‘How I made UI adopt modern techniques’

These were sealed in envelopes and dispatched by me and copies were filed by me. As a result of these measures there was, to the best of my knowledge, no leakage whatsoever. Seven applicants for the post of registrar were invited for interview, of which five were members of staff of the university. Two of the four applicants invited for interview for the post of bursar were serving officers of the university.

The Council duly constituted a selection board in keeping with the provisions of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Decree No.11 of 1993. In addition, Professor Akin Adesola, former vice-chancellor of the University of Ilorin and Mrs. M.A. Adebowale, director of finance and supply, National Universities Commission, were invited to serve as external consultants for the interviews. I felt strongly that, in filling the vacant top administrative positions, the university should adopt modern techniques which are standard practice in the private sector and should engage the services of one of the many reputable professional firms available in the country. Therefore, I made representations to the pro-chancellor and chairman of Council, Professor Iya Abubakar. He agreed with me but was concerned that the university would not be able to afford the professional fees. Luckily one of the leading firms was Omolayole and Associates, whose principal and founding partner, Dr. M.O. Omolayole, is an honorary graduate of the university and former president of its alumni association.

When I went to see Dr. Omolayole he expressed surprise and happiness that the university wished to benefit from professional technical assistance in the selection of its top administrative staff. He promised to offer his personal services free of charge to the university. However, in the event that he could not be available, one of his partners would come. We would have to pay only a token honorarium to whoever came. The firm would not send us a bill for his services. All was set and interviews were fixed for Tuesday, 6th September and Wednesday, 7 September 1994. Suddenly on Friday, 26 August 1994, it was announced that the boards of all federal government parastatals had been dissolved. Because of the wording of the announcement it was not immediately clear whether the dissolution affected the governing councils of federal universities. On the following working day, Monday, 29 August, I made frantic efforts to obtain clarification on the matter. Two days later, 31 August 1994, I received a telephone message from Mrs. M.T.F. Sojinrin, member of the council representing the Federal Ministry of Education and Youth Development that the minister had confirmed that the university councils were not affected by the dissolution. I was requested to inform the pro-chancellor and chairman of Council, accordingly. The message was a welcome relief for me. It was confirmed by a circular letter Ref NUC/ES/138/xxx111/13, dated 2 September 1994, written by the executive secretary of the National Universities Commission to the vice-chancellors of all federal government universities. The letter reached me on 13th September 1994!

Unknown to me, other interesting developments were to follow. The pro-chancellor and chairman of the Council arrived on the campus in the late afternoon of Monday, 5 September 1994. I went to brief him on arrangements for the interviews and to give him his set of files containing all the relevant papers. At the end of the briefing, the chairman said he noted that one of the applicants for the post of registrar, Chief C. O. Arowolo would attain the retirement age of 60 years in another eighteen months or so. He sought my comments. I reminded him that in January 1994, the Federal Ministry of Education and Youth Development had issued a circular to the effect that Section 8 of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Decree No.11 of1993, which raised the compulsory retiring age of academic staff to 65 years, should also be applied to all non-academic staff. I remarked that it was a strange and unfortunate directive because, among other things, it meant that even the cooks, stewards, drivers and grounds men of the university would not have to retire until they reached the age of 65 years, when they would have long ceased to be serviceable. I proceeded to make a photocopy of the said circular which I handed over to the chairman. The selection interview for the post of registrar, University of Ibadan, was held on Tuesday, 6 September 1994, which was presided over by Professor Iya Abubakar. Other members of the panel were Professor A.B.O.O. Oyediran (vice-chancellor), Mr. O. Olamogoke, Mrs. M.T.F. Sojinrin (both members of the Council) and Professor A. Soy ode and Professor S.A. Ilori (members of the Senate). Others present were Professor Akin Adesola (external consultant) and Otunba F.A. Ogunbamowo (from the consulting firm of Omolayole and Associates). Two other members of the Council, Mr. F. Ohiwerei and Alhaji M.O. Shittien, who were expected to serve on the panel sent their apologies for absence. For me personally, the procedure was novel and very objective. The seven candidates were invited into the chamber together, briefed on the interview programme and given two minutes each for self introduction. This was followed by two group discussions. In the first group discussion, the candidates were asked to agree on a topic of their choice and to discuss it in an unmoderated group situation for thirty minutes. They chose the topic “Student Participation in University Governance”. The candidates were then given twenty-five minutes to discuss the topic “Communication Problems and the Nigerian Economy”. At the end of the group discussions, three candidates emerged as I probable’, three as I possible’ and one as I unlikely’ for the position, based on an agreed aggregate rating. The candidates were subsequently interviewed individually. Based on the performance of each of the candidates at the group and individual interviews, the panel recommended three candidates to the Council in order of merit.

The selection interview for the post of bursar was held on Wednesday, 7 September 1994. The procedure followed that used the previous day for the post of registrar. The panelists were the same except for Professor Adesola. However, Mrs. M. A. Adebowale, who had been expected to serve as an external consultant did not attend. Her apologies for inability to serve due to circumstances beyond her control were relayed to me in a radio message which we received on 8th September, after two days of unsuccessful attempts to reach us by telephone! For the first group discussion, the candidates decided on the topic “The Funding of Universities: Present and Future”. For the second group discussion, they were given the topic “The Maintenance Culture should not be a Preserve for Engineers but the Responsibility of all”. At the end of the group discussions, two candidates emerged as ‘probable’, one as ‘possible’ and one as ‘unlikely’. Based on the performance of the candidates of the group and subsequent individual interviews, the panel found three candidates appointable and recommended them to Council in order of merit. The recommendations of the selection board were considered and approved by the Council at its meeting held on Thursday, 8 September 1994. Consequently, on Friday, 9 September 1994, I wrote to Chief C. O. Arowolo on behalf of the Council to offer him appointment as registrar of the University of Ibadan, with effect from 1 October 1994. I wrote similarly to Mr. J. O. Alao to offer him appointment as bursar. They both accepted appointment the same day by signing and returning to my office copies of the respective letters of appointment. Now the week beginning on Monday, 5 September 1994 was a particularly busy and difficult one for me. I was, of course, a member of the selection board and therefore participated in the interviews all day on Tuesday and Wednesday. On the evening of both days and in order to ensure confidentiality, I personally supervised the typing of the panel’s reports by Mr. Babatunde in the Vice-chancellor’s Lodge. I similarly supervised the preparation and collation of the relevant documents for the meeting of the Council on Thursday, 8th September. Because of all this, it was impossible to attend to my mail, except for vouchers and other urgent matters which I had requested the principal assistant registrar (vice-chancellor’s office) to put in separate files daily for my attention. To make matters worse, a very close friend and colleague, Professor A.I.O. Williams, former head of the Department of Chemical Pathology had died I had to attend the Christian wake service held for him on the evening of Thursday and his funeral on the morning of Friday, 9th September. Indeed that Friday, I signed the letters of appointment of Chief Arowolo and Mr Ala went to the funeral of Professor Williams and thereafter retired to bed very exhausted.I woke up on Saturday morning feeling refreshed. After breakfast, I went into my study to deal with the large mail which had accumulated during the course of the week. Each day’s mail was packed separately and I started with the pile for Monday. Sometime in the afternoon, I reached the pile that was received on Wednesday, 8th September. It contained two remarkable letters. There was one dated 14 August 1994 (Ref NUC/ES/138/Vol.xx111/11) written by the executive secretary of the National Universities Commission to the vice-chancellors of Nigerian universities. Attached to it was a copy of a letter RefSU /30H/111/132 of 12 August 1994, written by the director-general, Federal Ministry of Education and Youth Development to the executive secretary of NUC, executive secretary of the National Board for Technical Education and the executive secretary of the National Commission for Colleges of Education. The letter from the director-general requested that the 12 January 1994 circular (Ref HE 11/7/Vol.11/36) should be discountenanced. It went on to “confirm that the retirement age of 65 years in tertiary educational institutions is restricted only to academic staff.” The letter from the executive secretary of NUC further stated that: “In view of the fact at no time was the circular under reference valid, it follows that all actions taken based on the circular are also null and void, and situations should reverse back to status-quo.” I duly endorsed the two letters to the registrar and secretary to Council for information of all members of Council. I sent copies to the deputy vice- chancellors, bursar, university librarian and the deputy registrar (establishments) for action as necessary. Truly God moves in mysterious ways!

Strategies for Funding the University

I earlier mentioned my concern about the persistent poor funding of the university by the government. This problem affected all the universities to a varying degree. It was particularly marked at the University of Ibadan, which was established at least, twelve years earlier than the others and, therefore, had more aging and decaying infrastructure and equipment. My predecessors, especially Professors Olayide and Banjo, among other things, initiated measures for generating internal revenue to supplement the grants received from government. An important development was the establishment of the UI Ventures Ltd., a wholly owned but separate entity, with a board of directors headed by the renowned banker and honorary graduate of the university, Otunba M. O. Balogun. In my foundation day address on 17 November 1992, I reported that UI Ventures Ltd. had paid a handsome and increased dividend to the university for the second successive year.