The authorities of the University of Ilorin have announced a decision to institutionalise the ‘‘Lecturer of the Year’’ award in each of the 16 faculties of the university.

The Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), Professor Olubunmi Abayomi Omotesho, said this while discussing the contents of the university’s fifth strategic plan, tagged ‘‘Shuttling to the Space’’, with staff members of the university at a special consultative meeting held at the institution’s main auditorium.

The Deputy Vice Chancellor, who is the Chairman of the Committee on the Strategic Plan, explained that the award is to be institutionalised in order to encourage higher productivity and service delivery among the academic staff of the University.

Professor Omotesho, a former Director of Academic Planning of the university, insisted that the award is essentially targeted at enabling the institution to produce outstanding alumni who would be able to compete with their colleagues from all over the world.

He said that the new awards would not stop the existing “Merit Awards” for deserving staff members of the various units of the university usually conferred during convocation ceremonies.

Professor Omotesho also explained that other awards would also be institutionalised for different categories of stakeholders of the university so as to stimulate the desire for the greatness of the nation’s most sought-after university.

Aside from the award for outstanding lecturers and other categories of stakeholders, Professor Omotesho also informed the staff of the university that they would enjoy long service awards, particularly among those who have put in at least two decades of hard work to the university.

He also said that the university would introduce an Open Day for parents to come to the campus of the university purposely to get an insight into the all-round performances of their children and wards.

Speaking at the event that attracted many senior officials of the university across various cadres, the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Wahab Olasupo Egbewole, SAN, encouraged staff members to always play their roles effectively for the university to continue to witness qualitative growth and for it to become the best in Nigeria, among the top 10 in Africa and one of the leading 500 at a global level.

The Vice-Chancellor, who thanked all the participants, explained that every staff of the university is important and that when each of them plays his role as expected, the university would enjoy tremendous progress.

He added that the decision to hold the interactive session was targeted at enabling concerned staff to be part of the decision-making and for them to have input on how the university would be run in the next five years.

Professor Egbewole, who is also the Secretary-General of the Association of West African Universities (AWAU), emphasised the need for ‘‘staff and students of the university to always be on the same line, paragraph, page and book’’ for the university to achieve its corporate objectives and the essence of the new strategic plan being put in place.

In his welcome address, the Director of Academic Planning, University of Ilorin, Professor G. T. Arosanyin, said that everything that would determine the future of the university is embedded in the document.

Professor Arosanyin, who teaches at the Department of Economics, said that the university decided to convoke the consultative meeting so as to distil information from the bottom to the top and for everyone to be part of the plan.

In their various contributions, the participants, who came from different units of the University, commended the management of the University for deeming it fit to organise the event, as they said that it was an opportunity for them to unveil their impressions on the strategic plan and the general running of the University.

One of the participants, Mrs Bilikis Giwa, encouraged the management to appoint a Desk Officer who would monitor the implementation of every aspect of the plan when it is eventually adopted, saying that coming up with a brilliant plan has never been the problem but faithful implementation.

The meeting was attended by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Management Services), Prof. Suleiman Funsho Ambali; the Registrar, Mr Mansur Adeleke Alfanla; the Ag. Bursar, Mr Oba Abdulbarki; and the University Librarian, Dr. Kamaldeen Tunde Omopupa, as well as the Director of Corporate Affairs, Mr. Kunle Akogun, among several others.