Awujale endows Professorial Chair on good governance at Onabanjo Varsity

Awujale endows Professorial Chair on good governance at Onabanjo Varsity

UCHE AKOLISA

The Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba (Dr) Sikiru Kayode Adetona, has endowed a N250 million Professorial Chair  on good governance at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.

The initiative which will be kick-started with an inaugural lecture billed for Thursday, March 10, 2016, at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, the chair is expected to attract the best brains both locally and internationally to the university for  a high level cross-fertilisation of ideas on good governance that would impact positively on the larger community.

Speaking at an international press conference at his palace in Ijebu Ode, recently, Oba  Adetona, explained that the objective of the endowment  which was prompted by dearth of good leadership in the country was to promote good governance by moulding younger generation of leaders.

“My intention is to endow a chair that would remain in perpetuity that even when I am gone, and my children’s children are there, the fund would still be there to sustain the chair. I have been on the throne for 56 years and have seen that rather than make progress, we are retrogressing in terms of our governance. We are not getting good results. My idea is that we interfere and see how we can bring about change that would affect the governance of this country that Nigeria would be a much better place for the younger generation and all of us to live in.”

Oba Adetona who stressed that education has a pivotal role to play emancipation and the quality of governance, believed that ultimately, the Olabisi Onabanjo University example would create something for the rest of the country to emulate.

The inaugural lecture for the endowment is billed for Thursday, March 10, 2016, at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. It is gathered that Prof Akin Mabogunje would analyse the Issues and Challenges of Governance in Nigeria at the lecture, while an elite panel of discussants including former president of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR, and the Sarkin Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II CON are already confirmed for the occasion.

Reacting, the Vice Chancellor of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Prof. Saburi Adejimi Adesanya, expressed the view that the endowment is in sync with the institution’s philosophy of seeking to “give useful learning to its students who will be encouraged to cultivate a worldview that facilitates not only the continuous pursuit of academic and moral excellence but also developing competence in reducing the society’s disease.”

“I have followed with keen interest the impact the university has been making since inception in 1982 and strongly feel that this endowment will help them achieve more to the benefit of mankind,” he said.

The Vice Chancellor pledged that the university would strive conscientiously to live up to the desires of the founding fathers now reinforced by the Awujale’s support. “The university shall be rooted in its community and act, at all times, as a beacon and symbol of the spirit of the community. Therefore, we will strive to fulfill the expectations of the Awujale with efforts to cultivate a distinct tradition and character that reflect those values that would give our host and national communities distinctive identity in quality leadership.”