Ahead of the World University Community Game, the Vice-Chancellor of University of Ilorin, Professor Abdulwahab Olasupo Egbewole, SAN has expressed the willingness of the institution to continue to support sports in all its ramification, even as he reaffirmed his commitment to making Unilorin the best in Nigeria and one of the most prominent in the world.
Egbewole made this known at the annual interactive Ramadan Iftar with Journalists at the VC’s Lodge on the main campus in Ilorin on Monday.
He stressed that his administration will continue to support sporting activities because he believes that the health of their students is important that sports has a way of impacting positively on.
“On the plan for sport and sporting development in the University that has made a name in sporting activities with the successful hosting of the West Africa University Games (WAUG) in 2012, we will continue to support sports development in all its ramifications”, he added.
He, however, announced that the University contingents will be part of the World University Community Games that is going to happen somewhere in Europe later this year.
Speaker further, the Vice-Chancellor said that as an educational industry, he shall continue with his SMART agenda in the University, which is evident in the numbers of research grants that some scholars of the University have been able to secure, as well as the colleagues who have published in highly reputable journals.
He said, “We have a cumulative of one hundred million naira (N100 million) from TETfund for four of our colleagues. We have also succeeded in getting close to a billion naira in support from TETfund. We have also been identified as one of the innovation hubs by TETfund in its recent disbursement. All these are just a few of the things we have been able to do”.
Explaining how he intends to achieve his SMART university mantra, the VC said that he deliberately demonstrated in the last matriculation of the university, where he was not physically present but joined virtually, to show the students that they should be able to relate to their leaders from any part of the world because his administration is smart agenda driven.
Since he assumed office on October 17, 2022, Prof. Egbewole said there are a lot of good news to report to the world. “The good news is that we have made tremendous progress between the last time I spoke with the press and now. Among them is the asphalt laid on the university road from the main gate. We are targeting our Senate building. We stop at a location where approved money has carried us for now. We have also attempted the construction of a road into the GRA quarters, we have commenced the road to the school of preliminary study, and we have succeeded in ensuring that the academic calendar is progressing smoothly.
“Recently, we had our matriculation, we did orientation for all newly admitted students, and the continuous assessment test is ongoing”.
Speaking on the transportation challenges being faced by staff and students of the university, Prof. Egbewole hopes the Kwara state government will complete the ongoing Tunde Idiagbon bridge to complement efforts being made by the University administration to ease the movement of all members of the University of Ilorin community.
He said further that the University will introduce electric bus services and intral-train to ease transportation challenge of students and staff in the University.
According to him, “aside the effort the institution is making on the railway transportation, we are also looking at electric bus transportation.
“Our colleagues in the Department of electrical engineering are already working on that model and because we just released the Senate research grant, we are hoping that part of the grant will be used to work on that model.”
The Vice-Chancellor, noted that in the Interim more buses would be injected as discussions had been held with some of the people that intend to introduce more buses on the road.
Earlier, the Director of Corporate Affairs, Mr. Kunle Akogun, appreciated the members of the fourth estate of the realm for their impressive turnout and for always supporting the Unilorin Agenda.
Mr. Akogun who solicited more cooperation from his colleagues, stated that their professionalism in handling critical stories at a critical time always makes his job as the mouthpiece of the University of Ilorin easier.
In a remark on the occasion, Dean of the Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences, Prof. Lukman Azeez, implored the press to use their power of framing and agenda-setting well.
The media and communication expert explained that the media, through the framing of events, can influence public opinion; hence, he enjoined the press to use their power to promote the University of Ilorin to the world.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Management Services, Prof. Sulyman Ambali and the University Bursar, Mr. Akeem Sonde also joined the Vice-Chancellor in hosting the media.
