Dr. Kemi Emina is the National President, University of Ibadan (UI) Alumni Association, The Delta State University, Abraka lecturer and former Special Adviser on Research and Documentation to the former Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly. In this encounter with DELE ADE-OLUWA, he speaks on the need for old students to get involved in the affairs of their alma mater, not only as a way of giving back to the institutions which made them, but also to ensure their sustainable development for the benefit of younger generations. This, he says, is particularly crucial now that most tertiary institutions are financially distressed. Emina, whose executive has built a 54-bedroom postgraduate hall of residence meant to be donated to the management of UI, is spearheading a fundraiser that would rake in at least N100 million yearly to support the university in terms of research, scholarship and infrastructural development. Excerpts:
What was your experience as an undergraduate in the University of Ibadan?
My very first idea about University of Ibadan was also through the seminary. I was among the first students who were brought into the seminary to do a degree programme without necessarily writing JAMB because the seminary is an affiliate of the University of Ibadan. That was my first stint with the University of Ibadan. Once in a while, the lecturers of UI would come into the seminary to teach us. Prof. Bodurin, Prof. Ladipo, Dr. Bello, Prof. Ajayi of the Economics Department all came to teach us at the seminary. And once in a while, in the evening, we would go into the university, the zoo and the theatre. But we were guided by seminarians. That was how my relationship with the university started.
Which period were you in the university?
That should be 1985. I did three years here in the University of Ibadan and a year of spiritual studies. The lecturers had a great impact on me, especially Prof. Bodurin and Prof. Ladipo. They were my early lecturers. There were also Prof. Ajayi and a young and pretty lady who people called Masoya. Masoya was pretty and she was conscious of the fact that she was pretty. She would come to teach seminarians who apparently were going to take their vow of celibacy. She would come to the seminary wearing a fine skimpy dress and short skirt. She covered the necessary parts anyway. She was pretty and she was bound to distract you. So when we were having a class, we would just pray that the devil would not tempt us. We would want to focus more on what she was teaching. She knew that she was a source of distraction to us. I think she enjoyed it, but we would always pray against the devil.
So, how did you get into journalism and end up a university lecturer?
Yes, I was still serving in Kafanchan when I had an offer to teach in the College of Education in Kotangora. I actually went there to see the place and I had to go back to Delta State during the holiday. I went back to Delta State just to rest with my younger brother. While there in Delta State, I got an offer to work with The Pointer, newspaper which was then an emerging newspaper house owned by the Delta State Government. I did not read journalism at all, but I took the job. I was never unemployed for a month or two. I have been fortunate, and the job just came like that. I worked for them for some time. That was around 1994. I know my GMs then would always ask, ‘Kemi, why won’t you go for further studies?’ They always asked me, especially one Elu Ekele of blessed memory.
I was supposed to be a reporter, but I was more into feature writing. I wrote features throughout, going to different parts of the country on sponsorship. When the Pope visited France around 1996/97, I was to be one of those that would cover Pope John Paul II. The visa and everything was ready. But I came home to get ready and my mum died, and that prevented me from making the trip to France. Later, I found myself getting involved in union politics in the NUJ. I became the secretary of the Pointers Chapel and I was also a member of the state council in the sense that I conducted the election twice as the Secretary of NUJ Election Screening Committee. I headed the Disciplinary Committee. I was the Chairman of Press Conference Committee. I was also the Chairman of the Fundraising Committee, NUJ, Delta State. But I had to leave because I felt that journalism makes you a perpetual boy.
And the person who gave that idea which I tried to closely and critically examine was also a very senior member of the NUJ, who then was NAN Editor in Delta State. He was also the state chairman of NUJ. I would visit him in the evening and he would say, ‘Look, Kemi, journalism is good, but I think you can also do some other things with your life.’ He was a forthright man. He was good. So when the pressure on me now from my GM to go on further studies came and this man was putting pressure on me again, I succumbed. So I came to Ibadan and did a master’s degree in Sociology. It was a new field entirely. I finished the Sociology programme within the space allocated to it: about nine months plus. I still had a year plus of the two-year study leave I was given, so I took the form to do a master’s in Philosophy and I got the admission to do the master’s and I continued.
I finished the Philosophy programme and returned to work. But this time, because they said journalism was making one look like a boy perpetually, I began to feel that in me too. I told the editor that I would rather want to be on a desk and wouldn’t want to go out to either look for news or write features. But you would still read my bylines in the papers for unique interviews. I would do very special interviews, but you would not find me in a group of journalists doing interviews and all that. I preferred that they would write send it down to me and I would edit the news, not because of pride, but because I felt insulted when they treated me like a boy. It was in the process of working as the Chairman, Fundraising Committee of the NUJ and the Chairman of Awards for NUJ when crisis broke out in Delta NUJ under the chairmanship of Emiogunde when (Smart) Adeyemi was the National President of NUJ.
Crisis broke-out in Delta State NUJ and I tried to mediate to see that there was peace in Delta NUJ but peace was not forthcoming. Meanwhile, I had an offer to join the university. I had my appointment letter with me. But even at that, I could not join them because I was still with NUJ. But when the crisis continued, I left. That was how I left journalism.
What was your job prescription as Special Adviser to the Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly on Documentation and Research?
That alone would let you know that I was in the engine room. A lot of people saw me as the think tank. I had to do a lot of things. I had to advise the Speaker, look at possibility of his speeches and what he had to say at any given time and all that. My schedule required that I should be on top of my game—what he had to say, how he said it—and I put them together for him. It was quite challenging, given the fact that the Speaker then brought a lot of life into the legislative business in Delta State. He was a vibrant young man, who was ready to take challenges and do a lot of things. And he needed a kind of vibrancy from his support staff of which I was one. So he put a team that was also forward-looking like him. Unfortunately, he left. He had issues with his colleagues, so he left. But I was still there serving.
Can you trace the journey of your involvement in UI Alumni association and ascendancy to its presidency?
The ascendancy to the presidency, I never planned for it. But I love UI because UI loved me first. In my local chapter at Asaba, I functioned very well with them. All assignments given to me, I tried to carry them out. In the Asaba chapter, I have persons who matriculated in the 1950s. We have persons who matriculated in 1948. So, for us in Asaba, we are simply small boys. We cannot, given our tradition, be there and the elderly ones do menial jobs. So, I was ready to do the little jobs for the association.
Like I said, UI first loved me before I loved UI. That was why I was doing very well for UI Asaba Chapter, including some of my colleagues, and they gave us some awards, even at a tender age. And along the line, they felt that we were good enough to begin to hold some positions, and I was made the publicity secretary of the association. They had to even bend the constitution for me during my time when my tenure expired, and I continued. And because of that, later, when there was vacancy, they did not even look at my age, they raised me up to become the second vice chairman. They also felt that I was good enough to represent them at the national level. They asked that I should represent them at the national level, so I came into the national association as ex-officio.
After my first term as an ex-officio, there was another election that enabled me to come back for a second term. You know, I was not ready to leave my position as ex-officio. Like I told you, I had a very intensive job. So, any other thing was going to come in as headache. Now, between my first and second tenures as ex- officio, my colleagues felt that there should be a change in the association. They felt that I should lead the association at that point in time. But I had a different idea. I also felt that there were certain persons in the association who were more capable to lead the association than myself. One was a lady and the other was a man, who lived somewhere in Lagos. But as fate would have it, they felt that I should lead them. I went into the election with the very viable support of my colleagues, because God was actually with me. And since then, I have been working with my colleagues.
The truth is this: I have heard so many people say that I have done so many things for the association, but I do not like that. I have not done so much for the association, because I never worked alone. I was working with colleagues. I am not the brightest, but I would say I am the luckiest, because I have men and women who would go out of their ways to do things, and at the end of the day, I take the credits. You know, I am virtually a very lucky President. In the first place, they wanted me to lead the team, and I led the team. Secondly, they would do the work; they do not have to wait for me. They would do it as if they are doing their personal jobs, but when people see it, they would think I did it. I just take the credit.
Some believe that people who get involved in association activities such as this do so basically to peddle influence or gain advantage for themselves. What is your reaction to this?
That is not correct. But I would not deny the fact that in the midst of working for the Alumni association, I have gained one or two things. But God who sees my heart will know that that was not the motive. Now, I will give you an instance in Delta State: once upon a time, we had many Uites who were commissioners and so many people who were permanent secretaries. Successively, they became heads of service. So, when maybe one of them has an occasion or something to do and he thinks who can do this for me, he calls me and says please can you help do this? I know one who later became a head of service, and the chairman of the local government wanted him to help organise seminars for workers, and he said, ‘Good! I think I would recommend someone for you.’ He recommended me to them and I did the workshop for them, and one or two naira came into my pocket. I have been able to get corporate jobs by the virtue that I am a member of the association whom they see as working.
Now, all these things I am telling you was just when I was a floor member in the Asaba Chapter. Now, my moving into the university has a lot to do with the alumni activity. The then vice chancellor, who is also an alumnus, just felt that this guy is a great organiser; he could also do one or two things for me. He wanted me to be the university’s P.R.O. He invited me and offered it on a platter, but I said that I did not want it. And they could not understand how they could be offering me such job and I was saying no. They gave me an appointment letter, but I said I did not want it. Based on the alumni activity too, when Zenith Bank came into Asaba, I was also offered a job there. They said that I should leave The Pointer and join Zenith Bank. I said no! That I preferred to be where I was. As president now, I have met people through the alumni association, whether they are alumni or they are not. So, there’s a lot of advantage.
But, that should not be the motive or incentive. Old students need to get involved in the progress and development of their alma mater. I just think that those who show apathy to this responsibility are selfish. Honestly, I just think they are selfish. If there is any institution in Nigeria that ought not to be poor, it is UI. But some of the alumni of UI, I do not know. I think they are either selfish to themselves or they are wicked. But things are gradually changing. There are so many Uites too who think and breathe UI. They love UI so much. But I want to say that they are just one quarter. I am talking from experience. Three quarters are keeping to themselves.
What’s UI alumni’s population?
They are over 200,000, but the people who are active in the Alumni association are just a thousand, maybe two thousand in the whole country. They are not just there! But because we know we have the human resource. That is why the NEC of this association that it pleases God to let me lead now has evolved a scheme where we are thinking we are going to capture at least a hundred thousand alumni and then give them the task of giving us a thousand naira each year. Give us just one thousand which you would have used to take beer, and we will plough it back to the university. If you give the university N50 million every year from the Alumni association, UI will change, because I know the financial capacity of UI today. As a member of the governing council, I know that the University of Ibadan, in terms of finance, is walking a tight rope. But that is where the alumni association ought to come in.
So, in the next few months, I intend shopping for the alumni wherever they are with cap in hands to beg that if it is N1,000 you give us, if we aggregate N1,000 from about hundred thousand persons altogether, you will know how much it will give us.
That’s why we formed the University of Ibadan Alumni Trust fund. It is a 10 to 11 member- committee of great UItes to man that board as independent from the executives of the Alumni association. To manage the funds and then plough it back to the university. So I would use this opportunity to beg all Uites even friends of UI who can give us N1,000. We are not asking for more than N1,000. If you want to give us more than that one thousand naira, you can. I, Kemi Emina, I am not signatory to the account, so do not get worried we are going to embezzle your money. I am not a signatory to the account. Even if I am signatory to the account, I do not intend to tamper with it. The little money we have had, I believe I am opportune to have gone to one or two schools abroad to have one or two programmes carried out, and I found what the alumni of those universities have done. I went to the University of California, Beckley. I was also at Portsmouth in UK. You see big buildings and this family or that family was said to be responsible for putting it up. You will say how come this big building? And you would see some that the alumni of the university built. Big structures! And I asked myself why can’t the University of Ibadan alumni do the same? Why can’t the alumni of the university come together and do something for the university so that people will see it as coming from the old boys and old girls?
That informed why we chose to build the 54-bedroom PG hall of residence. But mind you, the Omolayoles, Dr. Michael Omolayole, who is the founder of alumni association in Nigeria, University of Ibadan, conceived building the PG hall. So, the idea of building the PG hall is not mine. I simply looked through the books and I found it there that there were plans to build a PG hall, but apparently, they could not do it at that time. So it just happened during my tenure. Like I said, I am not the brightest, but I am the luckiest. The project is completed and it was supposed to be commissioned by his Excellency, the President, in September, but because of one or two crisis…The PG hall is of 54 bedrooms, en-suite. That means it has a bedroom and it has a kitchen to encourage post graduate studies, especially if you know that UI is almost 60 per cent post graduate, 40 per cent undergraduate. We have built that, we will commission it and hand it over to the university authorities as our contribution to the growth of scholarship here in UI.
Not only are we doing that, we are also providing scholarship for 26 brilliant students. We catch them from year one and it will be every year. And we also try to participate in university games. That is what the executive I lead now plans to do, because UI must lead. But with this novel project that we have, of which we are trying to get the alumni to give a thousand naira each, if we can get that off ground, we can say to Olayinka every year we are giving you N100 million to put into research and look for what will cure cancer. Put it into research and look for how we are going to drive malaria out of Nigeria. Put it into research and let us see how we can breed this or breed that. It will go a long way because we have the best of brains here, but we do not have the funds to carry out research. There are so many great Uites who God has blessed. Give us a little of what you have.
I am pretty sure that the people who gave the little money we used in building the PG hall, if they come here tomorrow to see it, they would want to give us more. The highest budget we had for that building was N33 million and that project is also N250 million. So the next question is where did we get the other money? Some people gave us N1,000 each. One of them was an alumnus, Mrs. Folashade Ogunaike, who lives in Lagos. I am so happy talking about her. She went begging her friends and colleagues she could reach and she was collecting N1,000 each from them and she put down their names and sent them to me. That was part of the funds for the building you see. The big donors are the ones I said N33 million. We had N10 million, N5 million and others who gave one thousand naira. That is part of the building you see there. Now, what you will find in that building is 54 bedrooms en-suite, which are all completed. The place is fenced, we have borehole water and NEC decided that we should also energise the place by installing a transformer. But it has been built out of the N1, 000 we were able to gather from people.
Mrs. Ogunaike did not give me just N1, 000 herself, she gave me more. She was able to rally her friends who gave N1, 000 each. I wish all Uites can be like her. We should just realise we owe the university this obligation, because UI has given so much to us all, we should give back. I met a Uite, a lady who is a professor in Benue State, we got talking and I asked her, ‘What are you going to do for us?’ And she asked what she could when she is just a teacher. I said look, I need a borehole at the Alumni Centre. Do you know that if you can aggregate N2,000 monthly and we put them together you would have given me half of the money in sinking a borehole? Then, she asked how much it costs to sink a borehole. I told her N500,000. And she said you mean N500,000? I said yes. Two months later, she sent N500,000 into the account. All she did what to send me a text that ‘My president, I have sent in the N500,000.’ That was what solved the alumni’s quest for water in the past three years.