The Governing Council of Crawford University (CRAWFORD) has approved the appointment of Prof Rotimi Ajayi as the Vice-Chancellor (VC) for the school. Ajayi will take over from Prof Samson Ayanlaja whose five-year tenure ended last month.
The development was revealed at a send-off organised for the outgoing VC and two senior staff going on retirement. The outgoing officials are the Bursar, Reverend E.O. Ajayi, and the school counsellor, Dr E.O. Aramide. The event was held at the Multi-purpose Hall.
The Council praised Ayanlaja for his service to the school, saying his administration recorded remarkable achievement, including improvement in academic ranking of the institutions and total accreditation of all the school’s programmes.
The Council also said the outgoing VC’s tenure witnessed establishment of Postgraduate College and Department of Mass Communication.
Prof Ajayi, before this appointment, was the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA) in Ondo State.
He studied Physics at the University of Ibadan and had his Master’s in Radiation and Health Physics in the same institution.
He started his career as an assistant lecturer at the AAUA and rose through the ranks to become a professor of Radiation and Health Physics in the Department of Physics and Electronics.
He held several academic and administrative positions before he was appointed the AAUA Deputy Vice-Chancellor.
Authorities of FUNAAB have described as unfortunate the demise of Miss Maria Modupe Atere, a 300-level student in the Department of Plant Physiology and Crop Production, College of Plant Science and Crop Production (COLPLANT), of the university.
Atere 22, was on a commercial motorcycle when she was knocked down by a car, on Camp-Alabata Road, around the Ogun-Oshun River Basin Development Authority (OORBDA) gate, in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
When the sad incident occurred, some Good Samaritans brought two unidentified victims of the accident to a private clinic at Camp. Miss Atere was later discovered to be one of them. She was given first aid treatment before being referred to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Abeokuta, for better medical attention due to the severity of the injuries sustained. Unfortunately, she died in the process.
However, contrary to negligence as it was alleged by some individuals against the university, Atere was never brought to the institution’s Health Centre for treatment, hence, no doctor had the opportunity to quickly examine her and arrive at a decision on the most appropriate form of medical treatment.
Meanwhile, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Olusola Oyewole, has approved a committee to investigate the circumstances that led to the unfortunate incident.
A professor of Mathematics and Statistics, Msugh Kembe, has been appointed Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Benue State University (BSU). Governor Samuel Ortom, picked Kembe from the three candidates, who vied for the position. Other contestants are Prof Nicholas Ada and Prof Julius Ashiko.
Kembe, 53, will take over from the outgoing VC, Prof Charity Angya whose tenure expires on Tuesday.
Before his appointment, Kembe was the Dean of Faculty of Sciences.
His appointment has been applauded by students, who hope would continue the infrastructural project of the outgoing VC.
Students’ Union Government (SUG) president, Martin Orjime, pledged the union’s readiness to work with the incoming VC. He said security and healthcare should be priority of the new helmsman, saying: “Sanitation should be made regular in the hostels.”
Anthony Akor, a 100-Level Political Science student, described Kembe’s appointment as a good development, urging the new VC to introduce reforms that would take the school to new heights.
“Since Prof Kembe met all the screening requirements, it tells us that he is a round peg in a hole. But I want to add that he should work harder to surpass the achievement of the outgoing VC, because that will be the yardstick with which his tenure would be measured,” he said.
Kembe joined the university in 1993 and rose through the ranks to become a professor. He has held various administrative positions, including the Deputy Dean, Faculty of Science, Head of Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, and Senior Examinations Officer of the department.
Ten months after assuming office, Vice-Chancellor of the Adekunle Ajasin University at Akungba-Akoko (AAUA) in Ondo State, Prof Igbekele Ajibefun, has held an interactive session with students on his plans for the institution. RICHARD ADURA-ILESANMI (400-Level Mass Communication) reports.
Prof Ajibefun
In January 6, Prof Igbekele Ajibefun stepped down as the Rector of the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo (RUGIPO) in Ondo State, following his appointment as Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the Adekunle Ajasin University at Akungba, Akoko (AAUA).
His appointment followed the expiration of five-year tenure of the immediate past VC, Prof Femi Mimiko. Ten months after assuming office, Ajibefun has met with students tell them his plans and mission at the university.
For over two hours, he answered questions from the students, who thronged the meeting tagged VC-Students’ Forum at the Olusegun Obasnajo Hall on the campus.
The meeting, Ajibefun said, is aimed at identifying students’ strengths and weaknesses, and to suggest ways of engaging the students as major stakeholders in moving the school to the next level.
He said: “One of the reasons for calling the meeting is to interact and rub minds with you. We want to know those areas where you are doing very well and to also know the areas where you have some challenges in order to see what can be done to solve the challenges that you might be facing.”
Congratulating the students for what he called “privilege” to study in the institution, the VC said his predecessor’s ingenuity and reforms had raised the institution’s bar of excellence and placed it as the best rated state-owned university in the county.
He said: “Prof Mimiko did a great job. He judiciously used the resources accrued to the university and this is why we have all these facilities in place. His ingenuity is one of the reasons the university was ranked as the Best State-Owned University in Nigeria. We are also grateful to the government for prompt release of fund to the school.”
Ajibefun promised his administration would step up the reforms to ensure the school remained the best, soliciting the students’ support in realising his objectives. He pledged that transparency and accountability would be the compass of his administration.
Students, the VC urged, must imbibe the spirit of hard work, commitment and dedication to square up with alumni of the school, who, he said, are contributing positively to the cause of the nation
He added: “I am surprised by the quality of students I met in AAUA. The management is receiving commendations for the good conduct our students have shown. This is my tenth month in office and I have never seen our students blocking the road or causing unnecessary riots. We want you to maintain that good behaviour, because it is in your own interest to behave well so that the institution could give good recommendation on you when the need arises.”
Ajibefun urged the students to always use dialogue in pressing home their grievances, rather than resorting to violence, which he said may destabilise the peace in the institution. He maintained that Aluta (a students’ parlance for violent demonstration) did not have a place in academic environment.
“What is logical today is dialogue. When we dialogue, we can solve a lot of problems. But when students embark on Aluta, management would ask them to go home and they would beg to come back. If school property is destroyed, you would come back to pay more for what is destroyed. Academic calendar would also suffer in the process. This is why you must be peaceful in your conduct and engagement,” he said.
The VC said he would not condone extortion of students by any lecturer, emphasising that his administration remained committed to the ban on sale of handouts and paying money to boost score. He told the students to report any lecturer extorting them in whatever form, assuring that the school would protect anyone that gave information on erring lecturers.
He also warned students against indulging in cultism and examination fraud, saying any student caught would be expelled.
Students, who spoke at the forum, raised concern about inadequate facilities and personnel in the school. They urged the management to boost facilities in the school Health Centre and provide hostel accommodation.
They also wanted the VC to provide libraries in all faculties, resuscitate the school solar lights and invite more banks to the campus.
Responding, Prof Ajibefun to promised to address the issues as soon as possible to give the students a new lease of life.
The VC said the hostels being built by the Ondo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (OSOPADEC) and other bodies would soon be completed. He added that the university had signed Memorandum of Understanding with some private individuals and firm to solve the accommodation problem facing the students.
APPARENTLY worried over the deplorable state of infrastructure in most universities across the country, members of the civil society have called for improved administration.
Speaking at the first National Students’ Summit in Lagos, Founder and Pastor, Later Rain Assembly, Tunde Bakare, blamed lack of self-governance on the part of students as a contributory factor for the pervasive “decay in campus life” across the Nigerian universities.
Bakare who sympathised with students that have had to contend with sundry challenges due to poor infrastructural facilities and generally deplorable condition of living on their campuses, however said it is shameful for them to protest over bad situation of which they are also the cause.
The convener of Save Nigeria Group, who recalled that he was aware that students of the University of Lagos protested recently over the state of their hostel accommodation and bed- bug ravaged mattresses, emphasised that the decay resulted from abuse of the facilities by the students themselves.
Bakare also decried the rot and corruption that have become the lot of NANS governing body, saying it has not only lost its voice, but also aligned itself with the nation’s corrupt politicians and persons in government, endorsing some of their reprehensible decisions.
He noted that since the campus is a subject of the larger society, it could not have been sharply different from what obtained in the larger Nigerian society where corruption, moral decadence and other vices seemed prevalent.
As a way of reversing the situation for better, he suggested that the students, the family, government, religious institutions and economic stakeholders “must make a fresh commitment to the rebirth of campus life in Nigeria.”
The summit tagged: “Campus life decay: What went wrong?” was organised by Mrs Adedayo Israel-Olukayode of Campus Revolution in conjunction with the National Association of Nigerian Students(NANS) and Reach-Out Integrated.
Students from no fewer than a dozen public universities beside polytechnics cutting across the six geo-political zones of the country attended the summit where the convener, Mrs Israel-Olukayode, said it was aimed at reversing the decay in campuses.
No fewer than 12 professors across various disciplines are contending for the post of Vice Chancellor at the Benue State University, Makurdi, which becomes vacant next month, when the tenure of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Charity Angya will expire.
The Nation’s investigation revealed that the immediate past Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and a Professor of Science Education Nicholas Akise Ada, is one of those in the frontline.
Prof Ada, who lost out in the last race, told our reporter that he is optimistic to clinch the top job this time around.
“I am well acquainted with this institution as the immediate past Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration) of Benue State University and to the best of my knowledge, I served with a deep sense of humility, dedication and courage for two terms, between 2011-2015.”
Another contender, Prof. Joseph Fiase, who had his Ph.D in Nuclear Physics from Manchester University in United Kingdom in 1988, said if given an opportunity, he would instill discipline in students who, according to him, should graduate with acceptable conduct.
“My vision is to provide a strong, purposeful, dynamic and visionary leadership to run the affairs of the university, to provide a well focused, innovative approach fully backed by a strong ICT (Information and Communications Technology) infrastructure that will reposition the university as centre of excellence and make it a world player in teaching, learning and research”. I intend to make Benue State University, Makurdi a first choice in Nigeria and Africa and to be among the top 200 universities in the world,” Fiase said.
Revealing his vision for the university if appointed as vice chancellor, Joseph Kerker, a professor of Ethics, vowed to establish more faculties, departments and units that would collectively work for the system. He promised to facilitate the use of vehicles not only for deans and directors, but also heads of departments.
Kerker told our reporter that he aimed to move workers in the institution away from the civil service training mentality, to a more professional and skill-oriented, all geared towards producing graduates that are self employed.
Others in the race are: Peter Ortese, a professor of Counseling Psychology in the university; Armstrong Adejo, a professor of Diplomatic History, as well as Prof. Julius Ashiko who is the DVC (Administration) of the university.
Others are: Francis Wegh, a professsor of Religion and Philosophy and Targema Iorvaa, a professor of Health Education.
The immediate past vice chancellor of the university, Paul Akase Sorkar, described all contestants as qualified. He, however, cautioned that Angya’s successor must possess integrity and should be appointed by merit as his expertise would count in moving the institution to a greater height.
The new Vice Chancellor (VC), Ajayi Crowther University (ACU), Prof. Dapo Asaju, has unfolded his plan to make the institution rise to the level of Bishop Ajayi Crowther’s fame and towering image within and outside Nigeria.
He said this while addressing reporters after a church service to mark his resumption in office at the weekend.
He said: “My major goal is to implement the vision of the founding fathers of this university. Ajayi Crowther, as a bishop, was an extra-ordinary man. In terms of vision, he improved Christianity in Yoruba land, Niger Delta and Igbo land. He had passion for education and his love for education and morals was incomparable. He was a great man. So, after 32 years as a university lecturer, I have the opportunity to be the Vice-Chancellor of this great university. I will do my best to see it attain the greatness it deserves.”
Calling on staff members to cooperate with him in moving the institution forward, Asaju said he came with the mind to learn and serve, stressing that everybody’s good ideas were needed to consolidate on the successes already made by his predecessors.
“This appointment is for me a very humble opportunity to come here to serve. I come with the mind to learn and listen. I am not a magician. I come purely with an open mind. I will interact with staff and we shall generate ideas together. I know what God has told me to do and we shall do it.
“I did not come here because of any ambition. I was offered this job five years ago but turned it down. I have been supervising the PG School that produces 500 priests yearly in Abeokuta. So, it is God’s time for me to come here,” he said.
Asaju, who is the third vice chancellor to head the institution, also unfolded his specific plan to start a medical college in collaboration with the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. The plan received a wide applause from workers and students.
Earlier in his sermon, the Rt. Rev. O. O. Oduntan, urged Asaju to see his new assignment as God’s work because leading the university was both a spiritual and academic task.
The cleric assured Asaju that God’s presence would go with him in the new assignment.
Taking his text from Exodus 33, Oduntan emphasised that God’s presence facilitates righteousness and attracts favour and rest in the course of the assignment.
Oduntan also emphasised that God’s presence would distinguish him and enable him to achieve the goals in his heart. He urged the university community to cooperate with him for all-round success.
Eight years after it was established, the Ondo State University of Science and Technology (OSUSTECH) in Okitipupa Local Government Area looks anything, but a higher institution. The campus is covered by weeds and it is confronted with academic and infrastructural challenges. Members of the host community are not happy with the state of the institution, reports TAIWO ADEBULU.
After a 10-minute drive from Okitipupa on the Igbokoda Highway in Ondo South Senatorial District lies a fallow land bordering Igodan-Lisa, Igbodigo and Erinje communities in Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State. The land is the permanent site of the Ondo State University of Science and Technology (OSUSTECH) which was founded in December, 2007.
For a people whose community has suffered neglect, the establishment of the university was seen as a sop. They rejoiced when the law setting up the school was passed by the Ondo State House of Assembly in 2008. Eight years after, the institution is an eyesore.
The campus is hardly visible, even at close range. From the main gate, an array of uncompleted buildings welcomes visitors. The weather-beaten structures are surrounded by thick weeds. The corroded gates are manned by under-fed security personnel who stop and search vehicles going into the campus.
But for the rectangular signboard that bears the institution’s name, a first-time visitor could mistake the campus for a farmland. The long stretch of road from the main entrance that leads to the heart of the campus is untarred and in bad shape.
On the left side, after the main gate, is the uncompleted Sport Complex. It can only be identified by a signpost, having been overgrown by weeds. On the right is the Students’ Union Building (SUB), which has been converted to the Centre for Entrepreneurial and Leadership Training (CELT).
Investigation by CAMPUSLIFE showed that the CELT building has been leased out to businessmen as bakery and water factory. Plantain chips merchants occupy a section of the building.
•The main library covered by weeds
At a junction on the campus is the Senate Building, which has been under construction since 2008. Next to it are the Administrative Block and main library, which are also under construction. These structures have been covered by bushes.
The school has been shut since May 27, following protests by students over fee hike. Ondo State indigenes pay N125,000; non-indigenes, N175,000. Irked by the exorbitant fee, students went wild, blocking the Igbokoda Highway to draw attention to their plight.
But, the closure of the school is not the reason the campus is covered by weeds. The campus has hardly developed beyond its foundation stage because of neglect.
The only completed building is the “Faculty of Engineering”, which was converted to the Faculty of Science, because the
•The univerity Senate Building still under construction
engineering programmes are yet to be approved. The faculty building has a cafeteria, a block of classrooms, three laboratories and offices and a 500-seater lecture theatre, which also serves as the school auditorium. A few steps away from the faculty is an under-sized health care centre with scanty facilities.
Investigations revealed that the university started with four faculties which have now declined to one. With the pioneer students still struggling to complete their programmes about seven years after their admission, students, fate is hanging in the balance. The future seems bleak for many of them because they lack practical knowledge of their discipline.
Such is the case of Olayinka Ewuyemi, a 400-Level Fisheries and Aquaculture student, who hopes to acquire modern fish farming skills. After four sessions in school, Olayinka can only boast of theoretical knowledge of the discipline.
Olayinka said: “It has not been easy studying in an institution where nothing works. We pay school fees through our nose yet we do not have value for our money. We just read; no practice. We have only had one practical class in four years. The school has a fish farm but it is run for business alone. They would tell us there is no directive from the management to allow us use the fish farm for practical.”
A 500-Level Zoology student, who pleaded not to be named, lamented the poor condition of the university. He said: “We are not being taught Zoology in a proper way. We have not gone for excursions because the university does not allow us. The school doesn’t have a standard zoo that can help our learning.”
To save the university from extinction, the students came together to form a pressure group known as Save OSUSTECH Forum (SOF) to champion the course of progress in the institution. The group chairman, Gbenga Akinsuyi, a 500-Level Computer Science student, said the forum was established to fight injustice and pressure the government to give attention to the institution.
He said: “As I speak to you, the whole campus is covered in bush, with no facilities. We won’t keep quiet while OSUSTECH is turned to a farmland. We have embarked on protests to draw attention to our plight. Things should no longer be done through the backdoor. In May, we learnt some university officials were holding screening for candidates, who applied for Deputy Registrar and Bursar. We went there to disrupt the process, because that could only be done by the Governing Council. But, this is not in place. An higher institution shouldn’t be run that way.”
A top management official, who preferred not to be named, said the vision setting up the school died immediately it took off. “What do you expect from a university that has no Governing Council and has been run without structure for five years? The Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Tolu Odugbemi, runs the university unilaterally. In the past five months, five lecturers have resigned because the working condition is not favourable and the leadership style is hostile.”
CAMPUSLIFE gathered that the last time Prof Odugbemi was on campus was March 18. He allegedly runs the school from its liaison office in Akure. He lives in the Vice Chancellor’s Lodge in Akure, the state capital, which is three-hour drive from Okitipupa.
A senior lecturer, who does not want to be named, said the VC administers the university in absentia. “The VC doesn’t pick our calls. We have been talking to him only through emails and text messages since 2010. Sometimes, he would be incommunicado for weeks. We are all used to that administrative style,” he added.
Dr Dipo Akomolafe, a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and local chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), said there was nothing wrong in the VC’s administrative style. “It’s the era of Information Communication and Technology. It is not bad if the VC runs the university effectively wherever he is,” Dr Akomolafe said.
Yemi Fafoluyi, president of Save Ikale Youth Vanguard, expressed disappointment over the state of the institution. He said: “The situation in OSUSTECH has been a source of concern to us. I can categorically tell you that the problem the university is facing today is a script written by Governor Olusegun Mimiko; it is being acted by the VC. Go there to the campus, there has been no project for the past three years. The institution is broke.”
A community leader in Igodan-Lisa, Pastor Babatope Ayesanmi, expressed concern on the manner the university is being run. According to him, there is no relationship between the management and the host community.
He said: “We tried our best to partner with the university but the Vice Chancellor has been avoiding us. I even went to meet the VC to discuss the concerns of the host community but he was not ready to give me audience.”
Efforts by our correspondent to speak to the outgoing VC were futile. Prof Odugbemi was said to have been unavailable by a security man at the VC’s Lodge. The university does not have Public Affairs Unit that can give information on the challenges it is facing.
Prof Odugbemi’s tenure ended last Saturday but the school has remained underdeveloped. Many believe the choice of a new VC would go a long way in determining what the school would look like in the next few years.
But, the chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Ondo South Senatorial District, Ven. Emmanuel Akinboyo, who led a delegation to the governor, said Mimiko promised the university would be re-opened soon.
Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) has donated 300,000 books and an undisclosed amount of money to Paul University, Awka in Anambra State ahead of the institution’s accreditation exercise this month.
The books, according to ANAN, cover all the relevant topics in accountancy from year one to final year.
National president of the association, Tony Nzom, represented by the registrar, Dr Michael Ayeni, said the gesture was part of the association’s efforts to advance the science of accountancy in Nigerian universities.
“There was need to fill the lacuna in the dearth of literatures in the course,” he said.
He added that the books would go a long way to help the institution’s Accountancy Department pull through the accreditation exercise.
In his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Uche Isiugo-Abanihe, said he was overwhelmed by the kind gesture shown the university by the association.
“With this donation, there is no way the Department of Accountancy will fail the accreditation next month,” he said.
He praised the Head of the Department, Levi Ezeaku, an associate professor, for playing a key role in facilitating the donation.
Professor John Idiodi, of University of Benin, Prof. Douglas Anele, of University of Lagos and Dr. Hussaini, Abdu are among the scholars billed to address a conference with the theme National Security for a Better World and Need for National Re-orientation for Sustainable Development, scheduled to hold today at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja.
The symposium, which is at the instance of Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, Lagos zone, is one of the activities lined up for its Annual Celebration of Virtues and commemoration of the Building of the Great Pyramid of Egypt, built over 3367 years ago.
Prof. Isaac Alaba, a renowned consultant on culture and languages, will moderate the event that is expected to attract a cream of other scholars from different parts of the country.
