The above quote by Malcom X may have prompted the present administration in Ekiti State to embark on putting Higher Education on the right track more so when the state is reputed as the Fountain of Knowledge, Land of Honour and home to uncountable professors who had made their mark in various fields.
The citadel of learning known today as the Ekiti State University, has undergone many transformations especially in name.
The institution was established on March 30, 1982, by the Adekunle Ajasin administration and was called, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ado-Ekiti at inception with Professor I. O. Oladapo, as the first Vice Chancellor. The military administration of Navy Commodore Michael Bamidele Otiko, changed the name of the university in 1985 to the Ondo State University, Ado-Ekiti, and cancelled the multi-campus and non-residential policy of the institution.
Following the creation of Ekiti State, by the military junta in 1996, economic assets, institutions and establishments previously owned by the Ondo State were shared with the newly created Ekiti State. Hence, the ownership and proprietorship of the Ondo State University, Ado-Ekiti, came under the joint administration of the governments of Ekiti State and the Ondo State respectively.
However, the joint management irretrievably broke down understandably in 1998, necessitating the creation of Ondo State University at Akungba by the Ondo State government and years later, under the Agagu administration, a University of Science and Technology at Okitipupa. Subsequently, the government of Ekiti State took over the ownership, full administrative control and funding of the Ondo State University at Ado-Ekiti and enacted a law to rename the university as University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. The Ekiti State government also took steps to ensure that all records and properties of the university remained intact.
In the year 2007, a new civilian government led by Mr Segun Oni was installed in Ekiti State. The government, in addition to the existing University of Ado-Ekiti, established two new state owned universities in controversial circumstances; University of Education, Ikere-Ekiti and the University of Science and Technology, Ifaki-Ekiti.
These two universities, along with the existing University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria, were funded from the public treasury; this took a great toll on the public purse and led to the polarisation of the educational system. In October 2010, there was a change of government in Ekiti State and the new government under Dr. Kayode Fayemi, convened a statewide Education Summit in 2011, to consider the best ways to sustain tertiary education and to fund public institutions owned by the government of Ekiti State.
Part of the decisions taken at the summit was to merge the three state-owned universities as a single public institution for better funding and management. In June 2011, the Ekiti State government, merged University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria; University of Education, Ikere-Ekiti and University of Science and Technology, Ifaki-Ekiti as a single university and following the assent of the governor to the Ekiti State University, Law No. 11 in July 2011, renamed it, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria (EKSU).
In order to appreciate the state of the university today, it is necessary to know its trajectory in the last 32 years of its existence. The university, which today has a population of 25,000 students started off with a student population of 136, at an old catering rest house in Akure, Ondo State with three faculties; Arts, Social Sciences and Sciences.
The Faculty of Education was added in 1983/84, when the population rose to 724, and new courses such as Geology, Biology, Chemistry, French, Yoruba Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Political Science and Psychology were established to strengthen the faculties.
In the 1985/86 session, the Faculty of Engineering (Civil, Mechanical and Electrical) and a Department of Banking and Finance, were established. The Faculty of Law was established during the 1991/92 session, and the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences was established in 2001, bringing the faculties to eight in total and a student population of 10,000. The student population is now in excess of 25,000 (49% male and 51% female), spread across the various academic progr-ammes. There are 555 teaching staff and 1,500 non-teaching staff. The libraries boast of over 150,000 volumes in journals and books apart from virtual library, while there are over 1,000 titles.
Today, the university is running degree programmes in 67 fields of academic specialisation, which are domiciled within the 11 faculties, one school of Postgraduate Studies and a College of Medicine.
The other academic centres that run faculty programmes are, Directorate of Continuing Education, Directorate of Part-Time Programme, Directorate of Sandwich Education Degree Programme, Affiliate Colleges, Institute of Education, Institute of Science Laboratory Technology, Directorate of Pre-Degree Programmes, General Studies Unit, Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies and the Centre for Research and Development, among others.
The university had its fair share of the travails that afflicted universities in the late 80s and early 90s, more so when it was a new state university at that time. The problems of the university which ranged from lack of funding to absence of infrastructures did not make the environment conducive for learning.
In terms of infrastructure at that time, there was no good access road as the Ado-Iworoko road was very bad, such that commercial vehicles avoided the route like a plague; lack of students’ hostel; lack of regular electricity and pipe-borne water, which made the university looked like a glorified secondary school with a campus environment that became a fertile ground for cultism. Although, cultism was not peculiar to the university as it was a national phenomena, it was worse with the then University of Ado–Ekiti, where cultists killed and maimed one another in broad daylight on campus.
Today, cultism is gradually fading away as the incidence of cult killings is becoming a thing of the past. One lane of the Ado-Iworoko road that leads to the campus has been completed by the Fayemi administration and this has made access to the university by commuters easier and faster.
Electricity has become more regular because the institution has been connected to Ado-Ekiti electricity grid. The university was ranked 17 by webmetric from its previous 79 position in 2012, after it was repositioned under the Vice Chancellorship of Professor Oladipo Aina, and the governing board headed by Professor Olajide Osuntokun, a respected world acclaimed scholar.
The Statewide Education Summit, which recommended the consolidation of the three existing universities into one was a turning point in the life of the embattled university whose fortune changed for the better in 2011.
The transformation and change of fortune became noticeable a year after the recommendation of the education summit were adopted and implemented by the state government. The first noticeable change in the university was that the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFUND), former Education Trust Fund (ETF), of which the state is a contributor and which was not easily accessible because of the multiplicity of universities became easily accessible by the consolidated university.
The arrears of the TETFUND was made possible through the intervention of the state government. Another change was that fake students were shown the way out as well as some lecturers, who were involved in examination malpractices and admission racketeering, thereby sanitising the academic standard of the institution.
Unlike in the past, when graduates of the university waited for donkey years before they could collect their certificates, they now do so on convocation day. The institution has become a promising and emerging centre of research. Discipline was restored amongst the staff and student of the institution.
Talking about structures, apart from facilitating easy access to TETFUND, the state government released a capital grant of N400 million (N100 million of this is meant to facilitate the upgrading of the College of Medicine building), which made the construction of the buildings possible.
It is worthy of note that this was the first time in the history of the university that the state government would release a capital grant. Similarly, the state government increased the monthly subvention of the institution from N210 million to N260 million.
Today, Ekiti State University is such a beauty to behold as many state-of-the-art buildings have been completed, while others are still under construction. The buildings that have been completed with the capital grant are; the Biochemistry/Pharmacology building, the Medical Library building and the Clinical Students’ hostel. Other buildings that have been completed are, Faculty of Agriculture, Entrepreneurship Centre, New Faculty of Education, Physiology Department, School of Post Graduate Studies, Social Sciences and Anatomy Department, 1,050 seater lecture theatre and a twin auditorium.
A new SUB building, donated by an old student of the institution, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, is almost completed. The Library, Faculties of Arts and old Education were renovated in 2012, from the IGR of the university. Engineering equipment worth millions of naira was procured for the Faculty of Engineering, from the capital grant released to the university.
Apart from the mentioned structures, this is the first time that the state government would be constructing a 2-kilometre road inside the campus. It is pertinent to mention and acknowledge the contributions of many individuals, organisations and philanthropist to the development of EKSU, over the years.
Philanthropists, such as Dr. Lawrence Omolayo, shall never be forgotten. He donated the administrative block, consisting of 271 offices, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), constructed and fully furnished a 350 seater Law Auditorium, Dr. Ahmed Aliyu Mustapha, built a 400 seater Lecture Theatre, while Ado-Ekiti community built the administrative block for the Faculty of Law.
The Kole Ajayi-led Alumni Association built an Alumni Centre for the university in 2002, while the Jadesola Babatola-led Alumni Association constructed the Faculty of Law Moot and Trial Court in 2009. Shell Petroleum, recently established an Information Communication Technology Centre (ICT), in the university apart from the donations of NUC virtual library and Access Education, which also donated computers and server to the university.
Out of the 67 academic programmes run by the university, 52 are fully accredited, 11 are accredited in the interim, while 4, including the College of Medicine are yet to be visited for accreditation. Though the courses in the College of Medicine have the approval of the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC), and Nigerian Medical Council (NMC).
The university has joined the ICT age, as almost all its academic activities are linked to one on-line facility or the other. The university is undergoing an institutional accreditation exercise, as a selected institution in South West, Nigeria.
The council of the university also recently set-up an endowment fund for indigent, but brilliant students with an initial contribution of N1million, pointing out that the problem of indigency has become real in the university because of the poor economic situation and the rising cost of university education. The university has a limited number of residential and sports facilities for staff and students within and outside the main campus.
The university will embark on building of students’ hostels before the end of this year. Also, the state government has pre-qualified and recommended about six private companies to partner with the university in the construction of students’ halls of residence on Build Transfer and Operate (BOT) basis. Recently, the university set up the University Advancement Centre, chaired by Prince Julius Adeluyi.
The centre is to further enhance the advancement of the university by collaborating with other established institutions across the world and can enter into negotiations that can further enhance the fortune of the university.
It is a thing of joy and pride for all Ekiti citizens and stakeholders to know that Ekiti State University is now a higher institution to be proud of. EKSU students had the best result in Law School in 2012. The campus is gradually taking shape and looking like a real university environment, though a lot of work is still required.
With the current steady pace of development going on in EKSU, in no time, the university will compete with the likes of UNILAG and OAU. Little wonder, an alumni of the school, who had not visited the school in 8 years, but did this year exclaimed and asked no one in particular, Whaooo! Is this UNAD? A student answered him, no sir, it was UNAD before but now, it is EKSU! This was underscored by the governor in his own words,
“I want EKSU to be of the standard of the UNILAG that I went to. That is my obligation to you. For the first time in 30 years, this is the first government in Ekiti to give capital grant. The government has just given EKSU N100 million for the accreditation of medicine.
Anyone who knows what EKSU used to be knows there is an improvement. Roads are being tarred. I am not doing that to curry favour. I want our tertiary institutions to be of good standard. I want all our institutions to be institutions that can compete with good ones all over the world.”
•Jamiu is the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Research & Documentation.
