By Oludayo John Bamgbose Esq
The ancient town of Oyo, besides being the ancestral stool of the
Yoruba, hosts the famous St. Andrews College of Education (now
Emmanuel Alayande College of Education) located along the
Oyo-Ogbomosho expressway. St. Andrews is reputed as the premier
college of education in Nigeria.
Like a mustard seed, the College has metamorphosed into a full-fledged
University, attracting students from different parts of the country.
Ajayi Crowther University (ACU) is named after late Bishop Ajayi
Crowther, a missionary who evangelised many parts of Nigeria and
interpreted the Holy Bible into many Nigerian languages. Ajayi
Crowther University (ACU), Oyo, is one of the foremost faith-based
Universities in Nigeria with the mandate of raising Godly
intellectuals who will emerge as beacons of hope not only in Africa
but around the globe.
It would be recalled that the quintessential legal icon, one-time
President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and currently,
Pro-Chancellor of the University- Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, FCIArb,
OFR had in 2015, announced the decision of the Governing Council to
appoint Rt. Rev’d (Prof.) Dapo Asaju as the 3rd Vice Chancellor of the
University for a five-year term. Now that the first of those five
years is down, it is necessary to take stock of how the University has
feared under Asaju’s leadership.
Asaju on the 5th of October, 2015 began his record breaking tenure
with a symbolic triumphant entry into the St. Andrews Chapel where a
Holy Communion Service was organized to usher-in his administration.
The tenure began in an atmosphere that is conducive for setting the
ball rolling, with a pledge of unwavering support from the Governing
Council, Senate, Management and Staff of the University. Regrettably,
shortly after assumption of office, economic recession set in, making
some sceptics to doubt the workability of Asaju’s audacious
manifestoes.
But rather than accept defeat, Asaju went about ‘selling’ his
incurable optimism to all and sundry. The management team saw this as
a golden opportunity to go back to the drawing board to craft out
creative and innovative ways to sustain the University.
Asaju’s first task was to convene all staff at a leadership retreat
where he shared his five-year agenda together with the short and
medium terms strategies to actualize same. It was a moment to further
stress the place of accountability, fiscal discipline, quality
control, high productivity, and zero tolerance for wastage amongst the
staff as the benchmarks.
The University Don who doubles as the Bishop Theologian of the Church
of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, rose to the position of the Deputy
Vice Chancellor (Academic) of the Lagos State University (LASU),
Nigeria, where he had with visible and excellent track records,
meritoriously and selflessly advanced the frontiers of knowledge for a
period spanning over three decades.
One would recall with nostalgia also, the wonders of God to the people
of LASU during his tenure as the Chaplain of the University which
again was to prepare the Lord Bishop for the unique task ahead. Today,
Prof. Asaju equally provides the right spiritual leadership required
of a faith-based University thus reminding one of the biblical Prophet
Samuel who combined the spiritual and political headships over Israel.
To all and sundry, Asaju has not only transformed the University
better than he met it in terms of quality institutionalisation of
servant-leadership model, probity, hard work, punctuality,
transparency and accountability, but also actually gone a step further
to set up an unprecedented record of value addition in the memories of
all stakeholders.
Not minding the increasing monthly wage bill, within the last one
year, the University can boast of a newly tarred road network and
facility facelift. It is on the record that the school has also within
the year under review built a new 3000-seater multi-purpose hall, new
blocks of class rooms, staff quarters, shopping mall, 30 blocks of
shops, volley ball, badminton and long tennis courts and a gymnasium.
To facilitate easy movement within and outside of the University, one
big coaster bus and a campus shuttle cab were also procured while all
faculties have been provided with alternative sources of energy and
public address systems to aid teaching and research. ACU Venture
became fully strengthened to be able to generate income through
production and sale of water and bread. The newly established
ultra-modern ACU laundry Unit, whose competitive pricing and
satisfactory services now attract customers both within and outside
the campus also makes the list.
It is worthy of note that although the primary aim of these projects
is to generate funds for the University, such would also ensure her
self-sustenance while also developing students’ entrepreneurship
skills since interested students now have the opportunity to opt for
student-work scheme in any of these investment outlets.
In line with the University Management’s frantic efforts to scale-up
access to qualitative education in different fields of human
endeavour, using approved conventional and flexible instruction modes,
the University successfully hosted the Council of Legal Education,
thereby leading to the grant of approval for the commencement of its
LLB programme. Postgraduate, part-time, and HND conversion degree
programmes have also been added to the catalogue of courses earlier
approved with their first set of entrants, currently on campus.
As a flagship centre for the conduct of teaching and research, the
inaugural lecture series of the University commenced with Prof Ayodabo
of the Department of English. Efforts are now at top gear to introduce
the Central University Journal which would be a multi-disciplinary
journal. Further still, the Management, in its bid to support staff
development, has a pool of funds to support further education and
participation at academic and professional development meetings within
and outside Nigeria. Just recently, three staff of the University
enjoyed support to participate at a conference in Columbus, Ohio, USA.
Despite the unfavourable economic climate in the country and the
exclusion of privately-owned institutions in accessing endowments and
other forms of interventions that government-owned institutions enjoy,
it is worthy of note that the University with the support of some
distinguished individuals have kept making giant strides in attracting
first-class facilities into the University. The Modupe and Folurunsho
Alakija Faculty of Law Building, the newly renovated St. Andrew’s
Chapel, and the recently commissioned Wole and Lara Olanipun Vice-
Chancellor’s Lodge – the three of which are cynosures of all eyes were
all commissioned within the first year of Asaju’s administration.
The security of life and property remains paramount to the current
leadership. To this end, the University now has a combination of
security outfits with requisite intelligence gathering as well as the
use of modern technology and specially trained pets to combat crime in
any shade or colour.
In addition to this fast-paced development on-going in the university,
it is worthy of note that the University is still one of the most
affordable tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Despite the low tuition,
the University still awards scholarships to deserving students. One
can only imagine what the present administration of the University
would achieve if provided access to TETFUND, ITF and other special
grants which public institutions enjoy, after all, staff of ACU like
other institutions contribute to the vault of the government through
regularly payment of tax.
There is no doubt, better days await ACU as the University Management
under the distinguished leadership of Rt. Rev’d (Prof) Dapo Asaju is
poised to continue with its good works. Therefore, I make bold to say
that most assuredly, with God’s continuous guidance, unflinching
support of the Governing Council and the University’s unwavering
commitment to innovation, fiscal prudence and discipline, ACU is an
indeed an institution to look out for in another four years.
*Bamgbose wrote from Oyo,can be reached through:oj.bamgbose@acu.edu.ng