PROFESSOR Sola Fajana is the Vice Chancellor, Joseph Ayo Babalola University. In this interview with TUNDE ESO, he bares his mind on the strides of the university since creation and some challenges with the Nigerian university educational systemYou have been in office as the Vice Chancellor of Joseph Ayo Babalola University (JABU) for over one year. What has been your experience and observations in office'IT is obvious that the playing ground is certainly not level among the private and public universities in Nigeria. But we shall apply an attitude of healthy competition all the same. For instance, we do not have access to public funding or assistance. Candidates prefer non-fee paying public institutions and so we hardly have enough students to fill our admission quota. The searchlight of the supervisory agency is beamed much more on the private universities on account of a presumption that we are out only to make money for our proprietors. Yet, the future of the Nigerian university system lies in the hands of the private universities. And so I agree that a solid foundation should be laid for our sector, but certainly not a strangulating one.However for the future, we hope to retain and defend our lead and niche as the first entrepreneurial university in Nigeria. Our current web ranking which is 3rd among the private universities in Nigeria will be improved upon.What are the special attributes that distinguish JABU from others'When this University was established, the dream of our founding fathers was to build a University that will distinguish itself within the Nigerian University community for intellectual breakthrough and relevance to national development. We do everything possible to avoid the pitfalls of the older generation universities. Our calendar is regular with the absence of strikes. Our graduates are job providers and investors rather than job seekers.Aside our unique model of entrepreneurship, JABU recognises that young people represent a group within society with interesting or even strange lifestyles, on account of their unique demographic profile ' they are mostly millennial children as opposed to their teachers who are baby boomers and old school. We therefore offer opportunity, through counselling and chaplaincy, for spiritual deliverance. This group of students are usually in the minority, but prayerfully, expectations of our stakeholders have been met and in some cases even exceeded. Our staff members and the entire community are driven by values of productivity, excellence, integrity, transparency, decency, humility and purity.Furthermore, JABU is located on the very ground (the holy ground) where the legendary Apostle of old, late Joseph Ayo Babalola was called by the almighty God. JABU licensed as far back as 2006 was named after this wonderful Pentecostal patriarch. Though dead, people receive their miracles just by praying in the late Apostle's name. Our location continues to be a hot-spot for tourists and spiritual pilgrims from all over the world. The general environment of the campus is serene and devoid of the distractions that are associated with the hurly burly of metropolitan city life.What are your principal values in life'I am driven by the grace for divine humility and I avoid all appearances of ego. When you are wrong, admit it, learn from your errors and move on to higher grounds. Ego is the destroyer of many chief executives who cannot absorb situations that are considered unpleasant.Who are the people who have influenced your values over time'At age 10 my mentor and role model was my elder brother, Tunde Fajana of blessed memory. He was a brother with a difference. He worked hard, talked soft, carried himself with decorum, and was driven by values of love, equity and justice.At age 20, my role model was Professor Ojetunji Aboyade. Even when he was vice chancellor, he believed that at the point of entry, university students should be taught by experienced professors to build a solid foundation. He humbled himself to teach us at that level even as vice chancellor. He was such a wonderful teacher. He was so humble that he returned to the classroom at Ibadan after his tenure at Ife.At age 30, my role model was Dr Christopher Kolade. He had integrity and was driven by excellence and purity. He handled management consultancy with incredible passion and unparalleled ease. He must have influenced my decision to remain in the field of human resource management.My mentor and role model today is Professor Julius Okojie, Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission. He runs an open administration; he is humble and incorruptible (one of the few Nigerians who are in this class). He sometimes embarrasses his foot-soldiers (Vice-Chancellors), but he has an incurable sense of humour that tells you his corrections are for positive change rather than for fatalism.You speak so well of Professor Okojie. But how would you describe the recent clampdown on some universities, including yours'Okojie is still my role model. We must separate Okojie from the NUC. The sanction was from the NUC and not from the person of Professor Okojie. The NUC has a mandate: to ensure that the university system is driven by standards and characterised by unalloyed quality, which is universal and typical of an un-bastardised knowledge sector. So no one should grudge the Commission for taking hard stance sometimes. The Nigerian society has lost its unique identity. In the consequence, integrity, which drives a sane university system, seems to be disappearing fast in this part of the world.Even some of our experts cannot be trusted to deliver objective assessments. Some are too strict and others are too lenient. Those who are strict are possibly the ones suffering from sadism and so are never impressed about the special qualities you are parading in your university. Those who are lenient have possibly been persuaded by some pecuniary advantages incidental to the accreditation visits. So a valid assessment instrument may be applied subjectively, and the results would mislead the end users.Why am I saying all these, I just sympathise with the NUC in its herculean task of looking for experts in the middle category (not harsh and not indulgent), objective, temperate, credible and with integrity, who can deliver accurate reports from resource verification and accreditation visits. My advice to the NUC is to try out international accreditation instead of relying on resident professors with the risk of inbreeding, an inordinate ambition to settle old scores and other issues, which generate inaccurate and unreliable accreditation reports.Gratefully in JABU, we have always had very objective experts during our accreditation exercises. International accreditation may be expensive, but the advantages will more than compensate for the sums expended. I have personally participated in cross-national accreditation visits at the instance of the governments of Ghana and South Africa. Such interventions possibly are responsible for the greater performance of South African universities in international academic rankings.The recent clampdown of some universities is to be assessed against the backdrop of the foregoing observations and prescriptions. The NUC would be able to deliver a better job if new and revised policies are communicated in time, with specific and realistic timelines and take-off dates, and realistic deadlines. Winding-up a programme mid-session, as a corrective measure, causes a lot of confusion, disaffection and resentment among stakeholders. Again we cannot resent the NUC for making informed changes in policies granted that the operating environment in Nigeria is constantly mutating. But there must be a better way of communicating policy changes.You assert that the Nigerian society has lost its unique values. Can you elaborate on this'The Nigerian nation is characterised by diverse values depending on regions or sub-nations within it. However, there are vestiges of incredible semblance as you move from one part of Nigeria to the other, and there are groups that cohesively guard values with deserved jealousy. For instance in Ekitiland where I come from, the predominant omoluabi value has the following elements: confidence, self-reliance, honesty, promotion of equity and justice, and never to laugh at the misfortune of others. Today, psyches have become so monetarised that integrity is thrown to the dogs, equity is flagrantly jettisoned, and commercial values are promoted over and above good neighbourliness even among room-mates, town-mates, name-sakes, and course-mates.
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