Ibadan on Olayinka’s watch 

He came in at a very turbulent time; at a time when the country was about to experience economic recession. Obviously, the climate was quite inclement, but as a good sailor is known only in tumultuous current of air, Prof. Abel Idowu Olayinka appears to be sailing through the storm with an uncommon calmness and placidity.
   
Given all that he has gone through in the last two years of his five-year single tenure, pundits are of the opinion that God must have deliberately packaged him for this rough time with an innate stoicism and unfazedness. Despite all the insults and snide remarks from the critics of his administration, Olayinka goes about his job unflustered, telling whoever cares to listen that ‘‘I applied for the job, therefore I don’t have to complain in taking the rough with the smooth.’’  Clearly, it is only the deep that can call the deep as the faint-hearted would have either rocked the boat or abdicate responsibilities, going by the enormity of pressure of the job.
     
It may be recalled that no sooner he took over the mantle of leadership as the 12th Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan on December 1, 2015 than he experienced the first baptism of fire from the workers under the aegis of the Joint Action Congress (JAC), who protested non-payment of their earned allowance. This was when personnel subvention was grossly reduced from Abuja following fall in the prices of petroleum prices in the international market. He appealed, begged for understanding and persuaded the workers to sheathe their swords in the interest of peace on campus. However, he hardly extricated himself from the workers’ talon before the students staged their own war, calling for the reinstatement of some of their erring colleagues who were on suspension. It was as if unmitigated crises were waiting for him in office.