OPINION: Unveiling UNILORIN's VC-designate. By Kunle Akogun

Date: 2017-09-24

IN the run-up to the August 28, 2017 appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor, members of the University of Ilorin community waited with bated breath and palpable anxiety as news filtered through the campus that the Governing Council was about to take a major decision that would invariably chart the direction the University would tread in the next five years. On that day, the Council, led by Dr. Abdullah Jibril Oyekan, met to, among other businesses, consider the report of its Selection Board on the appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor.

This anxiety was not restricted to the University community, as even members of the general public were also on tenterhooks as to who would emerge the new helmsman of the University that is currently making waves across the country, and even beyond, as Nigeria's number one citadel of learning by all objective standards.

And the mass media were not left out in this pervasive aura of tensile anticipation. Indeed, members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm inadvertently, or, in some cases consciously, fuelled the general anxiety over what should ordinarily be strictly an internal affair of the University with all sorts of speculative news stories on the likely candidate for the plum job!

And after about four hours of brainstorming, Dr. Oyekan, tailed by other Council members, emerged from the hallowed Council Chamber and headed straight to the more spacious old Senate Chamber, where a bevy of anxious pressmen were waiting in the wings. So, it was understandable when a pin-drop silence immediately enveloped the Senate Chamber as the Council Chairman and other members of his entourage settled into their seats.

"Gentlemen of the press" the Council Chairman began, barely waiting for a short introduction by the University Spokesman, yours sincerely, to end, "Noting that the tenure of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor AbdulGaniyu Ambali, OON, will come to an end on 15th October, 2017, Council commenced the process for the appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor by announcing the vacancy in two National Newspapers, ThisDay and The Herald on Friday, 14th April, 2017. The advertisement was also placed on the University website and the University's Weekly Bulletin".

Dr. Oyekan then launched into the details of the selection process that culminated in the just concluded Council meeting. And finally, he said, "At its meeting on Monday, 28th August, 2017, Council, in accordance with the University Act and the provisions of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act 2003, considered the recommendation of the Selection Board and I am happy to announce that Council approved the appointment of Professor Sulyman Age Abdulkareem as the 10th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin. The appointment is to take effect from 16th October, 2017".

And so the erudite Professor of Chemical Engineering and inventor of an anti-oil spillage substance, the Unilor Oil Sorbing Wafers, among other inventions, was named the University's new Vice-Chancellor.

A specialist in Heterogeneous Catalysis/Reactional Engineering and consummate researcher as well as patent owner of several groundbreaking inventions, Prof. Abdulkareem joined the services of the University of Ilorin as a Senior Lecturer in 1996, becoming a Professor in 2005. He is the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin.

The Vice-Chancellor-designate was born on 21st January, 1954 at Oro town, Irepodun Local Government area of Kwara State. He attended the Government Secondary School, Ilorin, for both his secondary school education and the Higher School Certificate (HSC) from 1968 to 1974, which he undertook with a Kwara State Government Scholarship. He later got the Federal Government Scholarship for his university education at the University of Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. between 1975 and 1980. At the end of the course, he came out in flying colours and was awarded the MChE, BChE (Chemical Engineering) specializing in Heterogeneous Catalysis/Reaction Engineering.

From 1985 to 1988, this high-flying intellectual was awarded the United States of America National Science Foundation Fellowship for his Ph.D programme in Chemical Engineering at the University of Louisville, USA. He also completed his Ph.D in flying colours and obtained the Engineer-In-Training Certificate of the State of Minnesota, USA in 1991. He became a registered Engineer of the Nigerian Society of Engineers in 2002 and a COREN Registered Engineer in 2004.

Prof. Abdulkareem was a Lecturer, engaged by the Detroit Board of Education Detroit, Michigan, USA from August 1984 to August 1985; and a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, from September 1985 to August 1988. He joined the services of the University of Ilorin as a Senior Lecturer in 1996 and rose to become a Professor in September 2005, the same year he discovered and fabricated a substance that could be used to rescue the environment of the oil producing areas from the menace of oil spillage and save their waters from perennial pollution.

A consummate researcher and thorough-bred academic, he has a lot of inventions and has many patents to his credit.

The Vice-Chancellor-designate has held many important positions in the University, among which are: Director, SIWES (2000 – 2008); Head, University Admissions Unit (2006 – 2009); Dean, Student Affairs (2008 – 2010); and Director, Laboratory-To-Product (LABTOP) Centre (September 2015 to date). He is happily married with children.

From the general mood of obvious satisfaction that has pervaded the campus since the announcement of Prof. Abdulkareem's appointment, with torrents of congratulatory messages pouring in from members of Senate and the leadership of the various staff unions in the University, it is safe to say that the University of Ilorin is in for another glorious era, a sustenance of the excellence for which the institution has been known for years.

There is no doubt that the Vice-Chancellor-designate's appointment is a call to national service and many people believe that by his pre-eminent antecedent, he is well-equipped to take the University of Ilorin to greater heights.

Not only has he served in a similar capacity in a sister university before, available records have also shown that Prof. Abdulkareem discharged himself creditably in his former duty post, making ground-breaking achievements that are yet unsurpassed. Moreover, his intimidating credentials are a source of joy, pride and assurance to every Unilorite that the University is indeed lucky to have him take over from a great achiever in the person of Prof. Ambali. Generally acknowledged to be a very principled, open-minded, fair and incorruptible administrator wherever he has been privileged to serve in the past, Prof. Abdulkareem will surely be bringing all these sterling attributes to bear on his administrative style at the University.

Akogun is the Head, Corporate Affairs, University of Ilorin

Source

 


Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Crystal Corner Shops     Bashir Adigun     IHS Towers     Aasiyat Bello Oyedepo     Habeeb Saidu     Special Agro-Industrial Hub     Saka Saadu     Unicontinental Construction Company     Kwasu     Lanre Issa Onilu     Yoruba     CUTI     Col. Taiwo     Monthly Sanitation     Doyin Agbamu     Aliyu Kora-Sabi     John Kehinde Salako     Olatunde Olukoya     David Adesina     C2c@kwarastate.gov.ng     Ilofa     Omotoso Musa     Offorjama     Read With Me     Yahaya Muhammad     Hassan Saliu     Elesie Of Esie     Oba Abu     Sidikat Uthman Ajibola     UNILORIN Alumni     Solomon Edoja     Simeon Sule Ajibola     Alfa Yahaya Road     Kulende     Amoyo     Sulaiman Gado     Adeleke Ogungbe     Abdulganiyu AbdulAzeez     Alapado     Moses Adekanye     Isiaka Danmeromu     Olosi Of Osi     AbdulQowiy Olododo     Mahmud Babatunde Baker     Samuel Adedoyin     Hikmah AbdulKareem     Issa Manzuma     Akeem Olatunji     Peter Amogbonjaye     Ibrahim Kayode Adeyemi     Hassan Taiye Salam     Olatomiwa Williams     Idiagbon     Abdulrasheed Akogun     Elelu     Oro Grammar School     Olumide Daniel Ibitoye     Post-utme     Egbewole     Aiyedun     Gbajabiamila     Idris Amosa Saidu     Aliyu Muhammed     Shururat Olatinwo     Prince Sunday Fagbemi     Sango-UITH Road     Senate President     Col. Adedipe     Is\'haq Modibbo Kawu     Omotosho     Olusola Saraki     Royal FM     Shuaib Boni Aliyu     Alaro     Yahaya Seriki Gambari     Adamu Ibrahim Sabi     Sidikat Akaje    

Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Emmanuel Olatunji Adesoye     Idiagbon     Sabo-Oke     Bello Taoheed Abubakar     Jamiu Oyawoye     Local Government Pension Board     Ado Ibrahim     BECE     Jebba     Dan-Kazeem     Otunba Taiwo Joseph     Galland Marcias     Shaaba Lafiagi     Olaiya Lawal     Abdulkadir Akanbi-Oke     Segun Ogunsola     Allocation     Ramadhan     Sa\'adu Gambari     Tunde Oyawoye     Amos Bajeh     Ilorin Water Reticulation     Sunday Otokiti     Sanitation Exercise     Abdulrazaq Solihudeen     Ayo Salami     Habeeb Saidu     Nigeria Computer Society     Obayomi Azeez     Kayode Ogunlowo     Obasanjo     Chemiroy Nigeria Limited     Twitter     Third Estate     Playing Host     Abubakar Imam     Sa\'adu Salau     Tescom.kwarastate.gov.ng     Chief Imam Of Omu-Aran     Moronfoye     Monsurat Omotosho     Femi Ogunsola     Oke-Ode     Yakubu Dogara     Modibo Kawu     Saka Balikis Kehinde     Tsaragi-Share     Abdulrasheed Lafia     Odo-Owa     Saraki     Ubandawaki     Aliyu Muhammed     Kwara Poly     Kwara State Health Insurance Agency     Bayer AG     Kazeem Oladepo     Odolaye Aremu     Share     Awodun     Khairat Gwadabe     Ajibola Saliu Ajia     Vasolar     Olosi Of Osi     Oja-Oba     Alabere     Isiaka Saka Opobiyi     Halidu Danbaba     Shehu Alimi Foundation     Tunde Akanbi     Isaac Gbenle     Bola Ahmed Tinubu     Garba Ado Sanni     Waheed Ibrahim     National Association Of Nigerian Students     Rebecca Bake     Kehinde Boyede     Oju Ekun Sarumi