The Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University (LASU), Professor Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, embodies elegance, resilience, and intellectual prowess. Her remarkable academic achievements are a testament to her unwavering dedication and unrelenting passion for excellence. With a stellar career spanning over three decades, she has consistently shattered glass ceilings, inspiring generations of scholars and women in leadership. As LASU Vice Chancellor, a position she assumed since September 2021, she has cemented her status as a trailblazer in the academic community. A renowned Professor of Physiology, she continues to inspire and motivate others, leaving an indelible mark on the world of academia and leadership. She was recently honoured with an award of excellence and achievement by the past students’ union leaders of the university under the umbrella of Progressive Past Students’ Union Leaders. In this interview with DANIEL ANAZIA, she speaks on her achievements so far, among other issues.
Congratulations on your award by the past student union leaders of the university. The general conclusion is that LASU has undergone significant change under your leadership. Can you highlight some of the key projects and initiatives you have overseen since you assumed office?
Well, we have done quite a lot. From where do I start? Is it improving the ventures, improving the consultancy, and also the welfare of staff and students? We also have the students’ learning system that we brought in. That’s the blended learning. You will notice that we have a very large population of students now, and no student is shortchanged. Once you have a large class, you are supposed to go online for your lectures. And we have the ability to also do exams online. We’ve done quite a lot. With ICT, we have improved the number of intakes, the number of faculties that we have in this university.
We added three more faculties during my tenure. We added two schools during my tenure, and we also have gained accreditation for all programmes of the university, which is about 80 or 81 programmes. We have full accreditation for all of them and that is not even counting the ones that we gained resource assessment. We have 20 new programmes that we gained resource assessment. That has improved our intake. From when I came in, it was just about 5,000. But now, it’s about 13,000 every year. We happen to be the second most sought-after university in the country, and we are sure that even before the end of year 2024, if they did the survey again, we would have been the first most sought-after because a lot of people changed to Lagos State University. We’ve done a lot.
As I said, we have the LASU Bakery because LASU is now a community where you can have everything. You don’t have to depend on outsiders. It’s not about how much money this bakery is bringing; it’s about a community. We have our own bread; we have our own water, and we have our own press. We revamped the press and improved on it. So, we do a lot of printing and so on. We have our own Laundromat that was donated to us. All these are not easy to find in many universities. But where you have a community, you have services like that. All the services that need to be rendered in a community, we have it. I think we’ve done quite well.
What is the secret of the serenity in LASU now?
As I said, I’m a pastor; I’m a child of God. I always know that where there is the presence of God, there is fullness of joy. So, the main secret is God. God is in charge. Every morning I come in and I tell God that you are in charge of me. So, God directs my thoughts and actions. And because He’s there, He’s in charge. Nothing is bigger than God. So, whenever there is any issue, God solves it. Even when there are issues, they are solved amicably. So, I give glory to God for that.
Apart from that, we also have roundtable discussions where we do conflict resolution. We talk to each other, we advise each other, and look at the demands of each group. If you come with five requests, and I do three or four, I think I have done well. So, that’s what is happening in LASU. The peace in LASU is not the peace of the graveyard; everybody is free. You can move about; you see the joy in people’s faces, the relaxation. Everybody is relaxed. And whenever I come in, I always look at people’s faces. And if it seems there is a problem, I ask you, ‘are you okay? What’s your problem?’ But you know people tend to take advantage of that. We just need to do it in a moderate way.
How have you been able to address some of the challenges, especially in respect of infrastructure and funding? Driving round the school, one can see new infrastructure popping up. How have you been able to do that?
The issue of the infrastructure as you know is a problem for every university. We compare notes and we know that every university in this country has infrastructure deficits. Is it the power bill that we are talking about, the lecture halls that are not adequate or the CBT centres that are not adequate? We want to give glory to God and also to the government of Lagos State, which has supported this administration. The governor, who is also the visitor to the university, has been very supportive. When we make a request, he responds.
The government of Lagos State responds to us; they say that we are their flagship. And trust is also there. You know when there is trust, you can do so many things for that individual. So, that’s why we have this infrastructure development in the school. We have donors that we approach. Some just come through the goodwill of the vice chancellor. They just come and say they would want to do something for LASU. They ask what our needs are. What can we do for you? And I tell them I need a 750-seater lecture theater, it comes up; I need a CBT centre, it comes up. When they come to visit, I slip a letter into their hands and I say, Honourable Speaker sir, maybe you will help us review this letter when you get in the car. And then somehow it comes out positive. We have a 2,000-seater CBT centre that the construction is ongoing now. We have completed the ground floor, and are preparing for the decking of the first floor now. It’s just beside MBA. It’s a 2,000-seater computer-based centre. And that is being built by the Ministry of Education, through the office of the Chief of Staff to Mr. President, Femi Gbajabiamila.
We also have the support of Her Excellency, Joke Adefulere, who at a time asked what we needed so she could support us. Her 750-lecture theater is being roofed now and nearing completion. There are many more. About the students’ hostel, we have donors. The LASU Development Foundation donated a hostel to us, and we also have the PPP arrangement, which started before my tenure, but it’s now prominent. So, many things are ongoing and we just give glory to God.
How do you think the university can better serve the needs of students and the wider community?
Better serve! There is always an up and down relationship. We have a very good relationship with our neighbours. We make sure that we meet with them. The elders, the rulers of the kingdom are very good allies. Wherever you are, the community you are in, the relationship that you have with the ruler of that kingdom is so important. We have staff and students living in these communities. And I made sure when I came in that I visited all the rulers in this area and wherever we have our campuses. We have a very good relationship with them. I visit them and I talk to them on the phone, and they also respond positively to me. So with that, we have a good influence on the town. And then they also come in; they do some part-time programmes with us. I think the Oniba of Iba Kingdom is a student now. So that’s how we influence them. They have so many things. And then we also have a relationship in terms of taking our LASUDA programme. We give back to society. We do medical outreaches for them. We also go to the schools; we encourage them like role models. We give them career talks and so on. So, this is how we are influencing the society around us.
