prof AbdulRaheem, who is also a governorship aspirant under the platform of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara state, spoke to reporters in
Ilorin, the state capital.

The professor of literature, who likened himself to a pediatrician, added that
everybody had learnt his mistakes in the saga

He said; “And you will find out that since all of those years there hasn’t been
any such crisis. No Vice Chancellor has come to face the kind of crisis I faced
because everybody has learnt their mistakes. So it is good that it happened
but it is regrettable that lives have been stagnated because of that, but again,
the reversal has healed the wounds and I hope it will help to heal the wounds
by stopping people to refer to that and make them look at the positive things
that came out of that disagreement.

“The issue of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) is a past event, but of course,
because it affected human beings it will continue to recur. It is only the
negative mind that focuses on the negative things. Human being live and learn
every day, we had cause to disagree with those gentlemen not because it was
personal it was in defence of the institution to which we had sworn to uphold
its integrity.

“If along the line something happened and some people had to be sacrificed
momentarily that was not borne out of my personal animosity or anger at
them it was because that what the regulations of the university showed me at
the time.

“But the law of the land reversed that. So one minus one is zero, they got one
we got one. In any case they are back at work and they are still doing well. In
fact, they found a more peaceable conducive environment for themselves to
live together with others.

“If you say somebody was hurt I compare my public posture with that of a
pediatrician who cares for babies, to whom ten mothers have brought sick
children and he has applied his skills to cure nine then one died and the
mother goes haywire and says the world is going to fall apart. For me, I don’t
see that as a problem.

“I am grateful I have been able to cure nine, so inevitably one had to die.
Sometimes we win some and lose some that is what life is all about. Don’t let
us keep going all over to the past especially the negative parts of the past.
That is my take on the UNILORIN saga”.