Osun govt compounded OAU’s water problems

LAST week, the out-going acting vice chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof. Anthony Adebolu Elujoba, spoke of the many fires he has walked through unscathed, including those of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s. He also spoke of a dream he had, which pointed him in the direction of destiny, prepared him for the office he was to later assume as well as steeled him throughout his one-year tenure to overcome the many challenges that confronted him. He tells his dreams and visions here today and how the Osun State government inadvertently compounded the university’s gargantuan water problems:

“Just a few months before I suddenly, miraculously became acting vice chancellor, the university celebrated the annual thanksgiving service and this thanksgiving service by history was a sort of legislation by the Governing Council that said because of series of ‘aluta’, series of crisis and this university was now losing its image because today you will shut down, tomorrow you will bring them in, next tomorrow you will shut down; and that this must be more than physical; that it was spiritual; Council then mandated the university management that every year, every January, there must be some prayer session in the amphitheatre called ‘annual thanksgiving service’ for the university. So, January 2016, that was the year that I became acting vice-chancellor, I was told by my priest in the Catholic Church that he was invited to lead the prayer on that day; then he said I should go and represent him. I had actually been representing him for the past three years before that time.  And that particular night – that was the day before the annual thanksgiving service – I had a dream, which I now know was a revelation from God.

”The traffic light that is in front of the secretariat; I saw students coming from the halls of residence on a line, very long line, of about four on each side and they were coming. Some handled candle sticks, glowing beautifully, and others wore Muslim caps on their heads, those small white caps, and that indicated to me that they were Muslim students. And I saw them coming; when they got to that traffic light, they stopped and I looked at them in the dream: they were sad, they were sober, they were quiet but very peaceful and they were singing but that song, which till today I cannot remember its tune, reminded me and pointed me to the Bible in 2 Chronicles 7:14 – that if the people that are called by my name can humble themselves and then desist from their evil doing, I from heaven will come down and heal their land and forgive their sins. That was the song they were singing; and I saw them moving after they had finished singing and they turned as if they were coming to the car park of the vice-chancellor – and I woke up.

“When I woke up, I meditated and nobody could tell me that it was not related to what I was going to do the following day in the annual thanksgiving. But incidentally, when they were distributing papers as to what prayer points each of us would lead, I thought they were going to give me ‘pray for peace’ but they said I should pray for the survival of the IGRs (Internally-Generated Revenue projects) of the university.  Of course, I told God, that dream was not for today; I would keep it. But when I was about to finish the prayer point, I just entered into telling the people my dream of yester-night. I didn’t know how I started but I started and told the people that God says that the crisis that we have now – because at that time we have driven away students; we were in crisis; students were not in the hostels; we drove them out – I said God has told me that the crisis we have now is the very last crisis we will ever have – provided that we change course.

Changing course means that in the past, we had tried to approach the solution of ‘aluta’ issues by bringing in the police; it has not helped. Police have come to the campus, it has not helped; Police have stayed at the gate, it has not helped. We have brought students to be part of committees; it has not helped: that if we can now start to pray, that God will heal our land and forgive all the sins that we have committed. And everybody just said ‘Alleluyah’. The Master of Ceremony then was Prof. Kehinde, a child of God, my Fellowship man, and he said, ‘let everybody stand up; this is a prophecy’. My brother; that is what always comes to my mind: that God had already said this. I didn’t know I would become acting Vice-chancellor; it was five months after that, that I became vice-chancellor. So it was easy for me to always say that my presence here is God-destined; is God-arranged; it’s actually not I but God. And I have seen a number of visions during this period to say that ‘it is not me, it is God’.

Somebody asked me that when we were going round all the halls two or three weeks after I took over and they were saying that they were younger than me but I was climbing storey buildings in Fajuyi hall, in Awolowo hall and they were sitting down; they were running after me and I didn’t look tired and I said, ‘I don’t know o; the spirit that I have now is not my spirit; it is the spirit of God’ and I want to tell you: in the past, there was no month that I would not have malaria; no month that I would not treat malaria but I tell you, since July last year, it is just yesterday that I started treating malaria. I never had any until last night – and it is because I am now going towards the old days (when I was not VC); yes, to me, that is what it is. (Laughter!)

Who exactly is Elujoba? Anthony Elujoba now is a complete child of God. I tell you, after this job, I am going to go back to base, and my base was evangelisation. Even now, I still manage; I still cope so that I don’t forget all the verses that God has put in me from the bible. For example last Thursday (the first Thursday of the month), I went to the central market; that central market convention is once every month. All the marketers would come together and they would pray. That started about three years ago; again, by a vision from me: that we must try to establish a full gospel businessmen’s fellowship chapter in that market. That was the vision that came to me at that time and we moved there. By the grace of God I am a member of the campus (OAU) Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International. And my Executive agreed with me; we started gradually and it was like a child’s play but today, it has become permanent. I still go to evangelise here and there and I still go to teach in my evangelisation school in Lagere (Ile-Ife) – and all of these by the grace of God. I didn’t know how I did it; it must be God.

The challenges he faced: “I want to thank God that all of those things – water issue, electricity issue, hostel issue, bed-bug issue etc. are part of the things I call fires and I have seen different fires through all of these. For example, the issue of water: Last December, I was going to close down the hostels and not allow students to come in because water was a big problem. And there are two major issues: The dam that we had here many years back, I think in the 1970s, was meant for a population of about 5, 000 at most but today, students alone are 35,000 and nothing  has been done to expand  or extend the dam to accommodate this great number of people. Secondly is that the Osun state government channelised and tried to pave way for erosion to come right away from Enuwa, from General, from Ilesa road, from Fajuyi road and from all such places in the town – they all come together into our campus and they now enter into our dam and whatever the erosion brings – pure water sachets, water bottles, rags, maize combs – they all enter into our dam directly because at the time we saw the channelisation, we failed to put up barricade, a strong wall so that the erosion does not enter into our dam. Today, the water that we are dealing with is about one-third of the dam; the remaining two-thirds is filled with solids, rags, water sachets and all sorts of things that the erosion has brought from Ile-Ife town. So we don’t have enough water and the population the dam was originally earmarked for has exploded. A third one is that the pumps that pump water are very, very old; we have never changed them. So we held a management meeting and I told them if I could not guarantee enough water supply before students came back after Christmas, I would shut down the university because you only need one student to have cholera for you to have an epidemic there and it will be worse than shutting down the university. But thank God; I didn’t know how He did it. Today, I can beat my chest that very soon; the Federal Ministry of Water Resources would put many boreholes into the students’ area, including our health centre and if we provide local water for the students and the health centre, the Quarters can make use of the dam and we will have lesser problems. So I am very sure that Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede (the in-coming VC) will not have the type of problems; he will not face the type of fires that I faced about water”.

Next week: Other fires that Elujoba faced and his advice for in-coming Ogunbodede.