A veteran author, Joseph Babatunde Akeju, has called on the Federal Government to immediately implement the approval for the establishment of the Federal University of Technology, Yaba, saying the prolonged delay has denied thousands of qualified candidates admission opportunities and stalled national development.

Akeju, who is a former bursar of Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), made the call on Friday in Lagos while delivering a special address at the public presentation of his memoir, Whistleblower as a Victim, where he appealed to the Federal Ministry of Education to constitute the implementation committee and commence the institution’s transition from Yaba College of Technology.

He alleged that despite receiving the backing of the executive, legislature and judiciary, the implementation had been stalled by what he described as “a powerful mafia” operating within the institution, accusing the group of frustrating the take-off of the university.

According to him, the delay has prevented the admission of prospective students, limited employment opportunities that would have accompanied the university’s establishment and undermined the government’s approval of the institution.

Akeju urged the Minister of Education to immediately inaugurate the implementation committee and set a timeline for the university to admit its first batch of students, while also calling on the institution’s management to begin the placement of staff into the new university structure.

Speaking at the event, the Minister of Finance, Taiwo Oladele, urged public servants to place loyalty to truth above loyalty to office, saying integrity should be practised when it is inconvenient rather than admired only after the fact.

Oladele, who wrote the foreword to the memoir, described the book as a disciplined account of a man who chose “conscience over convenience, truth over silence and duty over self-preservation.”

He said the memoir challenges public servants, auditors, administrators and institutional leaders to uphold their professional responsibilities by standing at the intersection of power and principle.

“It leaves every one of us with the same challenge—not merely to admire integrity in retrospect, once it is safe to do so, but to practise it in the present when it may not be convenient,” the minister said.

Also speaking, former Registrar of Ekiti State University, Dr. Omojola Awosusi, said Nigeria’s governance challenges require responsible followership as much as effective leadership.

Presenting a paper titled, ‘Limitation of Leadership: The Imperative of Effective Followership,’ Awosusi argued that no leader succeeds in isolation, stressing that loyal, competent and accountable followers are critical to good governance and institutional development.

The book reviewer, Dr. Seyi Olanrewaju, described the memoir as a compelling account of the personal cost of exposing corruption in Nigeria’s public service.

He said the book chronicles Akeju’s journey from academia to public service, documenting the retaliation, institutional resistance and sacrifices that often accompany whistleblowing, while urging young professionals to draw lessons on integrity and courage from the author’s experience.