THE University of Lagos (UNILAG) has directed all staff and students of the institution to “actively use their personal university e-mail address in all correspondence”.
This directive comes nine days after the ICIR published a report establishing that Nigerian federal universities often ignore email enquiries, after mails were sent to 15 universities.
Only two of the universities –University of Nigeria and Federal University of Technology, Akure—eventually responded.
Unilag has mandated the prompt implementation of the directive, which was published on its website on Wednesday 6th June. It added that all members of staff “are to desist from attending to emails received from unofficial email addresses”.
In a statement released the previous day, the university said it has put in place a university-based email platform for undergraduates “in line with best practices worldwide”, and urged them to activate their addresses “as soon as possible as all correspondence will be through the email address”.
This resolution was reached, it said, at a management meeting held on Monday, May 21, six days prior to the ICIR report.
The ICIR, however, discovered that the university has published 11 other statements on its website between this day and Wednesday, June 6, without a mention of the resolution.
'Kunle works with The ICIR as an investigative reporter and fact-checker. You can shoot him an email via [email protected] or, if you're feeling particularly generous, follow him on Twitter @KunleBajo.