By joshua 
Under my watch FUOYE IGR increased by 310% – Prof. Fasina
Professor Abayomi Sunday Fasina, the immediate past Vice Chancellor (VC) of Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), an erudite scholar and distinguished professor of soil science, recently ended his five-year tenure leaving the institution much better than he met it.
The researcher of note with over 140 publications to his credit, Fasina is believed to have performed excellently well with a remarkable record that have positioned the institution as one of the Nigerian universities to reckon with.
On account of his exploits and transformational leadership, FUOYE has witnessed an exponential growth, such that it has become so attractive to admission seekers in the country,. FUOYE became the fourth most preferred university in Nigeria according to JAMB under the dynamic and purposeful leadership of Fasina.
In this interview conducted few days before the expiration of his tenure and inauguration of Professor Joshua Ogunwole as the new VC, Fasina, an astute educatioist, spoke on his 5-year voyage as FUOYE steersman.
Excerpts:
How would you define your tenure as the Vice Chancellor of Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE)?
Well, I will say it’s a mixture of the bad, the ugly and the good. I have documented this in my book and it was in my valedictory lecture. It was tortuous, but God took absolute control. It can only be God. We saw the mercy and grace of God at work. It wasn’t easy at all, but God saw us through. And we were able to accomplish a lot!
By the time I start telling you some of the statistics of what we have done, in fact, you will be amazed. Bishop Hassan Kukah (the Guest Lecturer and one of the Honorary Doctorate Degree awardees at FUOYE 10th Convocation) was telling me today that we have done well. He acknowledged that we have done a lot of things.
With what you have seen and with what I read in my valedictory speech, you will discover that there were a lot of issues, but there were a lot of jobs accomplished because we were focussed. We didn’t allow distractions to disturb us. It was very tough and there were distractions here and there. But because we have set up an agenda, we were focussed and dedicated, and the Lord saw us through. And we were able to accomplish all we had set out to do.
And God brought a Chairman of Council (Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba) that was really focussed. He is a man sent by grace. He came in a divine way. God sent him to FUOYE. In fact, if he hadn’t come at that time, there would have been chaos in FUOYE. There would have been a breakdown of law and order. And I wrote in my book that the seat of the Vice-Chancellor wouldn’t have been preserved. They would have bastardized that seat. They would have destroyed the integrity and reputation of this university that has been built over the last five years because of very few disgruntled and selfish people.
But thank God, you saw the students the way they were hailing and eulogizing me. Some of them were almost crying that I’m going. I was like a father to them. And I can say it today that there was no single time for any crisis by the students. For the five years I held sway, there was no crisis by the students because I took absolute care of them. I took them like my sons and daughters. They were the major stakeholders of the university. They cooperated with me. They did excellently well. And I gave them the best in terms of education. I am very proud of my students. They are good ambassadors of the university anywhere they go. We gave them proper training. We have really set a record and I pray that the good Lord will help whoever that is taking over to build on it.
What future do you see ahead for the university?
Very bright future! I see a very bright future for FUOYE, particularly with the strategic plan 2026-2050 as developed and adopted by the current Council (led by Distinguished Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN). If they faithfully and religiously follow that strategic plan, the university will grow higher and the sky will be the limit. There are a lot of things embedded in it. In fact, if FUOYE squarely pursues its actualization, they will become one of the best universities in this country in the next two to three years.
We have successfully increased by 310% our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), such that the university can operate even without government subvention. Presently we have deplored the money we made into infrastructural development. Compared to other universities that were established at the same time, FUOYE stands as the best among its peers, established by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011.
Given your strong passion to advance FUOYE, did you face any resistance or pushback from colleagues? How was it like working with your team members? Did you see resistance from them or was it a very smooth ride?
Well, it wasn’t smooth. There were people who wanted to resist. You know change is a constant thing. If every other thing does not happen, there must be change. I brought a lot of ideas. But they saw me as somebody who is very innovative and stubbornly courageous. When I bring an idea to develop the university, initially some of them will resist but later they will discover that the changes and innovations that I introduced are good.
I didn’t allow their resistance to stop me. I also have my resilience. I was like we have work to do and an agenda which we call twenty-point agenda. I was determined that until we finish actualizing this agenda, we were not going to stop. And you will see in my book and my speech that I mentioned the 20-point agenda. One of them is that I want to increase the IGR of the university, which I did. I said I was going to increase the enrollment of students. I met 20,000 students, today there are almost 60,000 students on board. I said I was going to introduce new courses, some very fantastic courses. I have introduced 34 new programmes. I also talked about faculties. I met 8 faculties and I am leaving 18 faculties behind. I had a single directorate when I came. Today, I am leaving 19 directorates behind.
You measure universities with their accreditation status. We have 94 programmes, 91 of them have full accreditation status, only three have interim, no denial. And our law faculty, I have secured them to go to law school. That is the most important thing. It was a tough battle. For five or six years the university was running after law school to come and approve our students to go to law school. When I was the Deputy Vice Chancellor of this university they came once and they said they were not going to come back, that the university has admitted students without the approval of law school.
So, for the last five years I have been running after them. Eventually they came on December 30th. And when they came, they were amazed with what they saw, that a public university, federal university for that matter could have the facilities we have. So, in September we will have the first set of FUOYE law students in law school.
Actually, there was resistance here and there. But God helped us. And then we knew what we were doing. We confronted some of our colleagues with the facts. As the Chairman of the Senate and the VC of the University, it is not everything you react to. You have to use wisdom to manage your colleagues and team members. At times when people resist like that, you just pretend as if you don’t see what they are doing. You just ignore them. But the most important thing is to do what you want to do, provided it is within the law.
In your day-to-day running of the affairs of the institution in the last five years, what would you say was the biggest challenge you were confronted with?
The greatest challenge was the blackmail on the issue of sexual harassment which I think was uncalled-for. Obviously, it was part of the succession conspiracy. People who were interested in becoming Vice Chancellor connived with a lady to raise an allegation of sexual harassment against me. Of course, the lady must have regretted it by now. Because there was no substance in what she did. She recorded me, which was even a cybercrime, for which of course the case is in court. It is a cybercrime committed.
So, that for me, almost tarnished my image. But thank God that people know me for who I am. The Senate set up committees to investigate. The former council and this current council also set up committees and I was not found guilty. The police also investigated and cleared me, because she confessed that there was no sexual harassment. Yet, she allowed herself to be used against me.
But I felt God wanted me to learn a lot of lessons from it. And I have learnt that there are smiling enemies, that not all people that smile with you are your friends. In fact, I wrote it in my book. The closest people to me in position are the ones that became toxic. And eventually God took them away and brought other people to replace them. And I was so lucky that God was merciful to me. He did not allow the mischief makers to succeed in bringing me down. The Chairman of Council, Senator Ndoma-Egba, being a man that is very sound in matters of law and a SAN, really helped in applying his wisdom and experience to manage the situation. Many people were surprised how he was able to effectively manage the crisis as the Chairman of Council.
So, that sexual harassment issue was the greatest challenge that I had. Apart from that, I didn’t have any other challenge. In fact, many people are saying that I ran an administration that was almost perfect, if not for that case of the lady that accused me of sexual harassment.
Looking back, what would you say you are most proud of achieving during your tenure?
There is no aspect of the university that we have not excelled in. But when you talk about infrastructural development, I am so proud of it. You know, I said there is a blue-roof legacy. If you enter the university today, any building project you see with a blue roof was executed by me. Our students of Mass Comm came to interview me and I told them about the blue-roof legacy. And they said they have also observed that virtually all the buildings on campus are blue roofs. I told them when I came on board in 2021, I said all buildings constructed by me must be blue roofs. The students are very funny. They wanted to know whether I was lying. They went and counted the buildings physically on the campus. In Oye, they counted 126. In Ikole, they counted more than 50. We are not talking about Ayegbaju. We are not talking about Itapa. We are not talking about Ilupeju. We are not talking about Ayedun. We are not talking about Ifaki.
In terms of the issue of government policy and regulation, from the benefit of your experience, what do you have to say about improving the university system?
Well, I think one is that they must grant university autonomy, full autonomy. If universities are not given full autonomy, you cannot develop universities. You motivate to innovate. The people working in the university have an idea of what they want. But they need government support and autonomy. There are policies that would not allow universities to do certain things.
You have to go to Abuja to get many things approved. You cannot even employ a cleaner as a Vice Chancellor. I’m telling you the truth. You just have to get to Abuja to employ a cleaner or a clerk. It is as bad as that. Everything is centrally controlled. And that is a disadvantage. It is important for universities to be given autonomy to operate. There are too many bureaucracies that are tending to impede the smooth operation of the university system. So, autonomy must first be given.
At this point of your exit, what will be your advice to the incoming Vice Chancellor, your successor, and the entire university community?
Well, in my valedictory speech, I made a lot of recommendations. One of the recommendations is that they should avoid actions or inactions that will bring about disruption in the university calendar, activities or programmes. Unnecessary distractions, fighting that could culminate into strike and then closing up of the university should be avoided. It doesn’t pay anybody. Number two recommendation is that we now have in place a 25-year strategic plan. They should like I said earlier, vigorously pursue its implementation. The management and Council must continue to work together in peace and harmony to ensure sustainability in the growth of the university. Lack of cooperation and understanding between the management and council will not allow any meaningful progress in the university.
However, Council must not condone any act of indiscipline and illegality. Council should continue to uphold transparency and accountability in the exercise of its oversight functions over the affairs of the university. In terms of communication, management and council must be open to all staff. And staff welfare must be taken care of and given utmost priority.
And for the incoming Vice Chancellor, he needs to consult widely. FUOYE is not an easy university to run. But I believe that God will direct and guide him aright as he takes over the mantle of leadership in the 15-year-old university. I wish him well.