I Want to Train Job Creators, Not Job Seekers-UNAD’s Acting VC

Doyin Adebusuyi

16 June 2011

interview

Ado-Ekiti — Prof Dada Adelowo, a professor of Comparative Religious Studies, was caught unawares recently when the Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, announced him as the Acting Vice Chancellor of the University of Ado-Ekiti (UNAD). In this interview, the new VC states his priorities and how he plans to achieve them.

How did you receive the news of your appointment and what was your immediate reaction?

The issue of appointment came up all of a sudden and I didn’t know anything even up to noon of that day. I didn’t expect this, I am like Joseph in Egypt because I am not from this place, I didn’t know the governor and I do not know anybody.

I applied for vice chancellorship in 9 places. I fought for it in Ife three times, I fought for it in Ibadan University two times, and I was the only one that was shortlisted out of the total number of 22; one time in Uyo and also in Lagos when Jelili Omotola was the vice chancellor. 40 people applied and five people were shortlisted and I happen to be one of them.

How this happened I don’t know. Even when I got to the governor’s office, they didn’t know but they said could it be Adelowo in Ife, and I replied it is the same Adelowo. I want to thank my governor because he is the angel of God sent to me. We have never met before.

What is your dream for the university?

My dream is to make the university better than I met it. I want to make it one that is comparable to the federal university where I read. I will start with the human development. It is very important because when you talk of any development without human development, you cannot move forward. I want to motivate my members of staff. I want to look at their welfare and see that they are better within the community. The welfare of students is paramount, because when we talk of infrastructural development, when you have a computer, computer can do a lot of things but who are those to operate the computer, human beings.

That is why I think I should start with human development to encourage my members of staff and students because without students we can decide to turn that place to a church, we can decide to turn that university to a mosque. But now, we have students and that is why we call that place a university and that means that the students are also very important.

So I want to see to their welfare and also to make sure that peace reigns in that university. We want result-oriented education to emerge from this university. I want as much as possible to train job creators, not only training people to take B.Sc and when they leave, they go for their national service and they become redundant. We want to see how they can create job without even relying on government.

Some of the programmes run by the university are yet to be accredited, what are your plans in this regard?

The issue of accreditation is also very important because when a programme is not accredited, you are not supposed to offer the course. I have been part of this programme right from the beginning. I was the chairman of the panel in 1992 in Ogun State University, now OOU (Olabisi Onabanjo University). I was the chairman in UI. I was a member in Ilorin and Jos, so I am used to the system and I will use that experience to see that all our programmes are accredited.

The new policy now is saying that PhD holder should be in the university, so I want to look for PhD holders in all important areas of the university to join me in promoting the cause of the university. The university has come to stay so we want to see that sound education is given.

What is your view about the proposed merger of the three existing state universities by the present government in the state?

The government has taken the right decision based on the recommendation of the education summit that they will eventually be merged with University of Ado Ekiti (UNAD).

I said earlier that UNAD has come to stay. Even people from outside know that we have only one university in this state. We will do our best to see that government does not regret the action. When we talk of university of education, we have Faculty of Education here which is viable. We have many programmes, so it will be a waste of money and resources to say we want to have another one called University of Education. We think that it will be highly reasonable to improve on the situation of the Faculty of Education here and when we talk of the education in UNAD, I give kudos to that faculty.

Also, the USTI Technology Engineering, is that too far from what we have in UNAD Faculty of Engineering? It is a question of extending. When you get to UNAD land we have more than enough where we can have more buildings to accommodate these people coming and their programmes. So we won’t have problems regarding integration because you know many of the universities are capital intensive.

You have said running a university is capital intensive, how do you intend to cope, money wise, if eventually the other universities are merged with you?

We will need extra funds because that means UNAD is expanding with these additions, which will not be a problem because the government wants it and I know my governor belongs to the group of academia, so he will support us. We will need extra funding, we will integrate the courses, we will need more people and we will need some more infrastructures to be able to implement the decision of government.

A panel was set-up in the university to look into the alleged case of certificate racketeering and up until now nothing is heard about the report of the panel. What do you intend to do in this regard?

I won’t say I am not aware of that because it’s mentioned in the Senate often and often. When I resume fully, I will look into the issue. If anything is wrong there and investigation has been conducted, I think it is proper to let us know the decision of the people that conducted the investigation and know what to do about the implementation.

Also, we cannot do anything all alone without the input of the government, so we will do something about it. I will go into history; I will go into investigation, they will bring the papers out.

How is your new position going to affect you?

Let me say there have been more restrictions, because I don’t have friends. I go to my work, come back home and my church is by the side here.

Everything would change now, the way I dress and talk. I have been meeting people that I have not met before. I have seen many security aides around me; they don’t want me to die. They take me as their father. I have never seen that kind of thing in my life.

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