By Wole Balogun
Golden fishes are rare breeds in the ocean. This is because they are the best of the lot. In the same stream of thought, human beings of the class of gold are very rare. You find probably only one of them among a thousand beings.
The Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina, aka ‘God wins’, is a rare breed of the golden class of humanity. This explains why he has been offering excellent leadership since he assumed office as the VC of our upwardly mobile Ivory Tower.
Prof. Fasina took the mantle of leadership on February 11, 2021 and as if he had prepared years before this dream came true, he swung into action immediately and began to aggressively realize his dreams and visions for the great Citadel of Learning.
He promptly set up several Committees to actualize his visions. Such Committees, which were mainly to boost the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the institution, included those who were to implement several business initiatives for FUOYE; Now they have given birth to FUOYE Printing Press, Staff Canteen, Institute of Part Time programmes, FUOYE Bakery, Advancement Centre, Enterprenurial skills acquisition centre, FUOYE Poultry and livestock farming, among others which are already in place now.
Prof. Fasina promptly won the hearts of staff members and students with a number of welfare packages, i.e shuttle bus that has since March 1, 2021 been transporting them to and fro Ado-Ekiti at subsidized rate, a brand new Sienna car for the FUOYE Students’ Union Government (SUG), quick return of the instalmental payment of outstanding arrears of hazards allowance to staff members, provision of some basic social amenities such as electricity, pipe-borne water, befitting furniture, etc, to some departments such as the TMA, English and Literary Studies etc, adequate security measures on campus, awarding contracts for more hostels and other learning infrastructures, meeting with several Stakeholders to discuss better ways to administer FUOYE, adequate provision of resources for accreditation excercises in relevant departments and promotion of 20 academic staff members to both professorial cadre and full professorship among others.
Other dreams that shall soon be fulfilled include FUOYE pure water factory, College of Medicine, Staff School in Aiyegbaju and an Institute of Agriculture for which a complete tractor for highly mechanized Agricultural activities, has already been procured, among others.
Indeed, the first 100 days of the Fasina-led administration has recorded tremendous success and achievements which would have been up to 100 in number already!
No wonder, the celebration of a hundred days in office which held at the auditorium of the FUOYE Faculty of Science on Oye-Ekiti main campus on May 21, 2021, was very remarkable and memorable.
There were encomiums from several quarters of the University community, including the staff and students and particularly the union bodies. The commendations showed clearly that Prof. Fasina has indeed charted a golden path in 100 days.
It is therefore worthwhile to revisit these encomiums from several quarters of the University community.
Speaking on behalf of the students, the President of the FUOYE Students’ Union Government (SUG), Comrade Alabi Johnson Sunday, who led a team of highly excited students to pay special homage to the VC at the event, for his support, said: “The vice-chancellor’s tenure has been eventful, happiness-driven and encouraging. He has shown himself as an administrator per excellence. He is our father and great mentor in whom we are well pleased.”
Chairman, Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), FUOYE chapter, Mr Ayodele Ojumoola, who also gave a heart-warming speech to celebrate the VC, said: “Before you came on board l used to prophezise to my colleagues and comrades, that the Egyptians we see then, we shall see them no more. And l want to say today that the Egyptians we saw then, we will never see them again. This man of God came and he didn’t tell us that he wanted to study the situation for six months as we have been used to. But he swung into action and began to give us all that we need as at when due. Before we asked, he would have answered us. He calls us at will and he promptly attends to our cases. Truly, Prof. Fasina has demonstrated exemplary leadership.. He is indeed a God-sent. The last 100 days have been really impactful on us. Mr. Vice-Chancellor sir, we want to assure you that we are behind you,” he assured.
While showcasing an electronic dustbin built with artificial intelligence, which is an invention of the FUOYE’s Department of Mechatronics, Dr. Adefemi Adekunle, who is the Deputy Dean, FUOYE School of Post Graduate Studies (SPGS), said: “We thought of this Covid 19 challenge. And we don’t want our VC and his team to have Covid 19, so we designed the electronic waste basket. It reacts once your hand reaches the front of the basket, it opens for you to drop the refuse, and then it closes on its own.
“Another thing is that once it fills up, when you reach its front, it would not open again. It will send message to a designated number assigned to that dustbin, the text message will be : ‘I am filled up, come and empty me’. With this, we can harvest all the wastes in Nigerian if given the support by the Federal Government, and store them for recycling for other productive purposes.
“We are looking at having this in all the corners of the twin campuses also. And we have five of this now.
When we had competitions with all Universities in Bauchi, to the glory of God, our student came first with this innovation of an electronic dustbin,” he said.
The Deputy Director, FUOYE Institute of Part Time programmes, Dr. Omolade Adeleke said the atmosphere of FUOYE has already been charged with great joy with the emergence of Prof. Fasina. Hear him : “With the coming of Prof Fasina, I can see that the atmosphere is charged with joy and it is a demonstration of somebody that is ready to work and impact positively on this Unuversity. The first call I put to him, he was in Abuja then and he said: “Leke enough of congratulations.” Right there in that place, he said:”there was a proposal you wrote about Part Time programmes”, and l said yes. He then said: ‘, go and work out the action plans for the programmes, it will be one of our achievement in 100 Days”. This shows that Prof. Fasina is fully ready for the job,” Dr. Adekeke said.
For the FUOYE Director of General Studies, Associate Professor (Barr.) Oyedokun Alli-Ademola, Prof. Fasina’s leadership team have performed admirably well in 100 days: “We are looking for more of these giant strides and we urge all our people to support this great man. When you offend NASU, you have offended God. And today, when NASU say we are behind you, then our dear VC , you can now sleep with your two eyes closed. It is a good thing that the VC has chosen to examine himself in 100 days in office. Now we know that so far it has been excellent. And we have seen that it has been so good and there is nothing that is so good that cannot be built upon. Anything that is good also need prayers. We are expecting more of these good works from you sir. We also as staff and students need to support the VC and his team by doing all that we have to do at the right time. God Almighty who is now working in FUOYE will not stop working for us.”
Senior Executive Officer (SEO), Academic Affairs, Mr Akinbayo Asaolu, said : “In less than 100 days in office, he provided shuttle buses at subsidised rates, established a bakery and printing press to boost the university’s internally-generated revenue.
“A man with fear of God, he has made some people, who were hitherto regarded as nobody, somebody without anybody lobbying. Gone are the days when you have to beg for promotion,” Asaolu said.
Speaking on behalf of Committee of Deans, FUOYE and the Faculty of Management Sciences, the Chairman, Prof. Olajide Oladele, congratulated Fasina, describing him as a versatile and courageous administrator as well as a rare breed intellectual.
“Within this short period, he has clearly demonstrated that leadership is not only about age, but experience, encapsulated in strategically-defined vision, commitment to people’s welfare and passion for achievements.
“His leadership acumen is further reflected in his tireless devotion to duty, pragmatic management of issues, deployment of intelligence to solve knotty problems as well as zero tolerance for oppression and mismanagement of resources,” Oladele said.
Prof. Benjamin Omolayo Director of FUOYE Counselling and Human Development Centre, said: ” The Counselling and Human Development Centre of Federal University, Oye-Ekiti joyfully celebrates with our amiable Vice-Chancellor, Professor Abayomi Fasina for his outstanding performance and distinct achievements since his assumption of office. We are proud to associate with you, Sir. Your love and passion for the staff and students of this noble institution are incomparable. Whoa! How time flies! Your 100 days in office with us is like you have spent years and not just days because what your predecessor could not achieve in their entire regime, you have attained in just a few days. You are worthy of emulation and this generation will not be in a hurry to forget you and the route of legacy you are plying. The trait of determination to achieve a targeted goal; the focus you place on accomplishing your mission and the way you get irritated when you see someone getting to frustrate your well-designed plans for the betterment of this university is second to none. Your position has touched so many lives ranging from staff members to students and even on-lookers are tapping into your reservoirs of generosity and kindness towards humanities.
It is great to see your achievements in a short period. It is of utmost amazement to see you manage bazillion things in such a short while! You are a great inspiration to this institution. We are privileged to see your charisma and the way you solve problems with creative ideas. You are highly dynamic and down-to-earth, Well-coordinated and cool while handling challenges. Your confidence level is uniquely spectacular. Thank you for all your sacrifices, efforts, and selflessness.
If it were not for you, the university would have ended up in a bigger mess. Just to let you know we are not exaggerating when we nickname you A Superman. We celebrate your uniqueness, Sir. We are saying a hearty congratulation to you.”
Some excited members of the staff also gave advices to the VC on how to further thread the golden path and reman focused doing so.
One of them said: “We will be much more happier, that by the time you would be one year in office, we would no longer have classrooms in FUOYE it lecture theatres.
I want to specially appeal passionately, the University culture allows students to do add and delete. These are few things that will make us to be more globally recognized. something like rectification, it means in the course of computation there could be errors so students are allowed to obtain forms and apply for deleting and adding courses which they later think would not help them.
Sometimes at the begining of the Semester, when students register for a course, they will sometimes discover that this course will not help me and they are allowed to change such course by obtaining the add and delete form for such course. I am happy you have just approved this.”.
•Wole Balogun is Special Adviser on Media Matters to the Vice-Chancellor, Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina.
