Pioneer Vice Chancellor of Ahman Pategi University (APU), Kwara State, Prof. Mahfouz Adedimeji, claims that full autonomy will make universities to fend for themselves, leading to fees hike DAMOLA KOLA-DARE reports.
For the pioneer Vice Chancellor of Ahman Pategi University (APU), a private university in Kwara State, Prof. Mahfouz Adedimeji, full university autonomy should be critically examined because it would amount to universities catering to themselves and astronomical rise in fees for them to cope effectively.
In an interview with The Nation, he said: “It is possible if there is a will. However, I hope people understand the implications of the full autonomy. One of the implications of a full autonomy may be that universities will fend for themselves. If that happens, public universities will increase their fees to cope.
Adedimeji noted that it was imperative to prioritise research and researchers in the country, adding that intellectuals and researchers are not accorded much value and that’s part of why the country is lagging behind in development.
“In developed nations, research drives development and the impact is felt in the polity. In Nigeria, however, intellectuals and researchers are not accorded much value and that’s part of why we are where we are. We glorify politics and celebrate entertainers. It is the era of knowledge economy globally but in Nigeria, our leaders are anti-knowledge and anti-intellectual, which is unfortunate,” he said.
On being the vice chancellor and the enormous responsibility that comes with it, he said: “Being a VC means responsibility. It means something like what Alfred Lord Tennyson said of old age. “Old age hath yet his honour and his toil”; meaning that it comes with its honour and toil. We all pray to grow old but the old people are not finding it easy because of the toils associated with it. Definitely, being a vice-chancellor is a crowning glory to an academic career. Yet, it is a taxing assignment for those who take it with a sense of responsibility or seriousness it deserves. To me, being a VC is service and sacrifice with a good sense of responsibility.
“The experience has been life-like or challenging. Life is naturally full of challenges and pioneering a university can be back-breaking, energy-sapping and mentally-enervating especially when the angles are yet to align. But in it all, the attitude of gratitude and fortitude keeps one soldiering on. By and large, it has been a challenging but worthwhile experience for which I am grateful to God and man.
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“You must be ready to step on toes and ruffle feathers. People don’t always want to do right things but the vice chancellor must insist that right things be done to keep the system going and protect its integrity. My own experience certainly aligns with that. One ought to take people to where they ought to be, not where they want to be and that will require making them leave their comfort zones. Being nice to everyone isn’t necessary. Nice girls aren’t responsible girls because they are too willing to please people and not willing to say no. No serious-minded person wants to be nice. It is good enough to be good.”
Adedimeji stressed the need to prioritise welfare of university workers, while decrying poor funding, infrastructure, among others.
“Unionisation wouldn’t have even come into being if people’s welfare and interest of the system were given priority. There is no doubt that the pattern of agitation and fixation on industrial action would require modification and reassessment. Nevertheless, tertiary education grapples with funding, infrastructure, access, quality assurance and other issues. Strikes are only a single ring in a long chain of challenges,” he said.
The erstwhile Director, Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, urged government to make basic education free and compulsory to address the issue of out-of-school children.
His words: “Making basic education free and compulsory as done in the past in some parts of the country, especially in the South West, would encourage parents. I am aware that the issue of the out-of-school-children was topmost on the ministerial agenda of the former Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu. The newly established National Commission for Al-Majiri Education and out-of-school children is a bold step in addressing the phenomenon. We can only hope that the commission will live up to its billing.”
Comparing public universities and private, he said: “Generally, public universities have more resources than private ones. However, this truism cannot be stretched too far because there are public universities, especially state-owned ones, whose proprietors just abandon after establishing them. So, they are just like orphans. There are some private universities that are well-funded based on the vision and resources of the proprietors. In reality, the devil is in the details and it depends more on the specifics of each university too, not absolutely on the nature of ownership.”
Concerning his vision for APU, he said: “My plan is anchored on Vision 5:25:50:500 by which I meant that in five years, I intended to make the university one of the best 25, 50 and 500 in Nigeria, Africa and the world respectively. But I anchored the vision on the three Salmian conditions of concentration of talents, abundant resources and favourable governance. Resources are at the centre in Jamil Salmi’s view because they are needed to attract talents in quality students and staff. You also need resources to institutionalise favourable governance or to get round pegs in round holes. But resources are scarce to put it mildly.
Therefore, the plan is not going as originally conceived but nevertheless, we are on course to change the narrative through a number of processes that border on thinking outside the box and thinking without the box. It is gratifying that in about two years of operation, the university has done tremendously well in teaching and has recorded dozens of research publications. It has also served the community in capacity building and graduated its first set of diploma students. The students have competed well at inter-university competitions held in 2021 and 2022 at the University of Ilorin and Al-Hikmah University respectively. We are on course. At the end of my tenure, I will like it to be one of the best private universities in Nigeria. I will like it to overcome the initial challenges that I have been dealing with.”
Adedimeji , who described Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board JAMB Registrar Prof. Is-haq Oloyede and Prof. R.D Abubakre as his biggest career influences, noted that he had been coping with challenges encountered at the fledgling university.
“Challenges are part and parcel of life. One can only be coping with them. I have a set of five P’s with which I cope with challenges generally. These are prayer, planning, practice or effort, patience/perseverance and persistence. It is a cycle as persistence still ends in prayer, which is the beginning,” he added.
