Until he became the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Osun (UNIOSUN), Osun State, Prof. Odunayo Adebooye, was a researcher at a research centre in Germany. A professor of Plant Physiology/Food Chemistry, he has won 25 international research grants and about 100 travel grants. The first Nigerian to win the prestigious Humboldt Alumni Award of the German Government’s Humboldt Foundation, which included a cash reward of US$30,000 speaks with GBENGA ADERANTI about university politics, the prolonged strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and how an encounter with a catechist changed the course of his life, among other issues.
Politics appears to have crept into the university system. What could have been responsible for that?
Politics is part of life. Even in the homes, we play politics. Among the father, mother and their children, politics comes into play. It is the same thing in academia with the politics of research. In research itself, there is politics. In funding, there is politics. When you talk about funding the university itself or research funding, there is politics. As it is in the society, so it is in the university system.
Perhaps, it is worthwhile to mention that politics in the university system is more toxic than politics in the civil society. So politics is part of life and it plays out everywhere. Even in the church, in the mosque and in the shrines, there is politics.
Have been able to address some of the issues raised before your emergence as the vice-chancellor?
What issues?
The aggrieved party said the criteria set by the university management appeared to have deliberately sidelined candidates from the arts, the humanities and some other faculties.
In this business, the business of scholarship and academia, it is universal. Universal in the sense that we are subjected to the same gradient of parameters. By gradient of parameters, I mean what are the indices for measuring academic performance or for measuring scholarship? These indices or the gradient of parameters are universal; nobody disputes them anywhere in the world.
For example, when you look at the capacity of a scholar to profess as a professor, he is rated on the basis of what are those literacies, the measures of global academic performance. If for example you want to recruit me at the University of Washington DC, United States of America, what they would do is to look at my literacies, what I scored in the different grades of parameter, what I call indices of academic performance. I will mention some of them, they may look at your citations, how much of your published works have been cited, not by yourself, because sometimes we scholars, we cite ourselves. They will look at those people that have cited your work. Is your work gaining prominence in the academic landscape globally?
Two, they would say has he won grants? If he had won grants, how many of them? Who are the agencies that awarded the grants? And after asking that, they would say how much is the grant? You know grants have father and mother. The father of grants runs into millions of dollars. These are some of the parameters.
There are parameters that measure how much time each of your work has been cited or read. How many times has your work been downloaded? Has he ever attended international conferences? Has he ever held leadership positions in universities? For example, has he been head of department? Has he been dean? Has he been provost or director? Has he been Deputy Vice-Chancellor? They may go further, they may say scholars are truly universal. If they are truly universal, you must have held some international positions. Holding an international position does not mean you should be a director at the United Nations, No! Has he been an editor of an international journal? For example, have you participated in leadership roles in some international organisations?
So these are some of the measures that we look at in academics. It is not true that some academic disciplines were sidelined. No, the basis for scholarship is excellence. It is so defined and there is no other way to define it other than what I have told you.
I want you to cast back your mind back to the December 16, 2021 Osogbo High Court judgment that eventually put paid to agitations in certain quarters and your eventual emergence as the Vice-Chancellor. What was going on in your mind before the court pronouncement?
I was in faraway Germany. I had a big contract with the German research Centre in Germany. That was where I was before the advertisement for this job was placed. Actually, I did not want to apply for the job because the one I was doing in Germany was something that would give me a very big name in the field of science. I was investigating the location of the brains of plants at a German research centre.
When the advert came out and I applied, I think I submitted my application on the closing date for submission of applications. But before then, I had read a number of articles in the papers by journalists, by aggrieved people who said the criteria set for the appointment were too tough. I sat down and I asked myself a question: is it worth coming down even if I’m appointed, to lead a university here with all these problems circulating at this moment?
At one point, I decided that I was going to withdraw my application, and I told a few friends. I phoned from Germany to Nigeria asking my friend to help me withdraw my application. Some important people in this state told me that I should not withdraw my application; that it was part of life. What was going on in my mind was if you apply for a job, it is not compulsory that you get the job.
That is one thing Nigerians should know. If you apply for a job and if you assume that you have a very good CV, you must not bank on it that you are the one that will clinch the job. I’ve never had such a mindset in my life, that whenever I apply for a job, I will get the job. That is my attitude. I just applied like a normal Nigerian. Those were the issues around that time. I wanted to withdraw my application when the roforofo fight started. I honestly wanted to.
Do you regret accepting the appointment?
No, I don’t. I enjoy it because it allows me to bring my best to bear on the institution.
The issues that were raised, have you been able to tackle any of them?
Yes. I was appointed at 8.57 pm on January 3rd with the mandate from the government that I should resume the next morning at 8 am. I had less than 12 hours, 11 hours and three minutes, to prepare. There was nothing to prepare over the night, so I assumed duty the next day. The first thing I did was to meet with the various stakeholders. I met all the professors separately; I met all the collegiate separately. I toured all the six campuses within a week. I met all the unions individually and separately. I met the principal officers separately, made them see that there is a provision both in the Bible and Quran and even in the traditional religion, that there can be two kings at a time, only one person will sit on the leadership seat at a time. And there is always tenure. I made them realise that and whatever I have to do to make sure things run here normally, I would do. And since then, I have been doing that.
How receptive were they to you?
I must confess that I enjoy close to 100 per cent cooperation in this school, both from principal officers and the staff of the university.
Talking about the challenges facing multi-campus institutions, how have you been able to manage it here?
We have designed methods and strategies to tackle challenges associated with multi-campus institutions. If we say that there are no problems in it, we deceive ourselves and truth is not in us. There are problems, but what leaders should enjoy is confronting problems and bringing up solutions. That is what they call leadership.
The challenges were the elective courses and part of what we have done is to hire what we call adjunct lecturers. Adjunct lecturers are professors in other universities who want to do part- time jobs and whom we pay on the basis of semester performances.
Students are agitating and parents are frustrated. What is the way out of this strike being embarked upon by university teachers’ union? Should they always go on strike to press home their demands?
Strike is a universal right of workers. Workers can go on strike and the law is explicitly clear. I would refer to the Nigerian Trade Dispute Act as well as International Labour Organisation code. They allow strike actions even without notice. But we should ask ourselves, does it appeal to commons sense that a union should embark on a one-year strike or six-month strike. Well, the answer is known to all of us. We would say well, since the workers have the right to go on strike, they should try to moderate how to do it so that the lives of the young ones would not be put in jeopardy, and that is the way I see all those things.
ASUU is also right in some respects and government is right in some respects. Where government is right and where ASUU is right should be the meeting point for the two bodies. I will give you examples. I want to say it without any fear of contradiction from anywhere, the salary of a Nigerian professor is too poor, given the present level of inflation. A situation where a professor has been earning the same salary since 2009 is not acceptable.
Another area in which the ASUU is correct is their complaint about the level of decay in the university system. If you go to some laboratories in the federal universities, you will cry, “Is this where they are teaching students?” Things are dilapidated. Some of the state universities, including UNIOSUN, are far better than several public universities. If you go to the laboratories in UNIOSUN, you would have the wrong impression that Nigerian universities are of high standards. But if you go to some government universities, you will cry.
One side the government is right but they are not completely right is Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). In universities, you have granted them autonomy. Having granted them autonomy, allow them to operate.
While you have a tacit support for the strike by the varsities teachers’ union, I understand your teachers don’t go on strike. How true is this?
It is true. Universities are funded on three models. I’m not talking about private universities. Public universities are funded on three models. The first model is 100 per cent funding of varsities. The second model is 100 per cent funding of salaries by the university themselves. The third model is shared funding by the university and the state. In universities where 100 per cent of the salary is generated, one of them is in Kwara State. So where a state university exists and all they get from the government is the capital funding and not the personnel, you cannot expect the university to use the funding of students to pay salaries when workers are on strike.
The universities that are being run on the basis of self-sustenance, catering 100 per cent for their salaries or those that are on shared contributions payment will not feel comfortable to go on strike.
Students are facing challenges as a result of lack of accommodation. Are you not considering hostels for students even if it means going into partnership with the private sectors?
When this university was established in 2006 and it took off in 2007, the brief that established the university stated clearly that this should be a non-residential university. Having said that, some three years ago, this university realised that the rate at which it was going, there was the need to change over and become a residential university. So this university on her own built 104 bed-space hostels across our six campuses and those hostels are named after the monarchs of those communities.
Are you not acting outside the mandate?
We are not acting outside the mandate. They are the rules written down, but they could be changed. We changed the content of the brief. Look down there, you will see 1,500-bed hostels being constructed now by the BOT. The university is already building another 600 bed hostel for students who are coming in October/November. At our College of Health Sciences, we have secured some agreement to build a 500 capacity hostel for our medical students. At Ajegunle, we have a 240-bed hostel for our current medical students. And by the grace of god across our six campuses, we are going to multiply 104 to become 208 hostels in the next one year. We are changing the narratives of the university. We have become a residential university.
What were your growing up days like?
It was rough and devastating. I should have been a palm wine tapper now or a very big hunter.
Why did you say so?
Before I completed my primary education, when I was in Primary 4 in 1974, my father, who was the only educated person in our family, died. And the moment he died, there was nobody to encourage anybody to go to school. In 1978 when I completed primary school, my mother called me and said, ‘Look, we don’t have money, so how do we do this? I said the best for me was to learn tailoring, fashion designing from one of the local tailors in our village. I started learning tailoring and combined tailoring with hunting and farming. I was planting a whole lot of maize and cassava and I was hunting and killing all sorts of animals. I would go to the expressway and raise the animals up for sale. I was making money on a daily basis.
But fortune smiled on me in June 1979 when the catechist of my church, St David’s Anglican Church, Akiriboto, Gbongan came to my mother late in the evening and said application for admission into secondary school form was out and that I should try it maybe the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) would win the election as they promised that there would be free education. My mother asked how much was the form and he said it was free, that I should take one.
You know catechists at that time were very powerful in the Anglican schools. I filled the form and submitted it. Then sometime in August, 1979, the admission letter came and was signed by Mrs Tejumade Alakija, the then permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education in the old Oyo State. That was how I registered in school the second week and they said we should pay school fees. My mother said how are we going to get the money? I said let me go to my fashion designing and hunting. After all, I was getting money every time.
The following morning, my mother woke up and said some days before you were born, I met a prophet who told me that the child inside my womb was a boy and that he would be a great man and that he would stand on top of people and he would command respect not only in Nigeria but all over the world. And my mother said her father gave her gold when she was getting married. My mother was one of the daughters of the Ademiluwa Ajagun, the Ooni of Ife before Oba Aderemi. My mother said she could sell some of the gold to give me money to go to school. She sold the gold left for her by her father and that was how I paid my school fees, which was N10.50k. But as soon as I paid the school fees, Bola Ige won the election and declared free education. That was how I went through secondary school. Today, after worshiping God, I declared my loyalty to anything that has to do with the late Bolarinwa Ajibola Ige and late Chief Jeremiah Awolowo. They gave me the chance.
I’ve read a lot of things about racism in Germany. How were you able to cope, especially working in their research centre?
I never had any cause to be discriminated against. If anything, the German system had a lot of love for me as a person. Apart from that, the German government calls me to everything they do if it is within the Ministry of Education and one of the foundations. I never experienced it. Racism in Germany, when they say it, I tell them it is not real, probably because of where I lived in Germany.
I first studied Engineering in 1985. But one thing happened: the course I was admitted to in Ife was not in line with what I was studying in the polytechnic. I was studying Mechanical Engineering at the polytechnic but I was admitted to study Plant Science in the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Ife.
I went back to my mother when I got the admission letter. I said how would I change from Engineering to Plant Science, and my mother asked me, tell me the meaning. I told her that engineering it has to do with mechanics, electronics and other things while in plant science, I would just be studying plants. She said that is what you should do. She said that the prophet I told you about said this fetus in my womb is a boy. He would be a great person and he would be working with plants and leaves, and that is where he would derive his might in the world. I didn’t think again before I packed my luggage from Iree and I went to University of Ife, which was later changed to Obafemi Awolowo University before I graduated.
In almost all the universities in Nigeria, you often hear about sexual harassment. How have you been able to manage this in your school, considering the average rate of these girls?
These girls also harass lecturers. Male lecturers harass female students. Female students harass male lecturers and they equally harass male students. That is the truth of the matter. On this seat of Vice Chancellor, we see a lot of things. But I want to confirm to you with all sense of responsibility that females also harass males.
Have you had any cause to punish a lecturer here because of that?
There is what they call sexual harassment code in UNIOSUN. We apply it. We have applied it in several instances that we got to know.
