We excelled in all aspects in FUOYE, says ex-VC
Professor Abayomi Sunday Fasina is the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE). His five-year tenure as the fourth substantive head of therapidly growing university has been widely
Professor Abayomi Sunday Fasina is the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE). His five-year tenure as the fourth substantive head of therapidly growing university has been widely acclaimed for monumental achievements. In this interview with Faruq Durosinmi, Fasina reflects on key governance issues during his leadership and the overall impact of his administration on the institution.
Tenure as the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti
I will say it is a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly and I have documented it in my book. It was tortuous, but in all, to God be the glory. We accomplished a lot. The Bishop of the Sokoto Dioceses of the Catholic Church, Bishop Kukah, was telling me today that we have done well. The same with the Executive Secretary of the National University Commission. There were a lot of issues, but there were a lot of job accomplished as well. We were focused and didn’t allow any distraction. We succeeded because we have set up agenda to guide our actions and God saw us through.
We are also lucky to have a Chairman of the Governing Council, who is really focused. He was a man sent by grace. He came in a divine way. Probably if he had not come, like I said in my paper – I will like to look at him in the eyes and say ‘God did send you.’ If he had not come at that time, there would have been chaos in FUOYE. There would have been a breakdown of law and order. The seat of the Vice-Chancellor wouldn’t have been preserved. They would have bastardised that seat. They would have destroyed the integrity and reputation of the university that has been built over the last five years because of some very few disgruntled and selfish people.
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But thank God. You saw the students when they were hailing and eulogising me. Some of them were almost crying. I was like a father to them. I am always proud to say it that there was no single time of crisis in the five years – we had no crisis with the students. I took absolute care of my students. I took them like my sons and daughters. They are the major stakeholders of the university. They cooperated with us and we gave them the best in terms of education. I am very proud of my students. They are our ambassadors everywhere they go. They are properly trained and when they go for overseas training the quality is always outstanding. We have set a record and we believe that God will continue to help my successor to keep the flag flying.
The future he could see for the university
I see a very bright future. With the Strategic Plan 2026-2050, if they faithfully and religiously follow that strategic plan. The last council muted it but when the current chairman came, he saw to it that we develop it and adopt it. If they follow it rigidly and utilise the plan, the sky is the limit. I believe that through that plan, FUOYE, if not the best, will be one of the best in the next two to three years.
We have increased our Internally Generated Revenue by 310 per cent and if government does not give subvention, the university can run on its own. We have deployed our revenue to infrastructural development, compared to other universities that were established the same time. FUOYE stands out the best amongst its peers of the 2011 Class.
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Any resistance from his team members
Well, it wasn’t smooth. There were people who wanted to resist. You know, they say change is constant. I got a lot of ideas. If I had not been innovative and stubbornly courageous, it would have been a lot more difficult. When I conceive an idea to develop the university, initially they resisted but later discovered that some of the changes and innovations are good. We were developing the university. They often call me ‘Think Outside the Box’. The box has been broken, according to some of them. So, for me, I didn’t allow their resistance to detract me. I also have my resilience when we have a work to do. There is a Master Plan and we have an agenda, which we call the 20-point agenda. I was resolved that until we accomplish the agenda; we are not going to stop thinking and innovating. The 20-points agenda are enumerated in my Valedictory Lecture. One of them is to improve our IGR, which I did. I also said that I was going to increase student enrollment. I met 20,000 students in 2021 and today we have 60,000 on board. I said I was going to introduce new courses, very fantastic courses, and we have introduced 34 new programmes. I also talked about faculties. I met eight faculties, and I am leaving 18 faculties behind. I had a single directorate when I came. Today, I am leaving 19 directorates behind.
The most important is that you measure a university with its accreditation status. We have 94 programmes and 91 of them have full accreditation status. Only three have interim accreditation. No denial. For our Law Faculty, we have secured them to go to the Law School. That is the most important thing. For five or six years, the university was running after the law school management to approve our first set of law students to come to the Law School.
When I was the deputy vice-chancellor of this university, the law school management came once and said they were not going to come back. They said the university had admitted students without the approval of the law school management. So, for the past five years I have been running after them, but I got them on December 30th and they came. When they came, they were amazed by what they saw, that a public and federal university for that matter could have facilities that we have got. They had no choice. There is a regulation that if you admit students without their approval, they will sanction you. But the first set of our law students will be going to the law school in September, in addition to the current students at the final year now.
The biggest challenge of his administration and how he tackled it
Well, the biggest challenge was the issue of blackmail on sexual harassment. It was uncalled for, and I believe it was contrived as part of the succession plot. Some people who wanted to be Vice-Chancellor used a lady and, of course, I believe the lady must have regretted it by now. She recorded me. But the matter is already in court and I will not want to say much about it. But I will like to put it on record that both the previous council and the current one set up committees to investigate the matter and none found me guilty. Ditto with the police investigation too. I believe God wanted me to learn by that experience. I have learnt that not everyone smiling with you is your friend, and not everyone against you is your enemy. I wrote it in my book. The closest people to me in position are the ones who became toxic. But eventually God replaced them with better people around me. God was merciful to me and did not allow that challenge to consume me. Apart from that, I didn’t have any major challenge. People say that I ran a near perfect tenure, but for that incident.
The accomplishment he was most proud of
There is no aspect of the university where we have not excelled. But when you talk about infrastructural development, I am so proud of it. I said that there is a blue roof legacy. If you enter the campus today, you see every building on blue roofs. Those are projects started and completed by my team. Our mass communication students came to interview me and I told them that all buildings with blue roofs on campus are projects that we initiated and completed. You know students can be funny. While the interview was going on, some of them went out. Shortly after, they came to confirm that there are 126 projects on campus with blue roofs – just here at the Oye-Ekiti Campus. We are not talking about Ikole, Ayegbaju; we are not talking about Itapa, Ilepeju, Ayedun or Ifaki. In Oye-Ekiti campus alone, they counted 126 projects. What they counted in Ikole was more than 50. That was a big legacy.
