University of Ibadan: A promise to Professor Adewole

Friends and associates of a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof Isaac Adewole, got in touch with me over my piece entitled Who Will Rescue Our University of Ibadan? published on April 11, 2021. They felt strongly that I was not fair to him, particularly on three of the issues I treated. They said that as Vice Chancellor, he had no Chief of Staff and he never moved about in a convoy of cars. They also stressed that there was no frivolous contract awards during his tenure.

A columnist is a commentator on issues of contemporary society, based on facts available to him while writing. That was what I did in the piece under reference. I had no intention to malign anyone or be anyone’s Rottweiler. I am a stakeholder too in that citadel that is now everything but the dream of its founding forefathers.

The University of Ibadan is a collective heritage of all of us, from the deserts of the north to the rims of the southern coast. The duty to make it work is therefore that of all, not minding where anyone may belong in the divides that threaten the sanity of the system. I did that piece with the purest of intentions.

I have promised Prof Adewole’s friends that I am prepared to yield this page to him as soon as he is ready to tell his own story. I will be very fair to him. That is the philosophical foundation of my engagements in the public space through Flickers since about 23 years ago that it debuted. I urge my readers to keep a date with the former Vice Chancellor here.

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