have been the most patronised university in Nigeria. Th is simply means even the public, before the NUC came up with its accreditation report, the public had already accredited us as the most stable, credible university because this is the only university that a parent can sit down immediately his wards passed JAMB, he can now schedule that my child will fi nish his university education in the next four years and this is how much I will need to see him through. Once the child has no academic challenge, come next four years, he will graduate.
Th e president of our students union, three weeks ago, was voted as the best SUG president in Nigeria amongst his peers, and all over (his offi ce) you can see awards been given to University of Ilorin to the VC, to the management by diff erent groups in Nigeria. What other credibility do you want? It is those that want us to join them in what they are doing, rightly or wrongly. I am not judging them but the way we are going about doing our things is paying off , it is paying our sponsors, our clients and is giving us a good image.
Some people are saying, look join us, but the majority of academic staff say otherwise ,not the VC, not the University of Ilorin, but the group they want to lead are saying, we want to continue going our own way. As the chief coordinator of all the unions, I have to respect their view, the views of my staff . VC sir, ‘‘what we are doing is paying off ’’ if I quoted you rightly. Does this mean you have some level of infl uence you exert on the local ASUU? And also as a rider, there is this rumour out there that unions don’t exist in University of Ilorin?
Well, I have heard that statement and I told them we have unions here at the University of Ilorin but the management is not infl uencing the unions in anyway. All that we do is to make sure that we interact with them ,we are close to them ,we are open to them .If we have money, the unions will know that we have money ,if we are investing, they are carried along and if we don’t have money, they are usually the fi rst people to know.
Th ey elect their union offi cials independently of the management, we don’t infl uence who becomes their branch chairman or other executives. All they do is once their election is concluded, they pay me a courtesy call and I welcome them and we rob minds, they tell me what they want to achieve within their tenure and we always promise them that the management will do its best to make sure that we support whatever that you are doing that is positive. So, we don’t infl uence them. About fi ve months to the end of your tenure, Prof, can you recall one tough instance you were challenged by the union, and how you handled the situation?
I think there was one where they said one of their staff members was embarrassed by some students and it was a tough one for me and I had to dialogue between students interests, ASUU interest and then.. It was a very tough week for me and God so kind, by effi cient negotiation and intervention by God, we were able to resolve it amicably. Th at was one of the greatest challenges that we had with the union and it was tough, I must tell you. On claims by some employers that our graduates are not employable I think is because of the gap that exists between the industries and universities. We need to close that ga
p .If the universities don’t know what the industries need, how do you now know the products you produce to be able to fi t in .But what I think university graduate is trained to do is the ability to be in a place and be able to be easily tuneable to what that particular organisation needs .I think once we are able to achieve that ,it will go a long way in ensuring that the industry do get what they need. I was in United Arab Emirate one day for a conference and they invited the CEO of Lever Brothers and you will think that particular industry should have the CEO that is whether an engineer or business tycoon or business studies expert with all kinds of degrees, but I was surprised when he was asked what did he read as an undergraduate, and he said, History.
People were amazed, History! How comes you became the CEO? He said he came in and he was trained on the job .So, once you are a graduate you should be able to adjust to any situation. Th at is why here in the University of Ilorin we are diversifying the scope of our Entrepreneurship centre to be able to have various skills that they can expose themselves to. Also among our staff , we put up culture of training and retraining of all cadres of staff , academic and non teaching including our security. We train and retrain them to be able to fi t in into the needs of Nigeria of today whether you are just employed or you were employed decades ago, training and retraining, and I think that is what the industries should do too.
How protected is the whistle-blower in University of Ilorin if there is any? I think they are well protected, that’s one. But I think most importantly, the people accused should be protected as well because there could be wrong accusation .Somebody can blow whistle and could be a wrong one. You know either as referee, if you blow your whistle that somebody was off side and actually he was not in off side position, you know there will be confusion on the fi eld. So both the whistle blower and the accused need protection. We can’t just look at one section of the match, we have to look at both .Th e players, the referee and the spectators as well .So if one is protected, you are giving him a blank cheque ,blow it anyhow, nothing will happen to you. But if there should be conditions that if you blow a whistle and is a wrong signal, then these are the penalties you will have to face. If this is done, you have balanced your scale. My legacy wish What I want as my legacy is that of a man who came and changed the entire landscape of University of Ilorin, who came and contributed to all aspects of University of Ilorin, be it academic development, physical development, infrastructural development, development in the lab, training of Masters and PhDs, introduction of more academic programmes, and handing over the full accredited programmes to my successor. Ninety percent of what I am handing over to him is full accreditation .When you have full accreditation it means in the next fi ve years you can continue running, you just fuel your car, minimum service and you continue. So that is what I want as my legacy. I remember when I came in I said I wanted to leave University of Ilorin better than I inherited it. I think I inherited a palace so to say, and I am handing over a castle. Choice successor Look, when I was coming here, my predecessor wanted me to achieve and he was rubbing minds with me and supporting me all the way. On my successor, I want my successor to have the same vision of inheriting University of Ilorin and handing over a better university in the next fi ve years. I will be glad to come back in another four-fi ve years and look at University of Ilorin and say, whao! this is positively diff erent from what I handed over . So that is the kind of person I hope the University of Ilorin will be blessed with. What I would have done diff erently? Hmm, it will take a while to review all I have been able to achieve. But I think, probably, a better rapport with the staff . I would have loved to do what one of the VCs that I served under in Maiduguri did when he was the VC. I dreamt of doing it but time didn’t give me that much allowance. After closing, he would just drive to one of the staff ’s house, sat with him, looked at the living condition and then learnt one or two things, then returned to the offi ce and enriched what he planned to do for staff . I think that was a great wisdom .I thought of doing it when I came in but it was not just possible..(laughter)
