Unilorin: A meteoric rise at 40

In 1975, the Federal Military Government of Nigeria established seven universities in Calabar, Ilorin, Jos, Kano, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt and Sokoto. The rationale for this step, as stated in the Third National Development Plan, was to create more opportunities for the increasing university education needs of Nigerians and to contribute to the training of the high-level manpower required by the expanding Nigerian economy.

Forty years after, the University of Ilorin has shot up like a meteor from the relative obscurity of the past and emerged a leading university in Africa. Apart from being noted for academic excellence, as evident in the laurels that its staff, students and alumni continue to receive in all walks of life, it is also well known for peace, stability and development. These factors, among others, have made the University a cynosure of all eyes and the most admired university by admission applicants in Nigeria as the records of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) last year and this year show.

The acclaimed better by far University has a double celebration this week. The University marks its 40^th year anniversary and organises its 31^st convocation ceremonies. Other things being equal, two Presidents will be in the University: our own President Muhammadu Buhari and the Ghanaian President, John Dramani Mahama.

While President Buhari will be making his first visit as Visitor to any Nigerian university since his assumption of office this year and commission some 22 projects executed by the University during the session, President Mahama will be delivering the Anniversary Lecture on “Africa’s Agenda 2063: Ending Poverty and Ensuring Prosperity in Africa” this Friday, the Founder’s Day (i.e. October 23). The highlights of the occasion will also include the unveiling of a commemorative book, “University of Ilorin at 40: The Soaring Eagle.” Before the day, one of Nigeria’s best known intellectuals, Prof. Jacob Kehinde Olupona of Harvard University, will deliver the Convocation Lecture, “Education Reform and Nation-building in Nigeria”.

A pace setter and trail blazer, the University of Ilorin has aptly demonstrated the nexus between peace and development. Better still, the University has amplified the notion that the relationship between peace and development is symbiotic: where there is peace, there is development and development itself engenders peace.

Having not experienced academic disruption for the past 15 years, a rarity in the Nigerian public university system, the progress the University has witnessed is phenomenal, apart from the firsts that it can showcase. It pioneered Computer-Based Testing (CBT), which JAMB and other universities have now adopted, and it is the first Nigerian university to be ranked among Africa’s best 20, which was achieved in 2011. In 2014, it became the first Nigerian university to be ranked within the best 2000 since ranking began when it was ranked 20^th in Africa and 1,842^nd in the world.

When the results of the institutional accreditation exercise, conducted by the regulatory National Universities Commission (NUC), was released in 2012, it was natural that the University of Ilorin is one of the two universities with an A+ accreditation status. In a similar vein, when President Muhammadu Buhari submitted his ministerial nominees recently, the name of the University is also one of the two represented, with the University of Ibadan, its parent university, being the other. Prof. C. O. Daramola, who incidentally is appearing before the Senate today for screening, is of the University of Ilorin.

Being a University with the largest land mass in Nigeria, it appeared the University was destined to be at the top from inception. The University has been blessed with generations of visionary, committed and hardworking Vice-Chancellors who have all left indelible footprints on the sands of time.

As all roads lead to the University of Ilorin for the 40^th anniversary and 31st convocation ceremonies, this column congratulates the new Chancellor, His Royal Highness, the Emir of Katsina, Alhaji (Dr) Abdulmumini Kabir Usman; the Pro-Chancellor, His Royal Majesty, Prof. Obi Chukwuma Okonjo; the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abdulganiyu Ambali; and the entire University community on the auspicious occasion of Unilorin at 40.

I wish the University, my Alma Mater, successful and peaceful celebrations.

Re: NANS, noise and nonsense

Tijani Usman is the worst NANS President because he is a big disgrace to my generation, the youths.

– Feyisetan Akeeb Kareem

Good day. I just read your piece in the Telegraph today on “NANS, noise and nonsense”. You said it all in your piece that was so powerful…I hope NANS will stop romancing with corrupt politicians some day. Eddy Uwoghiren, Medicine Department, University of Benin Teaching Hospital.

About the Author

Aptly described by the Independent newspaper as “a man of many parts”, Prof. Mahfouz A. Adedimeji is a Fulbright scholar, interdisciplinary researcher, university don, public affairs analyst, communication consultant, peace advocate, interfaith worker and public intellectual. He obtained his academic degrees from the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, where he was a Professor of English (Pragmatics and Applied Linguistics) before his appointment as Vice Chancellor as the pioneer Vice Chancellor of Ahman Patigi, Nigeria, in February 2021. He started his academic career in 2000 at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, shortly after which he joined the services of his alma mater, the University of Ilorin. A man of eclectic academic background, Prof. Adedimeji was educated in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Markaz Shabaabil Islam, Iwo, Osun State and Markaz Ta’aleemil Araby, Agege, Lagos. He obtained advanced training in Education, Political Science, Communication and Media, Research and Peace Studies at the National Universities Commission’s (NUC) Virtual Institute for Higher Education Pedagogy (VIHEP); the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Virtual Institute for Higher Education in Africa (VIHEAF); Governors State University, University Park, Illinois, USA; University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana; and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana, USA. Apart from serving as a cultural ambassador to the US under the auspices of the Institute of International Education (IIE), New York, Prof. Adedimeji had won or co-won the research and conference awards/grants of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) of the National Research Council, Nigeria, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU). He has written extensively for a wide range of newspapers and periodicals including “Unilorin Bulletin”, “Unilorin Watch”, “DeLight”, “National Pilot”, “Daily Independent”, “Daily Newswatch”, “New York Parrot” and “New Telegraph”, among others. A versatile academic and award-winning scholar, Prof. Adedimeji has attended academic conferences and undertaken research in several universities across Nigeria as well as in Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Malaysia, Sierra Leone, Australia, France and United States of America, among others. His hundreds of academic, Islamic and general/opinion articles have been published across outlets in Nigeria and beyond. He has also facilitated and participated in seminars and workshops both nationally and internationally. A former Head of the Directorate of Corporate Affairs of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Adedimeji was the Director of the Centre for Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, between 2013 and 2017. Apart from serving as Rapporteur-General to the Presidential Committee that organised the 2017 Federal Executive Council’s Retreat on Education in Nigeria, he has consulted for the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Nigeria Inter-religious Council (NIREC), the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence and Corps (NSCDC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). For years, he was a Coordinator and Facilitator of the Executive Management Course of the Nigerian Army Education Corps (NAEC) and Editor-in-Chief of the “Journal of Peace, Security and Development”, University of Ilorin. He has also served as a resource person to agencies like the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), National Orientation Agency (NOA), National Institute for Security Studies as well as a number of Civil Society Organisations. He is a recipient of several awards and honours including those of the International Chartered World Learned Society, American Biographical Institute, National Congress of Nigerian Students (NACONS), Union of Campus Journalists, University of Ilorin, the Nigerian Army Education Corps, Postgraduate Students Association, UNILORIN, Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN), UNILORIN, Students’ Union, UNILORIN, and National Association of Osun State Students (NAOSS), just to mention a few. A Fellow of bodies like the International Association of Research Scholars and Administrators (FIARSA), Institute of Corporate Administration, Nigeria, (FICAN), Society for Peace Studies and Practice (fspsp) and World Institute for Peace (FWIP) , Prof. Adedimeji is a former Member of the Governing Council of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) and until recently a Member of the Executive Council of the English Scholars’ Association of Nigeria (ESAN). He is a member of the Editorial Boards of Research in Pragmatics, journal of the Pragmatics Association of Nigeria (PrAN) and ANUJAT, an international multidisciplinary journal of the All Nations University, Koforidua, Ghana. He has about 15 books to his credit as author, co-author, editor and co-editor.