For the Vice-Chancellor, University of Ilorin, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, November 29 is just like any other day. He would, therefore, naturally wish that the day comes and goes without any fanfare. Prof. Ambali was born on that day in 1957, some 56 years ago.

Even though he may not roll out the drums in celebration of his birthday, it is fitting to put on record some of the great things this silent achiever has been able to accomplish especially in the last one year since he mounted the saddle of administration at the University of Ilorin. For, through those giant steps, keen and objective watchers could easily glean the stuff which the Professor of Veterinary Medicine is made of.

Prof. Ambali had his Secondary Education at the Government Secondary School (GSS), Jalingo in the then North-eastern State but present Taraba State capital between 1971 and 1975 after which he proceeded to the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria from 1975 to 1981, graduating with the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree.

Between 1984 and 1988, he was at the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom for his Master of Veterinary Science (M.V. Sc) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Veterinary Medicine. In 1994, 1997 and 1998, the erudite Veterinarian attended the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, UK for his Animal License Certificates. In 1998, Prof. Ambali was at the Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences, The Netherlands. And in the same year he was awarded the Personal License Certificate from the Home Office, United Kingdom.

The Wellcome Trust Research Fellow joined the services of his alma mater immediately after his national service in 1982 as Assistant Lecturer and by dint of hard work and academic excellence he rose to the position of Professor in 1995. He was two-time Dean, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maiduguri between 2006 and 2008 and then in 2010 before transferring his services to the University of Ilorin where he became the pioneer Dean of the University’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in October 2010.

Prof. Ambali was a member of the Committee of Experts on Avian Influenza set up by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 2006. He was also Team Leader of the Avian Flu Surveillance Team for Northeast. Also in 2006, he was on the Committee for the Development of Benchmark Minimum Standards (BMAS) for Postgraduate Programmes in Nigerian Universities under the National Universities Commission (NUC). Similarly, he was a member of the Panel of Expert Academics to develop a Benchmark for Veterinary Medicine Postgraduate Programme for all Nigerian Universities in 2006. He was at various times, External Examiner and External Assessor to several Federal Universities in Nigeria.

For the University of Ilorin, the last 13 months have been very eventful as several landmark achievements have been recorded in all spheres of the University’s main mandate: teaching, research and community service.
In specific terms, the Vice-Chancellor is taking the welfare of staff and students very seriously; he is vigorously pursuing excellence in teaching and research; infrastructural development is receiving the necessary attention; excellent town and gown relationship is being promoted; internally generated revenue is being visibly enhanced; fiscal discipline, transparency and accountability are getting the necessary fillip.

Staff and students’ welfare
Staff training and retraining continue to attract the Administration’s priority attention while promotions continue to be deservedly earned as at when due. Only last month, about 290 junior members of staff were promoted in an exercise, which the staff union, NASU, said, had put smiles on the faces of its members.

Students too are not doing badly as the Ambali Administration has continued to pursue their welfare with the vigour it deserves. The Administration has been working hard to ensure that the students, who the Vice-Chancellor often describes as the raison d’être of the University, receive the best education in the most conducive environment. It is also doing everything possible to substantially reduce the accommodation and transportation problems facing the students through the innovative initiative of bringing in reputable private developers to provide hostel facilities on a massive scale on campus. Also, lecturers’ capacity to teach the students well is being enhanced while security challenges on the campus are being frontally tackled.

Teaching and research
A major hallmark of the Prof. Ambali-led Administration in the past one year is its unrelenting pursuit of excellence in teaching and research.
In one of his first major interviews with at the inception of his administration, the Vice- Chancellor said he was passionate about ensuring efficient use of the facilities that we have, to promote and improve the teaching and learning environment, adding that this would make it possible for everyone to put in his/her best in whatever he/she is doing to take this University to greater heights.”

He then pledged to improve the University’s teaching and research capabilities by ensuring adequate training for staff such that in the next five years the University would become a greater participant in solving global problems.”
Towards this end, Prof. Ambali has sustained the tradition of heavy investment in human capital development through the massive sponsorship of deserving academic staff members to learned conferences within and outside the country. More staff members have also been sponsored or supported to acquire higher degrees within the last one year.

Added to this is the judicious use of the various research grants by the University researchers, under the efficient supervision of the Vice-Chancellor, of course. This has resulted in various research breakthroughs, one of which is the discovery of new anti-malaria compounds by a Professor of
Inorganic Chemistry, Joshua Ayoola Obaleye, as reported in the September 9, 2013 edition of this All things being equal, the ground-breaking discovery by this STEP-B funded researcher will soon find its way to the pharmaceutical industry.

Technological infrastructure
Another landmark achievement of the one-year old administration of Prof. Ambali is its visible commitment to the rapid development of technological infrastructure in the University. One clear evidence of this single-minded commitment is the timely completion of the STEP-B funded fiber optics project coupled with the upgrading of the bandwidth from 15 megabits per second to 155 megabits per second. With the completion of the N95.8 million fibre optics infrastructure in February this year and the massive upgrading of the bandwidth at the end of July, through the prompting of the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the University Governing Council, Prof. (Obi) Chukwuma Okonjo, the strength of internet connectivity in the University community will be more efficient, more reliable and more accessible.

One of the latent benefits of the new fibre-optics network is that it would redefine the experience of studentship in the University altogether. With the fibre optics in place as the backbone of the University s ICT infrastructure, there will be tremendous improvement in the wireless structure.

According to a member of the STEP-B Project Team and Director of the University s Computer and Information Technology (COMSIT) Directorate, Prof. Isaac Adimula, “There will be speed in connectivity, as the problem of failure will be minimized and it will be easy to deploy video facilities in classrooms, lecture theatres and even in the auditorium. If a lecturer is outside the country, he can actually teach his students from wherever he is.”

Also in tandem with Prof. Ambali s vision of taking the University to a new level of its ICT revolution, a new website was launched early February to replace the existing website that was built over five years ago. The new website, developed wholly by the University s ICT staff, is more secure, more user friendly and richer in content. Apart from enhancing the profile of the University s academic and administrative performance, the building of the new website was also cost-effective. It was said to have cost only N1.5 million to build.

New multi-functional ID cards
In his sustained drive for excellence, Prof. Ambali pulled through another feat with the introduction of a new multi-functional staff and student identification card. The special thing about this initiative is that it is not just your run-of-the-mill means of identification. Indeed, the Unilorin new ID card is one of the products of the new wave of technological revolution blowing across the University. The one-stop smart card is at the same time an ATM card, an access control card while also serving the traditional function of identification of its holders. The cards were produced for the University by and it is the first of its kind by any university in the country

One-student-one-IPAD initiative
The University of Ilorin is at the forefront of innovations. It is on record that the University pioneered the Computer Based Tests (CBT) for the screening of its potential students. Not only has this initiative been widely adopted by universities in the country today, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has indicated its desire to henceforth make its examinations entirely CBT-based. In its usual pioneering effort, the University, under the one-year old administration of Prof. Ambali, has introduced a new policy of one-student-one-IPAD beginning from this new academic session.

According to the Vice-Chancellor, the policy is aimed at boosting the University’s ICT drive and enhancing e-communication between the students and their lecturers. The PC tablet would be a virtual classroom with all the curriculum and courseware pre-uploaded on it. While the possession of an IPAD will be compulsory for fresh students, it will be optional for returning students.

With the University’s highest policy making body, the Senate, already operating paperless sessions and the Registry already toying with the idea of paperless memos, the one- student-one-IPAD initiative is a welcome extension of the wave of paperless revolution already sweeping through the University operations.

Library digitization and automation
In keeping with the emerging status of the University as a world class institution, the Vice-Chancellor is pursuing the digitization and automation of the University Library with remarkable vigour.
With the new University Librarian, Dr. Joseph Omoniyi, who coincidentally assumed office on the same day with him, on the driver’s seat of the digitization project, the Vice-Chancellor has vowed never to look back until the Unilorin Library is counted among the best in the world.

Towards this end, the University, within the last one year, has embarked on massive procurement of computers to help in automating its services, ensure that the cataloguing facilities are online, and improve the electronic library services.
Already, most of the current book stocks are being converted to soft copies to ensure easy accessibility and safety of the documents. With the installation of the Integrated Management System, materials in Unilorin library can now be accessed more easily by students and researchers from any part of the world.

Expansion of academic programme
In its sustained quest for excellence and to widen the scope of career choice for admission seekers, the University Senate, presided over by Prof. Ambali, approved the introduction of new academic programmes with the establishment of three new Faculties and the unbundling of some ‘unwieldy’ Departments.

While a brand new Faculty of Environmental Sciences, with the full complement of Departments, was established, two other Faculties, Life Science and Management Sciences, were excised from the old Faculty of Science and Faculty of Business and Social Sciences respectively.

Also, some Departments in the Faculty of Education have been unbundled to widen their academic programmes. In this regard, the Department of Arts and Social Science Education was split into the Department of Arts Education and the Department of Social Science Education. The Department of Science Education has also been split into the Department of Science Education and the Department of Educational Technology.

A fillip for anti-graft drive
Prof. Ambali has also, within his first year in office, taken the University’s well known zero tolerance for corruption to new heights with the recent launch of the anti-corruption code of ethics for the University staff members and students. The booklet, ‘Code of Ethics and Corruption Prevention Guide’ is a compendium of prophylaxis for corrupt tendencies and anti-social behaviour.

Already, the Vice-Chancellor has indicated that as a result of the high premium the University placed on character building, the handbook would be part of the induction and orientation materials to be handed over to new staff members and students.
But what makes the launch of the anti-corruption handbook the more pertinent is the unintended impact the initiative is bound to have on other universities in the country.

Shoring up the nation’s image
By bringing in the former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Walter Carrington, to deliver this year’s Convocation Lecture of the University, the Vice-Chancellor has pulled through a silent feat that hundreds of diplomatic shuttles could achieve. Not only did the Carrington draw the highest national and international attention to the University of Ilorin, with the massive media blast it engendered, it was also a diplomatic plus for the Federal Government in its sustained effort to convince foreigners that the orchestrated so-called level of insecurity in the country is a mere fluke.

No wonder the Visitor to the University, President Goodluck Jonathan was full of commendation for Prof. Ambali and the University of Ilorin in the address read on his behalf by the Supervising Minister for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike at the just concluded 29th Convocation Ceremonies of the University.

Akogun is the Deputy Director, Corporate Affairs, University of Ilorin