AKINWALE ABOLUWADE
Nigerian universities must be transparent in line with the international best practices in the employment of Vice-Chancellors and other principal officers in a bid to curb the erosion and corrosion of the laws and guiding principles by which they were established, a former Registrar of the Ekiti State University, Dr Omojola Awosusi, has said.
Harping on the importance of the management of the various institutions as the drivers of the visions and missions of the institutions, Awosusi warned that they (the authorities) must not compromise standards in the employment of staff.
He gave the advice in a lecture which he delivered as the Guest Speaker at the 2023 Registry Discourse of the University of Ibadan, stressing that university must make their laws, statutes and regulations available to the staff of the institution.
The title of the lecture is ‘University laws, regulations and traditions: Matters arising in times of erosion and corrosion.’
Stating that where there is no law there is no sin, Awosusi called for the general review of the legal frameworks of the various institutions to remove ambiguities and for further democratisation of the governance of the institutions.
According to him, it would appear that Nigerian universities are encumbered by their failure to run by their own rules but by the external forces tying the noose continually on their ‘autonomous necks’.
He said that the erosion of the powers of the universities is a product of the overpowering influence of government’s regulatory agencies.
The Registrar, University of Ibadan, Mrs Olubunmi Faluyi, said the Registry Discourse was initiated in 1997 to create a veritable avenue for intellectual engagement through great lectureship and interaction, indicating that several topics had been examined over the years.
The Vice-Chancellor, UI, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, represented as the Chairman of the occasion by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic, Prof. Aderonke Baiyeroju, noted that the ignorance about the statutes and the traditions of the university was becoming a threat to the ideals of the institution.
He stressed the need to look inwards, diagnose the problems, come up with enduring solutions, and turn back to the basics.
The don charged the Registry as the engine room of the administration to reorientate the staff on the traditions and values of the university as well as their responsibilities.
The Pro Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of UI, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, who was the Special Guest of Honour on the occasion, observed that the quality of a university would be determined by the quality of the lecturers, students and the entire workforce.
He advised them to make the best of the opportunities provided by the university by acquainting themselves with what is right, what is wrong, what is fair and what is just.
The programme was attended by participants from about 20 universities in the South-West of Nigeria.
The high point of the programme was the recognition of Mr J.N. Bello, an Administrative Officer, as the 2022 winner of The Chief Moji Ladipo Award for the Best Administrator, instituted in 2021 by the UI Registry in honour of a former Registrar, Chief Moji Ladipo, to celebrate her 70th birthday.
