AFTER putting in 21 years of service, eminent scholar and teacher of repute, Prof. Fola Tayo bowed out of the academic system at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) at a colour ceremony organised in his honour recently. But the erudite scholar has also attributed the problem in the Nigerian education system to what he termed, the breakdown of values in the society.There is really nothing wrong with the Nigerian educational system, he asserted. What is wrong is our value. The reason Nigerian universities seem to have found themselves in this mess, is because they are also existing in the same society which has been corrupted by the politicians, who find their way to leadership positions either through thuggery or godfatherism.The professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the UNILAG College of Medicine, who was hosted to a retirement party by his former students, however, proposed that, if the government gives the education sector the attention it deserves, standard would also be uplifted in the sector.He said, you find people, who graduate from here, leave the country to go abroad and they are doing well over there. So its not really true that something is wrong with our educational system. It is the society. Leadership is a major problem in Nigeria. It is very sad the kind of people who parade themselves as politicians wanting to be elected. In many civilised countries, they would be locked up in prisons.Tayo continued, politics has become the most lucrative and attractive profession. How can you explain a situation, whereby, the president of a country or a governor of a states security vote alone is enough to feed an entire local government area What is he going to do with the money How long is he going to live on earth to spend all that money Something must be wrong with that kind of person, but unfortunately, that is the state of our so called leaders.The retiring don, who had his early education in Nigeria before proceeding to the United Kingdom in July, 1963, studied Pharmacy, graduated, and then enrolled for his Ph.D in Pharmacology at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. After obtaining a Ph.D in early 1975, he went straight into Community Pharmacy practice in the United Kingdom by September 1975, he joined the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) as a lecturer in pharmacology.Tayo said, I was with ABU for two years. I then joined the University of Ibadan also as a lecturer in 1977. I moved up the rank at the university to become a senior lecturer two years after and by 1981, I took a break from the university and went to the United States of America as a Forgatt International Fellow. I went to work at the University of California Los Angeles Medical Centre. We did some very good research work on blood vessels, especially in hypertension. I studied the role of calcium in blood pressure regulation and the role of calcium in vascular smooth muscle contraction. I returned to the University of Ibadan two years later.However, I started shuttling between Ibadan and the U.S. to complete some research I was working on. Eventually in 1984, I had to take an appointment at the University of Vermont in Burlington, U.S.A, as an associate professor. I thought I was going to be there for long, but a friend of mine who was provost at the newly established College of Health Sciences at Shagamu, Ogun State, requested that I should come and establish a Pharmacology Department for the school.I took a leave from the U.S. again and came to Shagamu to establish the Pharmacology Department.Tayo moved to the University of Lagos in January 1989 and later became the Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy. He expressed satisfaction over the crop of students he had groomed over the years.He implored his students to replicate whatever value they had learnt from him to others in the society. I want to tell them (former students) that whatever they have seen in me, my work and in my family that has impressed them so much, like the lord Jesus would say, I want to tell them to go and do the same because what I see is that if I have made so much impact in their lives, if each of them would go out and make a similar impact in one or two lives, the multiplying effect would be very great.The rough calculation I have in my head is that, if on a daily basis, one goes out to make impact on another one, in 33 years, they would have impacted on six billion people, which is more than the population of Nigeria.Asked if he has any regret as an academic, the 67-year-old professor said,I am fulfilled. Even before I went into the university, I had made up my mind on what I wanted to be. I said to myself I was going to be a teacher. Nobody influenced me. It was something I wanted. I wanted to go into academics that was what I believed from the start and I dont have any regret.One of his former students, Mrs Arin Joda said,Prof Tayo has been a daddy, my dean, a boss, my Ph.D programme supervisor, he is many things to me. We are surely going to miss him.Also Dr. Bolajoko Aina said, he is a straightforward person and has an aura of confidence that you cant help but love. We will miss his leadership. He is someone you can look up to and know you have the best. As president of the West African Postgraduate College of Medicine, he has achieved a lot and we are proud of all his achievements.
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