No fewer than two Professors in the Lagos State University (LASU) have ridiculed Dino Melaye’s wearing of academic gown to the Senate plenary session on Tuesday, March 28, 2017.
Melaye donned the academic gown to plenary following the confirmation of by the Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Prof Ibrahim Garba that he graduated from the School before the Senate’s Ethics and Privileges committee. The Professors described Dino’s action as a “juvenile attempt” at proving that he attended the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
According to a Professor of History and former Dean of Faculty of Arts at the Lagos State University, LASU, Ojo, Abolade Adeniji, who spoke with the media in Lagos: “This (Dino’s action) is a juvenile attempt at justifying his claims that he attended ABU.
“He has only made a fool of himself.
“What the senator has done is unusual, and this should be a source of concerns to his fellow senators.
“The senatorial position is an exalted one that should not be trivialised the way Senator Melaye is doing.
“The appearance he assumed today is not for an adult, much less a senator. He looks so cheap. It’s a political drama that was meant to prove that he has a degree.”
Another academic, the Dean of Arts Faculty and Professor of English Language at LASU, Adeleke Fakoya, on his part argued that the gown the Kogi state senator wore “is a ceremonial one, and must be used fr that purpose alone.
“This is a ceremonial gown and not an academic robe. It is a ceremonial uniform usually worn during formal ceremonies in any Ivory Tower.
“Even then, you can only wear such ceremonial robes if you are a part of the procession in the academic environment; never in the context in which Senator Melaye wore it today.
“The type of gown that the senator wore in that photograph is usually worn by vice-chancellors, registrars, deans, etc.
“If Melaye intended it to prove that he graduated from ABU, then he missed it big time because the type of gown he is wearing is not for someone being conferred with a first degree, to start with.
“It is a ceremonial costume that should not be worn in frivolous manner as this senator has done. It’s either hired or stolen.”
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