Ladipo: A rectorship template -By Ebere Wabara

When I got there, I could not believe the gargantuan transformation that had taken place between 2009 and last week. I was able to make an informed comparison because of my experiences on the three occasions. I kept asking myself where were the funds for these changes coming from in the midst of paucity of grants in the educational sector.For about three years or thereabouts, this foremost tertiary technological college has been dogged by atrocious allegations of corruption asininely targeted at the rector, Dr. (Mrs.) Magaret Kudirat Ladipo. In 2013, the Yabatech Council empannelled a five-man committee to investigate the allegations. Its report was submitted to the Council on September 12, 2013.

Before I make my own tacit personal intervention with regard to my perception of the rector, I will extract some pertinent aspects of the findings of the committee as they affect the frivolous allegations and the rector.“The Council is hereby informed that the Committee commenced its assignment by visiting all the addresses used as the sources of the petition both in Lagos and Abuja. Its findings were however startling as none of the petitioners could be traced to the addresses.

“After a thorough investigation therefore, it was proved beyond all doubts that the allegations raised were intended by whoever was behind it to malign the character of the Rector of the College, Dr. (Mrs.) M. K. Ladipo. The petitions ordinarily should have been jettisoned after the Committee was able to establish that faceless individuals were behind it (sic) but decided otherwise so as to ascertain the genuineness or otherwise of the issue raised in it (sic).

“The committee observed that almost all the petitions written against the person of the Rector, Dr. (Mrs.) M.K. Ladipo were spurious…. The committee equally observed that over 98% of all those that were interviewed (both staff and students) spoke glowingly on the progress and success the Rector, Dr. (Mrs.) M.K. Ladipo, has brought to the college which they attested to are unparalleled to (sic) the history of college. Having done a thorough investigation as far as these petitions are concerned, to the best of our knowledge, our findings have revealed that the petitions are baseless and mischievous. In the same vein, the Bursar of the college Mr. Olugbenga Ibirogba whose direct link with the petition has been established, we hereby recommend that the Council may take appropriate disciplinary measures for the following reasons; Having lied under oath, leaked official information/document, brought disrepute to the College and overheated the polity etc.

”Last year, this same brazen petition was sent to the Office of the DIG of Police, CID, the Nigeria Police, Force Headquarters, Area 10, Garki, Abuja, by Ibirogba. The petition was subsequently referred to the General Investigation Section of the Force CID, Alagbon, Lagos, and finally the Office of the IGP.The police, in their findings, established that the disaffection between the management of the institution and Ibirogba was rooted in the discovery of sharp practices such as “falsification and postdating of quotations and invoices” in the supply of diesel to the school which was under the purview of Ibirogba. Naturally, according to the police CTC, the discovery of the oily mess upset Ibirogba.Following the revelation, Ibirogba was issued a query which he mismanaged for reasons best known to him and consequently “fictitious and anonymous petitions signed by one Hon. A. O. Akins against the management of the institution went viral and similarly circulated and/or lodged with the Presidency, Head of Service of the Federation, Honourable Minister of Education, the Governing Council of the institution and the EFCC among others alleging looting and corruption against the Rector.

”The Governing Council, at the instance of the HoS and the Education Minister swiftly set up an investigative committee to look into the subsisting allegations. The “outcome of the Investigation Committee’s report proved the whole allegations to be spurious and a calculated attempt to malign the image of the Rector and cast aspersions on the management of the college. The committee also discovered that the A. O. Akins, the purported signatory of the petition, is a fictitious person.”For me, the greatest challenge in this specious matter is the vicious employment of journalists and the social media to becloud issues that are crystally clear and copiously reaffirmed after multifarious investigations by competent bodies duly constituted by different authorities. Financial impropriety, abuse of office, gross misconduct and unprofessional conduct are grave infractions in the civil service. Unnecessary resort to legalism in purely internal administrative matters is antithetical to institutional discipline and work ethic. Litigation could arise after all domestic mechanisms for conflict resolution had been manifestly exhausted. Antagonising and ridiculing statutory bodies diminish the aggrieved in any case.Now some excerpts from the police opinion/recommendation: “From the foregoing therefore, all the allegations levelled against the Rector, the management of the institution and indeed the Governing Council has not been substantiated. The allegations are spurious, bogus and a sham consistent with malicious intention.

“It is our candid opinion that the former Bursar/petitioner before the General Investigation Department, Alagbon, was on a hateful and spiteful mission as a result of his fallout with the institution’s management.“In the circumstances, we recommend that the allegations levelled by the former Bursar be treated as trivial, frivolous, false and lacking in credibility. It is further recommended that the former Bursar be arraigned in court for giving false information to the Police.” This was signed by ACP Arungwa Nwazue, ACP (Admin), for DIG of Police, CID, Abuja.As the travesty was on, the House of Representatives Education Committee profusely commended the rector after a visit to Yabatech in September 2014. In the same breath, last November, while on the Impact Assessment Visit, the former Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, was perplexed by the finanacial wizardry of Dr. Ladipo in her unparalleled utility of scarce funds in the advancement of Yabatech to summit heights.Finally, it is instructive to note that the Lagos State government has dragged Ibirogba and two others to a high court in further explication of this matter.Dr. Ladipo, from all testamentary hallmarks and experiential signposts, must be one of the best rectors in the country, if not the best as other polytechnics and their rectors come to Yabatech to witness the marvel there and how to replicate it in their own citadels. A rector that occasionally eats from the same dish and recreates with all cadres of staff must be exceptionally good, impeccable, competent, diligent and should not be perturbed by fallacies, wolf cries, harangues and rabble-rousings of an ex-employee! If a rector is loved by 98% of students and staff for her transformative wand, reputational pedigree, perceptive antecedents, profuse humility and profound interactiveness, why should she bother about distractive inanities arising from affirmation of common banditry and disgruntlement?For Dr. Ladipo (after bursting the Yabatech diesel and fiscal bubbles), in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, do not fear when your enemies criticise you. Beware when they applaud. Madam, you are, undoubtedly, an exemplary template in polytechnic rectorship. Other rectors should emulate you.