FUOYE’s New VC, Ogunwole, Unveils Reform Agenda

Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti

Professor Joshua Ogunwole assumed office yesterday  as the fifth Vice-Chancellor (VC)of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), pledging comprehensive reforms to strengthen governance, discipline and academic standards in the institution.

Speaking at his inauguration ceremony, Prof. Ogunwole emphasised the urgent need for structural, administrative and cultural reforms to reposition the rapidly growing federal university for sustainable development.

He said that the major task ahead for the new leadership of the university was to expand its carrying capacity in order to avoid reaching an inflection.

“The immediate former VC had grown the university tremendously. The university has experienced a vertical growth and normally when you plant maize and it grows so tall, if you don’t take time, a small wind can break it down. So, my own plan is to strengthen the base as we go up.

“The university has grown from 20,000 students when Fasina came in to 60,000 within five years. Now, what that means is that our carrying capacity is just about 20,000 to 25,000 students.

“If we keep growing like that, we can be blown down.”

“So, now, what we need do is to actually do everything to strengthen our carrying capacity. That implies improving on lecture theaters, looking at how we can digitally teach, reviewing our core delivery system. Those are things we need do to sustain that growth. The university will be technology driven,” he said.

The FUOYE helmsman further said that he would count on his experience as the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of Bowen University to, not just stabilise FUOYE, but make sure that the university does not sail adrift.

“All along, what I do is training whatever team I have. For instance, in the next few months, we will be talking about top management training and chain management training. We will bring people to talk and review. When you tool and retool, the tendency is that you will have more compliance within your team than the other way,” Professor Ogunwole  said.

The new VC also emphasised the need for an administrative culture shift and the need to decentralise the system of the university.

According to the VC, “One of the things we want to do is to change the culture. For FUOYE, there are three things that must be done to move on. The culture that takes you to inflection, you must change it. That is what I was talking about. When you talk about changing the culture, we talk about the mindset of the people – the way they approach and see things, and so on.

“Secondly, you must change your product. Our products are students and graduates. And that is where I was talking about our core delivery system. And then, we must change our business model.

“We have run a faculty-based system, which is a centralized system. Now, we must think about a de-centralised process to make the university more agile. Reason  being that if you have 20,000 students, it may be easy for every department or faculty to be waiting for the VC to come so that he approves everything at once. But when you are growing big and you still want to run a central system, you are going to have problems.

“We must anticipate that we will be growing from 60,000 students now, and if we want to remain an agile university, a responsive university, and also safe cost, then we must decentralize.

“So, our business model must move away from a centralized system to a decentralised one. At this point, we must begin to emphasize high performance, or else we will be having challenges in our hands.”

The VC said further that the FUOYE under his watch would be technology-driven and continue to lead in research and investments.

“FUOYE is fourth most subscribed university in Nigeria. We want to improve on that. The opportunity for us is one, making most of our admission-based processes to be digital. This means that you don’t need to come to FUOYE before you can do your screening. We screen you from anywhere you are. When we want to do exams now, for instance, students who for one reason or the other cannot be physically on ground, they should be able to do their exam anywhere in the world and we will invigilate them.

“Another opportunity is that FUOYE is in an agrarian environment. We intend to capitalize strongly on that to boost our Internally Generated Revenue. We are hoping that within the next two years, a FUOYE agro-allied company will start and with FUOYE having the largest shareholding. We intend to do that so that we can concentrate on our core business.

Chairman of the Governing Council, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, represented by Hajiya Nafisa Aminu, described the transition as a critical moment in FUOYE’s evolution, urging staff, students and unions to support the new administration in the interest of peace and stability.

He reiterated the Council’s commitment to academic excellence, research development and digital transformation, noting that Nigerian universities must innovate to compete globally while addressing national development challenges.

In his inaugural lecture on leading change in university administration, former VC of the University of Ibadan, Professor Abel Olayinka, reminded the new VC that reform leadership often comes with resistance and political undercurrents.

He urged Prof. Ogunwole to remain steadfast, transparent and focused on long-term institutional growth.Dignitaries at the event included traditional rulers, religious leaders, vice-chancellors from across the country, union representatives and student leaders, reflecting the national significance of the occasion.

With its expanding student population and growing academic profile, observers say the success of the new Vice-Chancellor’s reform agenda could position FUOYE as a stronger player in Nigeria’s competitive federal university landscape.