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Ibadan Varsity Top Job As VC: Who Succeeds Prof. Olayinka ? The Race Hots Up For 18 Contenders

The Oasis Reporters


September 14, 2020

University of Ibadan (UI) Gate.



Zoom, as a new media technology will lead the way to a slight inkling of who the leading candidates in the race to succeed Prof Abel Olayinka, the incumbent Vice Chancellor would be. And that would be this week.



The candidates are scheduled for a debate tagged “The Voice of UI VC: Who is Next”. Interested watchers who are not social media savvy are bound to miss out on the debate.

The last time Abel Olayinka summoned parents or stakeholders to any meeting showing slides of the infrastructure deficit in the Campus and why he must raise fees from hostel accommodation to payable fees by medical students etc, it was a physical meeting. Zoom hadn’t happened in Ibadan yet. Still it remains to be seen if the repairs he talked about should happen, actually happened.

The University halls of residence are still under lock and key. And this is not wholly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The university had been shut because there was a strike by members of staff.

As at the last count, four indigenes of Ibadan are among the 18 applicants for the post of vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan (UI).

They are professors Aderemi Raji-Oyelade, Oluwabunmi Olapade-Olaopa, Kayode Adebowale and Kolapo Amzat. Their candidature is believed to be a boost to the campaign by the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII) for an indigene to be appointed the next VC of the premier university.

The first indigenous Vice Chancellor of Nigeria’s premier University was Prof. Kenneth Dike. An Ibo man and he gave superlative service.



Will the indigeneship sentiment sway the process to influence who succeeds the incumbent Prof. Abel Olayinka on December 1 in a University that not only belongs to Ibadan, but to all of Nigeria, making it’s flavour appealing to all ?


The new vice chancellor, when elected, will assume office for a single term of five years.

When former President Goodluck Jonathan established 12 new federal universities, he made sure that no indigenous Vice Chancellor emerged in any of them. Even the Federal University of Otuoke in Goodluck Jonathan’s home state of Bayelsa was a Yoruba man from the South West, where Ibadan city is the political capital.

The governor of neighbouring Osun State, Mr. Oyetola was heard a few weeks back demanding that federal slots belonging to Osun state must not be given to other non Osun people. Whereas his immediate predecessor, former governor Aregbesola who is alleged to have driven the State to near bankruptcy because he couldn’t pay workers wages, was a Commissioner in Lagos State. The then governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu is believed to have his ancestry rooted in Osun State. Yet he ruled Lagos for 8 years and has installed every other Governor in the state since he left office in 2007.



The applicants for the UI top job have been canvassing for votes from stakeholders in the university community.


The remaining 14 are professors Babatunde Salako, Babatunde Adeleke, Razaq Rom-Kalilu, Hakeem Fawehimi, Raheem Lawal and Adeyinka Aderinto.

Others are professors Clement Kolawole, Olusegun Ademowo, Oladele Layiwola, Temitope Alonge, Anthony Kadoye Onifade, Ebenezer Farombi, Femi Mimiko and H. A. Saliu.

While Kayode Adebowale is the incumbent Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC Administration), Adeyinka Aderinto is DVC (Academic). Olapade-Olaopa is the former provost, College of Medicine, while Raji-Oyelade is a former dean, Faculty of Arts of the institution.


Greg Abolo

Blogger at The Oasis Reporters.

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