Lagos State University (LASU) is not part of the prolonged strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The action embarked on by ASUU since February 2022 has shut down other higher institutions of learning while LASU remains unaffected.
The man whose proactiveness is getting the administration of Babajide Sanwo-Olu accolades over this feat in the education sector.
He is the man simply known in the power circle of Lagos State as “TW”, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education whose full name is Tokunbo Wahab.
Tokunbo Wahab with the confidence reposed by Sanwo-Olu and the backing of the Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folashade Adefisayo did a detailed needs assessment of the Lagos State University on the assumption of office in 2019.
Inside information has it that armed with the findings, the Special Adviser that Governor Sanwo-Olu confirmed as one of the major players in his administration sat down with the management and unions in Lasu to iron out issues and create a transparent system that enabled him to get “approval to increase the monthly subvention of LASU by 40%, Implement of their minimum wage and pay the backlog of salary and other earnings to that enjoyed by the mainstream civil service”
“The issue EA (Earned Allowance) was ironed out and commitment to agreements reached sustained since then”.
Added revelation has it that it helped in no small measures that Wahab an Alumnus of the prestigious Harvard Kennedy School of Government and former president of the Law Students Union of the University of Benin took a hard stance on blocking all revenue leakages in the system while he continues to spearhead ramping up the investment in the human and capital Infrastructure at the higher institution of learning owned and funded by the Lagos Government.
It was gathered that a slight increase in the school fees was thrown into the bargain that has helped undergraduates of the LASU escape the agony of the continuing strike by ASUU that has kept students of other public universities at “home” for over five months.
All the concerns the move championed by Wahab addressed at LASU are at the heart of the faceoff between ASUU and the Federal Government and the attendant ongoing strike action.
“That is why LASU did not join the strike action, the management and the unions are unaffected by the issues at stake”.
A Partner at Wall and Ace – after earning his legal stripes at Paul Usoro (SAN) & Co and Aluko & Oyebode ( before he was appointed Special Adviser on Education to Sanwo-Olu), Wahab is identified as very passionate about Lagos and all that has to do with it.
From Epe, Lagos State, the Senior Special Adviser that clocked 50 in May 2022 is the son of two influential community and political leaders.
His father, Dodo – Prince Olugbenga Wahab of the Otuwunmi Ateshinmara Royal Dynasty- was a well known political leader in Epe while his mother Muyi Wahab – (Nee Sosanya Aberuagba) was a dogged women leader and grassroots mobilizer in Epe and Sagamu (Ogun State)
