Come 14 October, the substantive Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), Ekiti State, Southwest Nigeria, Abayomi Fasina, a professor of soil science, is set to return to office.
The date will mark the end of the six-month leave granted him by the university’s governing council, led by a former Senator and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Victor Ndoma-Egba.
Following the circumstances that surrounded Mr Fasina’s exit and the rumoured opposition to his return, DevReporting spoke to many stakeholders, including the leadership of the various workers’ unions on the campus, to gauge the mood ahead of his planned return.
In separate conversations with the leadership of the university’s branches of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and other Allied Institutions (NASU), and the National Association of Non-Teaching Staff of Nigerian Universities (NANT), the consensus is that Mr Fasina has the right to resume office.
However, the national leadership of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) holds the view that, though it cannot stop the VC from resuming office, he should stay away from the university “on moral grounds”.
But lawyers have also faulted SSANU’s position, saying there is no “court of morality anywhere in the world”.
This is as the university’s spokesperson, Foluso Ogunmodede, dismissed the rumour of opposition to Mr Fasina’s return, saying the VC’s leave was duly granted by the appropriate authority, and that he would be expected back in office to continue his five-year tenure.
Background
Earlier in the year, a series of audio recordings revealed some sexual conversations between Mr Fasina and a female Deputy Director of Works on the campus, Folasade Adebayo, an engineer.
The recordings, which went viral, were said to have been recorded by Mrs Adebayo sometime in 2023 but were only made public in 2025.
Before the release of the recordings to the public, the leadership of the institution’s SSANU chapter had, in November 2024, issued a communique after its congress, accusing the vice-chancellor of sexually molesting its member.
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The signatories to the communique, Benjamin Faleye, and Ayomikun Aluko, chairman and secretary, respectively, were suspended in December 2024 by the university management, which accused them of failure to exhaust the internal crisis resolution mechanism of the university before escalating the matter to the public, and for tarnishing the image of the institution.
However, following the intervention of the national leadership of the union, the governing council set up an investigative panel, which submitted its report in April.
Report exonerates VC
In April, the governing council cleared Mr Fasina of the sexual harassment and corrupt practices allegations levelled against him by Mrs Adebayo.
A statement by the university’s registrar, Mufutau Ibrahim, had noted that the decision was taken at the council’s 8th extraordinary meeting, which was held on 8 April.
The university said the resolutions followed deliberations on the reports of investigative committees constituted over publications credited to SSANU, accusing the VC of sexually harassing one of its members.
The council condemned the secret recording of the VC by Mrs Adebayo, describing it as a deliberate attempt to blackmail Mr Fasina into confirming her as substantive Director of Works, a position the council said he had no authority to approve.
It said Mrs Adebayo’s tenure as acting director had expired, contrary to claims that she was removed from office.
The council further noted that at no time did Mrs Adebayo formally submit a complaint of sexual harassment against Mr Fasina.
Also, Mrs Adebayo was directed to write a letter of apology to the council within seven days, even as she was chided for allegedly bringing the university’s name into disrepute.
While the governing council recalled the suspended leaders of SSANU, it also mandated them to apologise to the university. But SSANU has said neither Mrs Adebayo nor the union leaders would apologise as requested, noting that doing so would amount to double jeopardy.
Meanwhile, the council criticised the university management for backdating Mrs Adebayo’s promotion to 2015 instead of 2024, describing the move as preferential treatment and directed that the decision be reviewed. It also warned Mr Fasina and other officials against such practice.
VC embarks on leave
In April, at an emergency meeting of the governing council, Mr Fasina’s request for leave was approved, and the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics), Olubunmi Shittu, a professor of agricultural science, was appointed to act in the VC’s stead for six months.
However, within the last six months of Mr Shittu’s leadership, there have been a series of conflicts, particularly in connection with the appointment of new heads of departments, deans of faculties, and directors of units and divisions.
On Mr Fasina’s return
In separate responses to inquiries by DevReporting, various stakeholders, particularly the leaders of the workers’ unions, who spoke on behalf of their unions, emphasised the welfare of their members as their ultimate interest. They noted that it is not their responsibility to determine who resumes and who does not, stating that the relevant organs of university management have their roles clearly outlined in the law establishing the institution.
ASUU speaks
Reacting to Mr Fasina’s planned resumption of office, the Chairman of ASUU on the campus, Abayomi Fagbuagun, said his union has no legal grounds to oppose the VC’s return.
He emphasised that Mr Fasina remains the substantive vice-chancellor of the university, and with a five-year mandate to lead the institution.
Mr Fagbuagun said: “ASUU is not opposed to his return. He legally proceeded on research leave, as approved by the council. At the expiration of six months, he is expected to return to campus. ASUU has no legal grounds or any reason for misdemeanor to say that he should not return to complete his tenure. He is the substantive Vice-Chancellor for Federal University Oye-Ekiti.”
NANT’s position
The Coordinator of the university’s branch of NANT, Ganiyu Afolabi, also distanced the union from opposing the VC’s return to the office, saying whoever is nursing any grudge against Mr Fasina will be doing so in their personal capacity and not on behalf of the union.
Mr Afolabi, a former secretary of the university’s chapter of NASU, said: “Just like you have rightly posited that the university’s governing council is not averse to Mr Fasina’s coming, which is the superior authority that has a say on any personnel in the university system, and as far as my union is concerned, we have no objection to his coming.
“We believe he went on his accumulated leave, which would last for a period of six months. He is expected to return in the next one or two weeks. So, definitely, who am I to say he should not resume? I have no objection to it. And I believe when he comes, if anybody has any grudge against him, that would be personal, and not in the name of NANT. NANT as a union is not averse to his coming.”
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He said whenever Mr Fasina resumes, he will not engage in any activity that can tarnish the image of the university. “I believe he has no problem with us, and as a person, he has no problem with me. He is highly welcome.”
“Members’ welfare, our concern”
On his part, the Chairman of NASU, Abraham Ayeni, said the interest of his union is the welfare of its members, noting that apart from the first tranche of relocation allowance paid by Mr Fasina before he embarked on leave, the university is yet to pay others.
“Well, to me, what we are after as a union is the welfare of our staff. As long as the welfare of our members is well taken care of, we don’t have any issues with anyone. And, ordinarily, before he embarked on his leave, there is a particular allowance, relocation allowance, that he had been paying, and recently we embarked on a struggle to ensure the continued payment of that allowance, so he needs to show his commitment to the continued payment of that allowance,” Mr Ayeni said.
Meanwhile, the NASU chairman added that the decision on whether the union is opposed to Mr Fasina’s return to the university will be jointly taken by the Joint Action Committee of SSANU, NASU, and NAAT.
He said the coalition, regarded as JAC 3, recently embarked on a struggle over the unpaid allowances and other welfare issues, and wrote a letter to the management over the matter and other salient issues. He, therefore, noted that a joint decision will be taken on the matter should the university fail to act as demanded.
SSANU kicks
The National Vice President of SSANU, Abdussobur Salaam, said his union cannot ask Mr Fasina not to resume because it wasn’t the authority that approved his “unprecedented leave”.
He, however, noted that the university should be prepared for whatever consequences the vice-chancellor’s resumption brings.
Mr Salaam, who doubles as the Chairman of the Western Zone of the union, said it is unheard of in the history of the administration of universities in Nigeria that a sitting vice-chancellor would embark on accumulated leave in the middle of his tenure.
Though Mr Salaam agreed the development may not be against any established law, he insisted that it violates the principles of precedence and morality.
He said: “We know why he left; it was to allow the heat to simmer, so that we could forget the circumstances that led to his exit. Would it not have been proper to just continue to stay away from the office to allow peace to continue to reign on the campus? Why wake a sleeping dog?
“The truth is that SSANU cannot ask him not to resume, but we are saying he should not resume on moral grounds.”
University responds
The university’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Ogunmodede, has, however, debunked the claim that Mr Fasina’s leave was based on any matter within or outside the campus, noting that such an opinion is not only untrue but fallacious.
Speaking on the phone with DevReporting, Mr Ogunmodede, a former Judiciary Editor at New Telegraph Newspaper, said he was not aware of any law “that says somebody who went on leave should not resume.”
He said: “The VC went on his accumulated leave, and he is due to resume on 14 October. So, nothing is stopping him from resuming. And we are not aware of any element within the university community saying he shouldn’t come back.
“We must also clarify that nothing caused his decision to go on leave. He only went on his accumulated research leave. Pure and simple! Whatever issues anyone is talking about were duly addressed and resolved before he embarked on leave. So if people are now tying his leave with any matter, that is incorrect.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: The earlier copy of this report mistook Ganiyu Afolabi, the Coordinator of the National Association of Non-Teaching Staff of Nigerian Universities (NANT)- a breakaway faction of NASU, for an official of the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT). Error regretted.
