When we got to Great Ife on that fateful day in 1970, right from the gate I was smitten by the beautiful, well-planned campus. There were three major buildings in the academic area of the campus at that time, the Faculty of Agriculture, Faculty of Arts, and Faculty of Science buildings. When we got to the Faculty of Science, my group was assigned to the Chief Technologist of the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Mr. Bamgbelu. He told us that in the university and in the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering they admit ‘’the best students and train them to be best engineers.’’ As a teenager of the age of fifteen, I was struck by his words and overwhelmed. I do not know what excited me more, whether it was the enthusiasm and confidence with which he made his speech or the eloquence with which he convinced me that I can be the best engineer. There and then, I made up my mind that I wanted to come to Ife and study Electronics and Electrical Engineering. I would not settle for anything less. The following year in 1971, I gained admission to both Obafemi Awolowo University and University of Lagos to study the same course, Electronics and Electrical Engineering. Even though the duration of study at the University of Lagos was less by one year, my encounter with Mr. Bamgbelu a year earlier had helped me to make up my mind. I settled for Ife and came at a relatively young age of 16, in those days, to start my undergraduate study. I had crossed the river from being a secondary school student to being an undergraduate because of someone who inspired me to be the best.

This brings me to the first principle. Always go for what will bring out the best in you, either in your career or your relationships. Please do not settle for less.

On settling down on campus to study, I experienced the vibrant student union activities led by a young charismatic and articulate student union President, Mr. Sunmade Akin-Olugbade. I was so impressed by his style of leadership and his team that I vowed to also be a student union activist in no distant future. I sought an appointment to see Sunmade to discuss as it were my ambition. He did not discourage me but warned me that as an engineering student I would not have time to play student politics, hence my ambition could clash with my studies.

A few months after my discussion with Sunmade, there was an invitation to all the universities in the country to participate in the first Inter University Debate sponsored by Heineman Publishing Company. I volunteered to represent the university and the university sponsored then Ms. Funke Sholu, a law student (now Mrs. Funke Adekoya SAN) and my humble self, an engineering student, to represent Great Ife. The debates were televised live on Western Nigerian Television (WNTV) station in Ibadan. And lo and behold the Great Ife team won! Funke and I brought the Heineman African Writers cup home to our university as the first inter university debate champions in Nigeria.  

The Vice Chancellor, Late Prof Hezekiah Oluwasanmi welcomed us back to campus and invited us to the VC lodge. You can imagine the thrill and excitement that I experienced meeting with the great Late Prof Hezekiah Oluwasanmi at his Official residence. He encouraged Funke and I to keep doing well in our studies. He remarked that he was pleasantly surprised that an engineering student would be interested in debates. As it turned out, both Funke Sholu and I came top as the best graduating student in our respective Faculties. 

The victory in the debate buoyed my confidence and in the next semester I contested for the post of the Public Relations Officer of the Student Union. I lost that election to a more mature (about 8 years older) and worthy opponent (accomplished journalist in the Observer Newspaper), Late Senator Albert Legogie who was former Deputy Senate President in the defunct Third Republic and a pioneer member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). A year later I won the election to become the Speaker of the Students’ Parliament and the following year won the election to become the Director of Socials for the National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS). 

This brings me to the second principle. Do not be limited by conventional framework. Indeed, break the glass ceiling. Pursue your interests with vigour even when conventional wisdom says it cannot be done or you are not trained for what you are trying to do.

My next story has something to do with a special teacher who influenced the course of my career. I was privileged to interact with a great academic, a physicist of note Prof A. F. Oluwole, as a student. For those who may not know Prof Oluwole, he pioneered energy education in this country and established the Centre of Energy Research and Development here at Great Ife. I took his Atomic Physics class called Physics 206 in 1973, fifty years ago. I did very well in the final exam in that course and throughout my undergraduate days Prof. would seek me out and remind me of my stellar performance in his class. Unknown to me he was nurturing and molding my interest in academics. 

By the time I graduated in 1976, Prof Oluwole had gotten the Federal Government approval for the establishment of the Centre for Energy Research and Development then called Nuclear Technology Programme. Because of the mentoring and nurturing I got from him during my undergraduate days, I was the first staff to be recruited to the programme after I completed my National Youth service year in 1977. He gave me a good recommendation that supported my admission applications to several graduate schools in top notch universities in the USA. I was admitted in all the schools, thanks to his letters of recommendation, and finally settled for Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA. 

To be continued tomorrow

Professor Adegbulugbe is the Chief Executive of the Green Energy International Limited. He lives in Abuja.