THAT the Nigerian university system rating has plummeted is stating the obvious. This has negatively impacted the quality of graduates churned out every year. Corroborating this assertion, a former Minister of Education, Professor Tunde Adeniran noted that the university curriculum being implemented in Nigeria is producing “parasites and unemployable graduates”. He lamented in his book entitled. Some thoughts on education in Nigeria, that part of emerging challenges bedeviling university education in Nigeria is disregard for the purpose and essence of university education. Adeniran is not the only one lamenting the anomalous situation in Nigeria Ivory towers. A former managing director of the old Daily Times conglomerate, university teacher, and immediate past pro-chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi was quoted by The Guardian newspaper of 9th October, 2023 to have said “I am the immediate past pro-Chancellor, and Chairman of council, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, and I remember writing a paper that things were not very good with our education system.” He further opined that any country that lacks educational push is doomed, adding that with the condition of the public universities, some of them might not survive the next 25 years.
The Osun State University, a multi-campus institution, which has its main campus in Osogbo, the state capital and which was founded in the year 2006, has been described by the pro-Chancellor and Chairman of council, Professor Wale Oladipo, as one university whose exceptional uniqueness in excellence stands unrivalled in Nigeria today, and that it is now synonymous with peace, academic excellence, high morality, and commitment to institutional vision. He posited that Osun varsity has been in the news for positive projection in the last two years, winning, laurels and academic distinctions. He described the effort of the current vice-Chancellor, Professor Odunayo Clement Adebooye, as commendable. He has been on top of academic and administrative issues within 22 months of assumption of office, in terms of research capabilities, a team of researchers led by Professor Monsuru Adeleke from zoology department won $1.45 million research grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, just as two scholars, namely Professor Olukoya Ogen and John Agbonifo, won one million Euros for African Research project entitled “The European Union and Africa in a multi-crises world.
It is equally noteworthy that Professor Odunayo, the university’s vice-chancellor, led a team of researchers and won $65,000 from the Government of Germany on biodiversity research. The university also emerged as one of the very few universities in Africa to host Carnegie fellows this year. It hosted two fellows from two American universities for three months between June and August on collaborative engagements relating to curriculum development, mentoring and research. Interestingly, four of the university researchers between 2022 and 2023 won a total of N80 million as research grants from TETfund for the execution of various research projects, while Professor Olukoya Ogen of History Department won the prestigious UNESCO International Fund for cultural Diversity (IFCD) worth $100,000, among others.
The university provides extant welfare support schemes for staff and students in all cadres, with the staff volunteer scholarship award under the indigent but diligent scholarship scheme, with corporate organisations and individuals voluntarily playing their part to project the university to higher level, from the Tunde Ponle scholarship award scheme, the Osun State Development Forum, Texas, USA scholarship Scheme, to the L.A Salami Foundation for brilliant and indigent students of Osun. This combined effort is yielding dividend as an alumnus, Adegboyega Musthafa Adebayo, was selected as a recipient of the prestigious Nelson Mandela Leadership award of excellence and integrity, and named an ECOWAS youth Ambassador, just as a farmer law student of the university made a first class at the final examination in the Law School.
The unprecedented level of physical and infrastructural development embarked upon by the Governor Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke government within a year into the saddle, which informed the completion of long abandoned two-storey building in the College of Health Sciences, with 57 staff offices, and the ongoing construction of a dual-carriage access road from Ibokun road to Modupe and Folorunso Alakija teaching hospital among others, must have propelled the vice-chancellor to reason that Osun varsity will be branded 10th in Africa. Explaining the rationale behind private university in Nigeria, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, Esama of Benin, the founder of the first private university in Nigeria, said the desire to provide enabling environment for uninterrupted quality education to future generations propelled him to establish the first private university in 1999.
- Awoyemi writes in from Ile-Ife, Osun State.
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