Indeed, the new ranking is a veritable testament to University of Ilorin’s unrelenting drive for excellence, a due recognition of University’s commitment to uplifting the nation’s sliding academic standard with its stable academic calendar that has never been interrupted by any form of frivolous workers’ strike since the past 12 years.
In the 2014 University Web Ranking, the University of Lagos placed second in Nigeria and 21st in Africa while the third position went to Obafemi Awolowo University, which also came 26th in Africa.
This latest ranking is not fortuitous and it is not Unilorin’s first outing on the recognition dais. Over the years, the University has proved to be a centre of academic excellence. For three consecutive years, another international university ranking agency, the Web of World Universities (Webometric) had ranked our University the best in Nigeria in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
To keen watchers of the University of Ilorin, who have consistently followed the single-minded commitment of our management, staff and students to excellence, the new ranking is not entirely a surprise. Indeed, many people, from national policy makers to high net-worth public commentators and independent observers, parents and admission seekers are unanimous in their assessment of Unilorin as the veritable “best of the rest” citadel of learning in Nigeria.
To be sure, the new ranking is consistent with the rising profile of the University in the past few years. Since 2011, she has maintained a steady presence among most preferred education institutions by prospective students. According to statistics obtained from the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), Unilorin was the 8th most preferred university by admission seekers in 2011; 5th in 2012; 2nd in 2013 and 1st this year. After the last Unified Tertiary Institutions Matriculations Examination (UTME), JAMB/NUC statistics showed that the University of Ilorin was the most subscribed university in the country with a total of over 105,000 candidates seeking to enter the University in the 2014/2015 academic session. The University of Benin, Benin City came a distant second in this respect with about 76,000 admission seekers.
The new ranking has also confirmed so many superlative assessments of the University in recent times by personalities like President Goodluck Jonathan, members of the National Assembly, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; as well as the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Judge Bola Ajibola.
During the 29th Convocation ceremonies of the University last October, Presidnet Jonathan, obviously impressed by the University’s “stable and uninterrupted academic calendar for several years now”, attested to the fact that “this positive step, which has been the hallmark of this institution, has brought notable achievements to the University in all spheres of its endeavour.”
Before then, in June last year, members of the Senate and House of Representatives’ Committees on Education, during their separate oversight visits to the University, spoke glowingly of the University’s giant strides, describing the institution’s stable academic calendar as “a great feat that should be emulated by all universities in Nigeria.”
And in mid-May this year, during the flag-off of the University’s oil palm plantation and distribution of PC tablets to students, Dr Okonjo-Iweala extolled the ingenuity of the University of Ilorin, saying the institution is “100 paces” ahead of other universities in the country.
Also, in April this year during a visit to the University, a former judge at the International Court of Justice, The Hague, Prince Bola Ajibola, described the University as “the first on the list in Nigeria in terms of everything”, adding that the nation is always looking forward to the University’s performance. “You are the pride of Nigeria”, Prince Ajibola added.
It could also be recalled that for two concurrent editions of the NUDTAS Awards, the University of Ilorin showed unprecedented class by winning three of the 17 available awards in 2008/2009 and 2010/2011 respectively, leaving the remaining 14 for the more than 120 other public universities in the country to scramble for.
But all these achievements did not just come from the blues for the University of Ilorin. They are well-deserved recognition of consistent drive for excellence by the University under the leadership of Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, who has, since assumption of duties about two years ago, left no one in doubt as to his messianic mission. Since he took over the mantle of leadership at the University of Ilorin on October 16, 2014, the renowned Professor of Veterinary Medicine, has not only tried to sustain the legacy of excellence bequeathed to him by his predecessors, he has also greatly improved on it, bringing on new innovations that have invariably ingrained the University’s name in the minds of many Nigerians and indeed foreigners who desire quality and uninterrupted education.
The University has recorded many achievements in all spheres of its main mandate: teaching, research and community service. For instance, the welfare of staff and students are top priorities; excellence in teaching and research is uncompromisable; infrastructural development is receiving the necessary attention; excellent town and gown relationship is being promoted; internally generated revenue is being enhanced; fiscal discipline, transparency and accountability are getting the necessary fillip; and the University is already making a determined move, through its recently launched oil palm plantation initiative, to contribute to the nation’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP).
One of the secrets of Unilorin’s enduring peace, stability and progress is its uncommon blessing with a succession of purposeful leadership and a consistently committed workforce, joined, like Siamese twins, in a single-minded strive for excellence.
nAkogun writes from Ilorin.
This unity of purpose, more than anything else, has been the cutting edge of the University of Ilorin since over a decade ago.
This culture of conscientious leadership and supportive followership is so contagious at the University of Ilorin that sundry staff unions have invariably become partners in progress with the management as against the cat-and-mouse syndrome that often characterises the relationship between workers and managements in many universities in the country
Only recently, the University’s Chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) pulled through what could rightly be described as a feat that is unprecedented in the annals of university education in the country with the commissioning of a N7.3 million hostel project that was wholly internally-financed by ASUU. And on the following day, Thursday, January 30, 2014, the same Union held a hitch-free Congress that threw up a new set of leaders in a classically seamless transition of power.
The hostel project, which foundation was laid on Monday, August 5, 2013, by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, was completed in a record time of five months. It is ASUU’s way of contributing to the reduction of hostel accommodation problems facing students of the University.
Indeed, as the Vice-Chancellor said during its commissioning, the hostel project, the first of its kind by any Union in any University in Nigeria, has shown Unilorin ASUU as an epitome of exemplary leadership and purposeful unionism.
Herein lies the secret of Unilorin’s greatness.
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