How Prof. Aderinto, Muslim With Considerable Christian Support, Narrowly Lost 13Th UI Vice Chancellorship To Prof. Adebowale
The Oasis Reporters
October 16, 2021
By Greg Abolo
When in mid September 2020, 18 candidates were in contention for the University of Ibadan Vice Chancellorship as the then VC, Prof Abel Olayinka’s tenure was expiring, the election was stalemated. Instead, an acting Vice Chancellor was picked to stay on for six months. A very young professor, Adebola Ekanola got the nod to act. And he got the nod because everyone felt that he was not a candidate for the top job.
Secondly, he was considerably young in age having been born in 1969 and in his early fifties. Most professors in University of Ibadan are aged between 60 to 70. No one envisaged that having acted superlatively as VC, he would throw his hat into the ring and upset the almost two horse final race between the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration), Professor Kayode Adebowale and former Deputy Vice Chancellor(Academic), Prof. Adeyinka Abideen Aderinto.
One curious factor our investigative reporters uncovered was that a lot of professors who are perceived to be of the Christian faith were secretly rooting for Prof. Aderinto, a Muslim. But outwardly, they pretended to be supporting any other contestant that is perceived to be Christian.
“Aderinto and Adebowale are equally matched. They are both good to go. But we love Aderinto’s broadmindedness. He’s very fair, a forthright man”, a professor who preferred to be anonymous told our reporter on the campus.
When the hijab crisis hit the prestigious ISI Secondary school attached to the university as a top grade feedstock to the premier university, the administration saddled Prof. Aderinto with the task of resolving the crisis.
He, Aderinto, a practicing Muslim was mandated to wade into the issue, pacifying near hysterical Muslim parents who were practically drawing rain with the insistence that their children must be allowed to dorn the hijab in the school, founded on Christian principles as a way of enforcing diversity. A religious crisis seemed to be brewing, and everyone feared the worst.
Aderinto waltzed between belligerent organizations on both sides of Nigeria’s religious divide and successfully pacified the protesting parents. ” ISI originally started under Christian precepts. If anyone wanted a hijab wearing school, surely all religious organization have wealthy individuals to set one up”.
The professor won praise for his deft handling of the crisis. This translated to love and support.
He succeeded in diffusing the tension because Professor Adeyinka Abideen Aderinto has got street cred. He’s practically a UI boy, having received his primary school education at Abadina Primary school, University of Ibadan between 1973 and 1978. He started his secondary education at the Ede Muslim Grammar School, in 1978 but completed it in 1983 at Abadina College, University of Ibadan. Professor Aderinto gained direct entry admission to the University of Ibadan, Ibadan in 1985 for a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology, and graduated in 1988 with a Second Class Honours Upper Division.
Until the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII) decided to root for an indigene to be appointed the next VC of the premier university. The dynamics became altered. Actually it had been said that Ibadan as a town has yet to have an indigene as Vice Chancellor in perhaps, all of UI’s 72 years. Yet they have eminently qualified professorial candidates. It seemed about time.
Aderinto who is not from Ibadan had delivered his inaugural lecture titled On The Fringe Of Society, January 30, 2020. He’s a sociologist cast in the mould of former Professors Otité Onigu and Omafume Onoge, earlier forebears in the faculty of social sciences.
And he lost to the equally formidable DVC. UI now has Professor Adebowale as the new Vice Chancellor. In a good sportsmanlike pose, Aderinto has offered his congratulatory felicitations and pledged his support to Professor Adebowale, urging that University of Ibadan must maintain it’s “greatness” .
Professor Aderinto’s feathers would still be dry, five years from now, for another vice chancellorship contest. He’s in his early 50s and would still be good to go in 2026 with all things being equal, when Professor Adebowale’s single tenure expires.
