Engaging Olukoya in an interview is a seminar on higher educational management and a window into the world of a humble, God-fearing personality who believes that leadership is not about taking credits, but giving credits to the team of subordinates that makes things happen. He also speaks on his experience as the registrar, the challenges and why UI has been relatively tension free among many other issues.
Excerpts:
Was your taking to educational administration by personal inclination or by accident?
If I had the option then I would have considered some other areas. If I had looked at the trajectory by the time I was in the university, I was very good in science- Mathematics and Chemistry. In fact, I was very good in Chemistry even in the prelim class, so I was considering going in for Industrial Chemistry, but as it turned out things just couldn’t work there and it’s like I would say that I resorted to Educational Planning and Administration and Mathematics. And as it were, I have never had time to regret my choice. I also got an appointment in the University of Lagos. I picked interest in writing papers and had a bit of publications then. So, it was what I really enjoyed.
How was the experience of transiting from a ‘small’ academic environment such as College of Education to a more complex one like the University of Ibadan?
Even if I had started with University of Ibadan, as the years progress, there would still be challenges, because that does not mean the way you are doing things this year would still be the same way you will do them next year. Challenges are part of the dynamics of life, but talking seriously, there is no doubt about it that the Federal College of Education cannot be put on the same pedestal with the University of Ibadan. UI, on its own, no doubt, is a complex place, so even if you are working in another university before now, that is not to say you can compare the situation with UI. I would say that in the administration of tertiary institutions, whether it is polytechnic, college of education or a university, there are still some set lines. So, to a large extent, more depends on you as a person; the way you build yourself, wherever you find yourself just knowing that you only have to keep learning.
I knew the challenges and got prepared before coming here and even before getting here, I didn’t allow myself to see it as something that was so overwhelming and I must say that I owe a lot of gratitude to the management team that we have been working together and to my staff in the registry as well. No matter how articulate and brilliant you are, you cannot do it alone. At this level, to an extent, you have to give orders, but if the directives are not obeyed what happens? To this extreme, the people at the top- the registrar, Vice Chancellor take the glory, but there are people who make sure things work out.
You are the 11th registrar and the eighth indigenous registrar of UI and relatively young, how do you cope with the old professors and how accepted are you?
It depends on the perception that one has of himself and the perception people have towards you. The University of Ibadan, of course, given the age, one should expect that it would have well-experienced and advanced professors. But, when you talk of old professors, is it old in terms of biological age or chronological age as professors? You know that it is possible for a person to be a professor at the age of 30 and he/she can be in the system at the age of 70. I will say that the experienced professors have advantage in the system. One thing about UI is the rich and robust experience and the culture that had been its own and this, of course, is really helping and playing out. Relationships do not depend on individuals, but it depends on the way you want to manage it and there is no means and no cause for you to fear and be intimidated at all. It has really been a rewarding experience working with people; the opportunities have come for you to learn from people. Even with our old professors we tap from their abundance of experience.
What does leadership mean to you?
You are expected in truth and practice to see yourself and others you are working with as colleagues… If you like to climb the high horse, there is little you would be able to achieve. There are some things that I even learn from my driver and personal assistant. You should give them chance to hear their views… Let them see that their views are important even though you won’t use it. Let them know that you value their opinion because if you give them an order and it comes out awry, you will have yourself to blame. So, if you have some value of trust in them, even when I am not on ground, the deputy registrars take decisions. There must be synergy in such a way that if the registrar is not seated, the decisions that will come out of there will still be to a large extent what would have issued from here, because it’s like we work together, we think together.
What are the major challenges being on that seat?
It is a place where you can’t wake up and come to the office in the morning and predict the things you will meet on the table, particularly when you are dealing with human beings, the students. The fact that these students behave this way does not mean that the next set of students will behave the same way. It is dynamic and the hallmark of a good administrator is the ability to relate with your colleagues, that’s what makes you gain experience. So, in effect, when you go home always pray to God and appreciate God on a daily basis; ave this deep interaction that what you’ve learnt today will help you tomorrow.
About two years ago, you launched SERVICOM in UI. How will you rate your delivery in terms of the university’s services to its numerous public?
We cannot say our service is 100 per cent perfect. Of course, this is something that we are striving towards. Like I keep telling my people, the position we are in today is not just a position that was acquired overnight; lots and lots of people in the system have put up their best. So we have to leverage and build on it. We are to provide a conducive environment for the primary assignment of the university to thrive, so this is very important. And this is why on daily basis there is need for us to keep on assessing and reassessing or appraising ourselves. There are some things that are beyond us that you definitely have to contend with. One needs to know that you must be on your toes at all times. So, essentially SERVICOM is just to keep us on our toes, because we see it as a template, which we have to work more on.
We want to satisfy ourselves that the publics- the students, alumni, even stakeholders- not just when they are outside the university, but even when they are here, are satisfied. How you treated them while they were in the school will determine how they behave to you when they go outside. This is very important because what they are able to learn while in school will either affect them positively or negatively. It’s only when you treat them well that they go out there, find that sense of belonging and uphold the standards they have learnt to exploit in the society. We have had an instance when one particular alumnus, who stays far away in Dubai needed his degree certificate and when you look at the procedure here, he had not met those conditions but we just looked at it that what can we do, and it was obvious that this young man was to attend an interview and you couldn’t tell him that he should come to Ibadan from Dubai for him to fulfill all these. We just looked at it with the Vice Chancellor, what we could do to assist him and we tried to put things in place and we actually did. In fact, we were able to package the certificate back to him within 24 hours and he thought he would miss that opportunity and when that was done, he later wrote back to us and sent an e-mail that: We have a friend in him, that people have said it was not possible to get this done in UI, but he was surprised when he got it. And I said that he should now just tell it to others. I also told him that where he feels there are areas of lapses he should let us know. And I’ll tell you that part of the job …especially at this time of admission; I’m daily inundated with calls, some of them by 1.00am. At times, you would receive a phone call from someone requesting for help as regards the school website. I will just have to help.
I see myself also as a public relations officer of the university because even an applicant today can turn out to be the Vice Chancellor or the president of the country tomorrow. I just try as much as possible to avail them the opportunity. The job itself you can say is almost 24 hours. It is not actually something that you say: “I come in by 8pm and close by 4pm. Parents, of course, will come to make some enquiries and want to know some details about what we do here. We make ourselves available and like I said earlier, it is all about service delivery. Whether there is SERVICOM or not, there is need to attend to your external publics.
I understand UI will be taking only 3, 500 of the more than 30,000 admission seekers this year, why?
There is need for us to exactly understand what we are talking here. We say that we are taking about 3,500; remember that they are undergraduates and also we have postgraduate admission, and in that area, there is no doubt that here we can say we have the highest capacity in Nigeria and the enrolment is almost 50 per cent of the undergraduate, i.e, at the postgraduate level. We do this because we know we have the human resources and other resources at the level of postgraduate. This is a university that prides itself with over 400 professors; it is a university that also prides itself as the one that is training teachers as it were for other universities. We need to consider and put all these things in place. We don’t just talk about the number, not just 10,000 undergraduates, we want to be sure that we are able to cope adequately with the number of students that we have. And like I said, what informed this is because of the enrolment of the postgraduate as well. At our last convocation, we graduated about 500 PhD students and that, I will say, is unprecedented, because in Nigeria and even in Africa we so much concentrate on that. But at the same time too, we are not losing sight of the undergraduate enrolment. We have a distance learning programme which caters for quite a number of students.
We have seen a lot of consolidation and expansion of infrastructural development as well as beautification projects on the university under Professor Isaac Adewole’s regime, but a visit to some male hostels shows rather appalling conditions. There have also been complaints of poor municipal services in terms of water, power and others. What have you to say about this?
I’m sorry, I would disagree with you. There was a time this incident went viral on the internet, when someone said the toilet condition of the hostels was so poor. But this depends on the time of visit or get into the hostel. This is a place we contracted the cleaning services and I will say that we are trying our best in getting all these facilities in place. But like someone said, it’s like comparing the health status of a 65-year-old man with that of a 10-year-old boy. Of course, there are a lot of differences there, because the headache of a 65-year-old is quite different from that of the 10-year-old.
What I’m saying in essence is that we have students living in this place and to a large extent you can’t really regulate the way things will be done for them or their attitude towards keeping things in an hygienic condition. However, what we do now is that we get them involved in the hostel administration. The situation would have been far better had it been that we are not limited by funds. Though we try as much as possible to put things in place, government has put a limit to the fees they can pay, but they are not funding their accommodation and you found out that the students are paying N14,000 in the hostels, whereas some private hostels around are charging about N65,000 to N95,000. So there is no way funds can ever be adequate and students, of course, would ask for adequate power supply, which we put in place. In all our hostels, we have inverters in place for the students. Now, the students themselves now understand that the money they are paying is little. We involve them in management of the funds for the maintenance of the halls of residence and when this money is paid, before the middle of the semester it is already used up and the university has to look inward to generate funds to do it.
What is the secret behind the industrial/students unrest-free atmosphere on campus?
Let God take the glory in the first instance. To a large extent it’s because of the openness of the administration. We allow students to know what exactly is going on. The university is being run by a committee system, so, it is not just the situation whereby the VC can hand something down that, this is the way. The staff, students and every stakeholder are involved in the various facets of the administration. It is just the question of the relationship the students have with the Vice Chancellor and he, himself is a union person. And because of this, one atimes speaks the language of a union person. More so, I was also a part of unionism when in school and also speak the language. This, therefore, goes a long way in that they cannot be angry with you because of being part of them. What is essential is to see each other’s point of view and understand. Let’s take a demonstration for instance, you have a handset and you say that the handset has a screen, while your counterpart or another person is seeing the back of the phone and is insisting that he cannot see any screen. Of course, both of you are right. If you really want to convince him to believe you there is a screen, he has to come to your side and see for himself otherwise both of you will continue to argue on this. Therefore, we don’t say these students have started again. We need to put ourselves in their shoes to know the reasons for their actions. A student can say: “I paid a whole N14, 000 and the school didn’t get this or that done.” Of course, you need to let him see and you ask him to manage such amount of money which won’t last. Before getting to the middle of the semester, the hostel fees would have been exhausted. And this is when they can come to appreciate that their hostel fee was indeed small. Indeed, the university is going extra mile to make sure that hostel facilities and other things are put in place.
The Sun
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