Tobi Adebayo
Former Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Wale Babalakin has lamented the diversion of funds meant for the running of the school by some corrupt individuals.
Babalakin, during an interview on Arise News monitored by ThisNigeria, called for thorough auditing of the university’s accounts by an international accounting firm.
“The collapse of the education system in Nigeria bothers me. The events at the University of Lagos is a manifestation of the decay that has gone on for so long. The university system has collapsed. All the issues at UNILAG stemmed from the fact that I refused to be one of the “boys.”
“President Muhammadu Buhari struggles to get money to fund these universities but they are diverted by certain persons for personal use. In UNILAG, a substantial part of these funds is being misappropriated. It is unfair to run this kind of system.
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“I was the first pro-chancellor to go around every faculty in this university. I went to the Faculty of Law for inspection and found out that they did not have law reports. I made provision for the sum of N500,000 to be paid to the faculty monthly to get law reports, only to find out later that someone was moving the money into a personal account.
“I also went to Creative Arts and made provision for N400,000, provided funds for the renovation of the lecture auditorium in the Faculty of Law amongst others. Imagine my surprise when we found out that the University had been deceiving us that they were short of funds. Corruption is embedded in the institution and it cannot be unveiled by any visitation panel. An international auditing firm and a judicial panel should also be set up to look at UNILAG’s accounts.,” he said.
