By John Odunayo
THE outgoing Vice Chancellor of Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, Prof. Edward Olanipekun, says that he has no regret being the chief executive of the institution in the last five years.
Olanipekun, who spoke in Ado Ekiti at a media parley with journalists as part of activities for his end of tenure and hand over programmes, said, “My happiest day was the day I was announced as the 8th substantive VC of EKSU”.
Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, had last Monday announced the appointment of the EKSU Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics), Prof. Joseph Ayodele, as the New VC. He will take over from Olanipekun on Monday, August 19.
The outgoing VC said, “I do not have any regret, rather, I am grateful to God for making me part of history in this great university. When I joined the services of this university some 33 years ago, I never envisaged that one day, I would become VC of any university”.
Olanipekun, who said that his coming to EKSU was divine, said, “I never wanted to come because I was offered same appointment at Federal University of Technology, Akure. But some of my friends got to know and impressed on me to come to EKSU (OSUA then) to contribute to the development of the university in my town”.
The outgoing VC, who expressed joy that he was leaving the university far better than he met it, took pride in the numerous achievements of his administration as he expressed joy that his successor would carry on from there.
He lauded Oyebanji for appointing Ayodele as the 9th substantive VC of the institution, saying, “The appointment is unique in the sense that he (Ayodele) will be the first alumnus to occupy the exalted position”.
Olanipekun, who hailed Prof Ayodele, describing him as a “worthy successor”, expressed confidence that the incoming VC would continue with those areas of interest which he (Olanipekun) could not achieve.
He said, “I had the intention to have residential quarters for staff on campus here. Unfortunately, we have not been able to achieve that. But as a stop gap measure, we have been able to have quarters of our own for our principal officers in GRA.
“I also had the intention that most of our students should reside on campus, but unfortunately we could not also achieve that. You will recall we signed MoU with two investors to provide staff quarters on campus here and another to provide accommodation for about 10,000 students, but owing to several reasons, the investors could not go ahead.
“But as I speak, we have some investors on campus who are also trying to put up hostel facilities for students though the projects have not been completed so that we have more students staying on campus,” he said.
Olanipekun, who said that he was leaving office and voluntarily retiring as well, said, “I will still be contributing to knowledge and to the development of EKSU and other universities”.
The outgoing VC, who said the names of EKSU students who enrolled for Student Loan were being vetted at present, said that the Federal Government’s Students Loan programme “will have great impact on learning particularly when you consider the indigent students.
“Most of our students are indigent. In fact, many of them are sponsoring themselves by embarking on all sorts of jobs. I am optimistic that with Student Loan, the indigent students will be very happy that finally, help has come their way.
“It will make them focus on their studies. We thank President Bola Tinubu for bringing that novel initiative. It will go a long way to give indigent students access to education,” Olanipekun said.
