What went wrong with LASU ePortalPenultimate Wednesday, January 22, 2014, was another ugly day at the Lagos State University (LASU) following realization by some students that they have been caught in the web of non-registration for the semester.
This came after a six-month strike occasioned by university teachers nationwide under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which is said to be the longest strike embarked upon by the academia in the 100 years of Nigeria.
However, on resumption in January, when every other university in the land opened, a decision was taken by the management of the school to close online registration, http://www.lasu.edu.ng/, for the semester after a given period, which incidentally did not go down well with some students, invariably still in the euphoria of long strike and Christmas and New Year festivity.
According to some of the reports, the pandemonium began in Lagos State University (LASU) at the instance of the school management which refused to reopen the registration portal online and the tensed students were afraid of missing out in the second semester examination due to commence on Thursday, January 23, 2014. An estimated over 1,000 regular students were affected.
Following the hight of damages reported across media, the Lagos State House of Assembly invited both the management and leadership of the students union for hearing, because according to the speaker, its alarming to begin the year with such display of disagreement.
Our protest was hijacked - SUG:
During the cross-examination, the president of the Lagos State University (LASU) Students Union Government (SUG), Miss Mojirade Hassan, revealed at the State House of Assembly hearing on the issue that the supposed peaceful protest embarked upon by the students to register their displeasure over the closure of the portal was hijacked by hoodlums, which made it difficult for her members to contain.
Given the foregoing development, LASU Management suspended the semester exams, and the school shuts pending when normalcy fully returns to the Ojo environment and solution proferred on the wanton damages that occurred even with some bloodletting.
Lagos Assembly intervenes:
The Lagos State House of Assembly lead by the speaker, Rt. Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, in the wake of the disturbance promptly intervened and after listening to both parties, namely, the management and students union directed the reopening of the ePortal by LASU management, to afford the students in excess of 1,292 to complete their registration exercise.
He also led his members on official eye witness tour of the school and was alarmed with the level of damages, though assuring Lagosians on the need to put an end to LASU crisis.
Another long wait for LASU students:
However, though the ePortal has been reopened by the Lagos State House of Assembly, the school management same Friday ordered the vacation of its campus to enable them assess the level of damage by the protesters earlier that week.
This, may after all not be a short break as every well-meaning Nigerian and Lagosians precisely condemned the level of properties damaged within a day protest.
The management of the institution had on Thursday shut down the institution indefinitely following a violent protest by some aggrieved students.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted a LASU bulletin released on the campus on January 23rd by the management instructing the students to vacate the university premises with immediate effect, just as it suspended the examinations.
Part of the bulletin read: “In the wake of the violent protest by some affected LASU students over the closure of the university portal for registration of courses for the semester 2012/2013 examinations, the management has decided to shut down the institution indefinitely.
“Also, examinations have been put off till further notice. With this decision, students of the university are expected to vacate the university premises until further notice,” it said.
NAN further reports that normalcy has since been restored to the Ojo main campus of the university, but the resumption of students still under probability. Nonetheless, Policemen were promptly deployed to the campus to maintain law and order.
Also, NAN quoted a 400-level student of Management Technology, Tajudeen Onikoyi, as confirming vacation order and compliance by students. Stressing, students vacated the campus owing to the riot and the closure of the school.
While blaming the university management for allowing the situation to degenerate to a chaotic one, Onikoyi said the actions of the students were so bad, because they should have handled the issue in a more matured way than they did, maintaining that the SUG should have been very swift to avert the ugly incident of riot at this time and after a long home-stay due to strike.
“The Management also messed up the issue by being adamant not to re-open the portal. The management should have at least listened to the initial plea of the students to avert the protest. It is so unfortunate and embarrassing that this is happening in LASU again,’’ he decried and pleaded with LASU authorities to speedily resolve the issues at hand and re- open the school to prevent a disruption of the academic calendar.
Damage unquantifiable says VC:
Speaking to newsmen after a meeting with the Lagos State House of Assembly, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. John Obafunwa, revealed that the management was unsure when the school will re-open as an assessment of the damages caused by the students’ protest needed to be carried out and measures taken to clean up the university.
“I must say that this protest goes behond the issues of not registering for courses, some unscrupulous elements hijacked it to perpetrate mayhem against the school,” he said.
Emphasising that the management main concern now is to get the school ready for students to write exams and to mobilise the final year students for their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme; but, he cannot say categorically when the school will be re-opened for academic activities.
The VC insisted on full assessment of the damages and cleaning up the university, noting that the administrative offices, including VC office, the library and other school properties were vandalized by the protesting students.
Prof. Obafunwa lamented that prior to the unrest, they were hopeful the university will end the 2012/2013 academic session by February 2014, and by March, the 2013/2014 session will commence, “but with this sordid situation which was not precipitated by us, the students have drawn us back.”
The goodnews in the current situation, Obafunwa said is that they were not concerned about punishing erring students.
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