The President Nigerian Academy of Letters, Prof. Sola Akinrinade, has warned President Bola Tinubu against appointing mediocre to the governing councils of tertiary institutions.
He stated this at Osun State University, Osogbo, Monday, while delivering a keynote speech during the 2-day proposal writing and craftsmanship workshop for early career scholars in the humanities.
Akinrinade advised the government to ensure that only those who understood the system and could add value were appointed to the councils of tertiary institutions.
“Government has a role to play by appointing the right people into the right institutions because if the governing councils are full of mediocrity, then there is a problem.
“They can help us by putting the right people, people that understand the system and that can add value to the system, not parasites or people that will come and be looking for money.
“The truth is that the University system, polytechnic system and college of education are not placed for just anybody to be in the council, but people with an understanding of what the needs of our tertiary institutions are,” Akinrinade said.
The conveners, Prof Insa Nolte, of the University of Birmingham and Prof Olukoya Ogen of Osun State University noted that 22 travel fellowship recipients were drawn from different universities in Nigeria to participate in the worship, advising them to take advantage of the opportunities at the international level.
“We want to help them to know how to write successful research proposals and do good research to think about all the issues at hand and to be more aware of all the opportunities that exist. It can sometimes seem more difficult to get grant funding in the outside, but there are very good opportunities internationally and we want to encourage people to take them up,” Nolte added.
The Vice Chancellor of Osun State University, Prof Odunayo Adebooye, urged the participants to seize the opportunity to master the art of writing grant-winning proposals to launch themselves into the world of impactful scholarship.
