Nigerian universities must stop eroding and corroding their laws and regulations by ensuring openness, transparency, and international best practices in employing vice-chancellors and other principal officers who drive the institutions’ vision and mission.
The universities must also jettison sharp practices in the employment of staff.
A former Registrar of Ekiti State University, Dr Omojola Awosusi, gave this advice in a lecture he delivered as the Guest Speaker at the 2023 Registry Discourse of the University of Ibadan.
He further advised that each university must make its laws, statutes, and regulations available to all institution staff, arguing that where there is no law, there are no sins.
Dr Awosusi called for a general review of the legal framework to remove possible ambiguities and to enable further democratisation of the governance of the institutions.
According to the Guest Speaker, Nigerian universities appear to be encumbered by their failure to run by their own rules but more encumbered by the external forces tying the noose continually on the institutions’ autonomous necks.
He identified that the erosion of the powers of the universities is a product of the overpowering influence of government regulatory agencies.
The lecture’s title was “University Laws, Regulations and Traditions: Matters Arising in Times of Erosion and Corrosion.
The Registrar of the University of Ibadan, Mrs Olubunmi Faluyi, said the Registry Discourse was initiated in 1997 to create a veritable avenue and platform for intellectual engagement through excellent lectureship and interaction. Over the years, many topics have been examined.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kayode O. Adebowale, mni, FAS was represented as the Chairman by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic, Professor Aderonke M. Baiyeroju.
In his address, the Vice-Chancellor noted that ignorance of the university’s statutes and traditions threatens to uphold its ideals. Therefore, he recognised the necessity of introspection, problem diagnosis, developing sustainable solutions, and returning to the fundamentals.
Professor Adebowale charged the Registry as the engine room of the administration to reorientate staff, school them in the traditions and values of the university, and their responsibilities to the University.
The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, H. E. Chief John E. K. Odigie-Oyegun, as the Special Guest of Honour, observed that the quality of a University is determined by the quality of the lecturers, students, and the workforce. He advised the workforce to make the best use of the opportunities provided by the University. He also urged all staff to know what is right or wrong, fair and just.
The Registry Discourse was well attended by participants from about 20 universities in the South West of Nigeria.
The programme’s highlight was the recognition of Mr J.N. Bello, an Administrative Officer, as the 2022 Chief Moji Ladipo Award for the Best Administrator winner. The award was instituted in 2021 by the UI Registry in honour of a former Registrar, Chief Moji Ladipo, to celebrate her 70th birthday.
