Dr. Hakeem ‘Bola Adekola, the fourth substantive Registrar of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) was recently celebrated by members of the University community on the successful completion of his tenure. There have been torrents of encomiums for the out- going Registrar.
Both the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Felix Kolawole Salako and the current Vice- Chancellor, Prof. Olusola Babatunde Kehinde paid glowing tributes to Ogun Waterside born Administrator. While Prof.Salako asserted that the Registrar’s cordial relationship with his office made it cohesive to withstand few storms that arose during their five years of working together, the current and seventh Vice- Chancellor, Prof. Babatunde Kehinde reportedly described Dr ‘Bola Adekola as Mr. Fix it based on his capacity in solving notty issues.
Dr. Abdussobor Olayiwola Salaam, the National Vice President of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) had posited that Adekola was leaving behind very big shoes that are difficult to fill while Mrs Oluwakemi Banuso decribed the out-going Registrar as an astute manager, cerebral administrator, and erudite scholar, a role model, a mentor and rare boss, a man of impeccable character, and religious piety.
Fasunwon Olurotimi, Chairman, SSANU, FUNAAB asserted that the Comrade Registrar, Dr. ‘Bola Adekola has written his name in Gold in the way he was able to administer the university in the past 6 years. He has shown leadership and commanded due respect expected of a pure breed Registrar. We are seriously going to miss him in FUNAAB.
“He stood his grounds in forthrightly interpreting and implementing the university rules and regulations without fear or favour regardless of whether you are academic or non-teaching staffs. He helped the management to initiate many welfare and developmental policies which have culminated in the peace, growth, development and global recognition FUNAAB is enjoying today. Even at these, he remains sociable and easily accessible to all, regardless of your status and union affiliation. He is a goal getter”.
In this interview, ValidViewNetwork looked at the man, Dr. Hakeem ‘Bola Adekola and the
Can we meet you please?
I’m Dr. Abdulhakeem Adebola Adekola. I am the current Registrar of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) or let me say the outgoing Registrar.
Who is Dr Adekola?
Well, Dr. Bola Adekola is a family man. I would I say a middle age man, a Muslim as well as a thoroughbred University Administrator who has been around the university system for some 32-33 years. I started my career as an administrative officer II from the Ogun State University now Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye where I rose through the ranks to become Deputy Registrar in 2007. I got appointed as pioneer Registrar of Fountain University, Osogbo, where I served for five years 2007-2012. I returned to Olabisi Onabanjo Universityand continued my service. I was the Deputy Registrar in charge of academic planning. I later became the Deputy Registrar Senate Affairs from where I got appointed to this exalted position of Registrar, FUNAAB in October 2017. I have served six years now in the saddle as the Registrar of Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta.
How did you feel when you emerged as the Registrar of the university?
It was a good feeling. it was a position that was keenly competed and contested for and I was very happy for two things: one that I got appointed based on merit. Secondly, that I would have the opportunity to contribute at the federal level, having worked in the State university and Private university. That I emerged as the Registrar in a Federal University was a great one for me.
What would you consider as your major giant stride as the Registrar of FUNAAB?
I cannot really praise myself, but I can say two things, one, I have put the welfare of staff as a priority in my actions and had great positive impacts on the system in terms of the human resource management. I can also assert that nobody was denied promotion unduly since I became the Registrar. There has not been any review that I chaired that anybody has appealed against the decision of my panel, that shows how fair and just we were throughout this period.
Aside that, we have had the opportunity of removing stagnation by opening up promotion opportunities for people to advance in their career. We have also been able to ensure that those who had additional qualifications since they came in were given opportunities to utilize this additional qualification through upgrading, conversion and re-designation. This, I consider a good motivational incentive for staff to do more.
Also in the area of their annual level we have brought some level of modernity into issue of leave, performance appraisal mechanisms and promotion criteria.
Staff were encouraged to seek additional qualifications. In the last six years, not less than 100 staff at senior level got their Masters, not less than 300 staff at junior level got their diplomas and their degrees.
It is believed in some quarters that your background as a Comrade enhanced your capacity and performance as the registrar, how true is this?
Let me say that welfarism flows freely in my blood stream. It is the commitment and passion for welfarism that led me into labour union positions. When I joined the labour union, it was unfashionable for anybody in the administrative cadre to want to be part of staff union. There appeared to be an unwritten rule that once you are an Admin Officer, you are part of management and shouldn’t join union. I joined not more than two years that I joined the university system. That passion of fighting for people’s right, ensuring that there is fairness, ensuring that people get opportunity without abusing privilege of being a staff and so on and so forth.
I have been a comrade and remains a Comrade. It would therefore be wrong for me to do what I was fighting against. It will be a big shame to sit down now as a Registrar and be confronted by Comrades that I am denying people theirs rights. No union can say they have come to push me to do anything because I would have known that it is the right thing to do and if they also come to present any issue, I will know this is something that is possible within our rules and confines of the regulations. When it is not possible, I tell them and they also understand. Noone ever pushed me to do anything because people’s rights were dispensed without fear or favour.
Some call you Mr Fix it. Would you want to share with us how that came about?
(Laughs) I don’t know how they came about that name. I know I have a go-getting spirit. I hate to hear it is not possible, so I will try until it is not possible but never to accept that it is not possible, because when it is not possible there should be something that can be possible it may not totally be what you want but you will still arrive at something better.
You appeared to have warmed yourself into the hearts of majority of the stakeholders in the FUNAAB project, how were you able to achieve that?
It is those watching that can answer that. I was just doing my own job naturally as it comes to me and if by the will of Allah it meets their expectations Allihamudulilahi.
How would you describe the university you met when you were appointed in 2017 and the one you are leaving behind?
Without being immodest, myself and the team I worked with, the Professor Felix Kolawole Salako being our captain can affirm that we left the University far better than we met it. We inherited a system that was at war with itself because of the crisis that built up and got escalated between 2016-2017 when the system almost collapsed and not even academically but system wise because the staff within were at war with management and management with staff, but within the space of six years that I have been around we have successfully not just douse the tension, we have united the campus that the campus is at peace with itself and we can say boldly that the new Vice -Chancellor had come in to inherit a system that is far better not the best but far better and can be acclaimed to be at peace with itself. We have industrial peace, we have academy peace but finance is not making me to say we have financial peace.
Funding level is still low but we are managing ourselves that staff cannot say the system owing them. Within the confine of the university fund, no, there could be some indebtedness with government. For everything given to us we paid. For every welfare we can we did, staff that we can support for one thing or the other we did. We have made interventions, and the system is very peaceful now.
You have been at a State University, Private University and then Federal University, any major differences?
Like I mentioned recently, there is a major difference in terms of the regulations. In Private Universities, they complain about the attitude of the proprietor but when you have the right proprietor, the system runs. In State Universities, they complain about how overbearing the governors can be but from my experience from where I came from Ogun state university and even Olabisi Onabanjo University as it is called is ninety percent independent in terms of how it runs its affairs. Government gives you what they called grant and they leave you to go and run yourself, returns are made when it is necessary for financial aside that they don’t dabble into your administration on how you promote and employ. You do that within the confine of fund available to you.
My experience in the last six years has shown that federal universities are highly over regulated in the sense that they are just too many committees and too many agencies, too many people breeding down the neck of Vice -Chancellors, Bursars, Registrars all the time. The major difference is that the governing councils of federal universities are not allowed to operate like it is in other universities where the governing councils can truly be said to be the employers, the owners of the universities because all powers ends with them, so many things are still done in the ministry which doesn’t operate like that in most state universities.
How would you describe your relationship with other officers of the university?
Very cordial, full of mutual respect. I have not had any crises with any of the officers past or present. I have worked with at least six Deputy Vice -Chancellors and the usual rancor between the DVCs and Registrar never occured. I have worked with three Vice – chancellors and we have had the best of relationships.
What would you consider as the major challenge facing university administration in Nigeria?
Generally across board the major challenge every university in Nigeria has is funding. None of the university can be said to have fifty percent of the funding required to operate in the manners that the western universities are run and physically it is not just about government. For instance in many cases in UK or US very large funds comes from private donors and industries in two ways either as endowment or sponsorship of researches, we don’t have that in Nigeria and that has negative impact on the university system. So many researches are conducted and they end up in the shelves because of lack of funding. Why can’t processing and exporting companies come up with funds for researches?
You are a man of many parts, an administrator, a religious man, a socialite, a sportsman etc. How are you able to strike a balance?
I ran a PhD research in what is called work-life balance. I did my research on work burn out and work-family conflict. Those two areas are the problems we have in running persons in Nigeria. Work has its own role, family has its own role, you as a person, you have your own life to live and that is what I believe in. You try to be a family man, take care of your children, do the best you can for your wife, extended family.
I tried to create time for all this things even in the midst of carrying the burden of office.
FUNAAB recently emerged as the second-best university in Nigeria, how did you feel when it was announced.
WelL, that is the icing on the cake that we couldn’t have left office and start saying that we left FUNAAB better. To the new Vice – Chancellor for instance, it is an achievement that has come very early in his tenure but it tells everybody that to know that for things of such to happen, it is cumulative performance that is not achievable within a short period so those who understands what ranking means will know that if you’re number 60, five years ago and you now get to number two, so much work must have gone within that five years and this year. So one can feel very proud to have said we don’t need to say we left FUNAAB better, the world said we left it better through that ranking pronouncement. It is a way to celebrate our achievement.
How do you feel having served as the Registrar of one of the best Universities in Nigeria?
I feel very proud in the sense that I have served in a system that is well branded. Once you say former Registrar of FUNAAB, you don’t need to introduce yourself too far. Nobody will ask which one is FUNAAB. To me, that is very satisfying. Up till today I’m still able to say I’m the former Registrar of Fountain University because the University is doing well as a private university in this country. It is adding more courses which we laid the foundation and we left just as we are doing now, we are also laying foundations for some other things that would come. You can’t achieve everything. You achieve some, you lay the foundation for others if they come and continue in that legacy, definitely there would be a cummulation of achievements that would make the university to continue to soar higher. We enjoyed what the pioneer Vice- Chancellor, Registrar laid and as I leave too I’m expecting and praying that we would get a new Registrar who will continue our legacies.
As you leave FUNAAB and move on, is there any major thing you would have done differently?
We had shortage of time despite the fact that I have served for six years. If we remove the time of Covid-19 when everywhere was closed up that we had to be working from home, working with half-staff, if we remove almost one year of strike that the campus could not operate well, you see that there is a lot of challenges, it has made it not easy to complete the process of the computerization of the human resource division that I set out to do. If I have the luxury of time, my idea is to automate the registry to make it possible for people to apply for leave from their offices that they don’t need to come to the office of the Registrar.
What are the topmost suggestions you would give on Nigerian universities if you are privileged to speak with the President of the country today?
Two major ones, there are lot of self-inflicted problems in the universities system especially in the acrimonies created between staffs in terms of the nature of their duties. So if I have my way only two unions will be existing in the university, for junior staff and senior staff. There should be nothing like academic staff union, technology union.
Two, the management of the universities will be given full autonomy and government will run the universities through the governing councils, no interference from the president or the ministers.
Nobody in the UK knows the Vice – chancellor of Oxford or Cambridge and the VC doesn’t see any minister.
The template for the funding that will go to the universities are already put in place and it is in terms of your contributions to the nation, in terms of the kind of research you do, the number of students you have and that is how the funds go. For you to access some of the other funds, it is also by your competition for instance there is grant for researches you don’t get it because you’re from a particular university, you’ve to compete for it.
To move forward, we must ensure that there is nothing like federal character or whatever. staffing will be taken on merit and from Professors down to cleaners. We have people who have no business being around because their orientation does not conform with the original university concept. The same thing from studentship. We have a lot of people who ordinarily should not come around the university system but in the bid for the university to get fund that’s why you see university doing pre-degree, diploma to shore up because they can’t charge what they are supposed to charge. They are now looking for money through quantity instead of quality. They are looking for money selling pure water, selling bread not that they can’t do some of those things. The real thing a university sells is its certificate not on cash and carry basis. But on the integrity of their certificate. Oxford knows the worth of its certificate and they will tell you if you want to get it this is it. Harvard knows the worth of its certificate, if you want to come and study law in Harvard, they know that you can do law in the next street in Harvard for half of what Harvard charges, but people will still want to go to Harvard to read law because of the quality of the people teaching law in Harvard, so Harvard cannot take all the municipal services and support that goes along with it for granted because they know that if 2-4 of those professors leave their quality will go down, but what do we have in Nigeria, a Professor of geography, Yoruba, Islamic study receiving the same amount of money with a professor of Neuro-physics, nuclear physics, atomic energy and so on. So where is the motivation for the Professor of atomic energy to do researches when he knows what it takes him to publish one paper as against what it take somebody in sociology to publish a paper, and that is why the quality of research are not enhanced, there is no competition, no motivation, people cannot run a university in that manner. You cannot see a real Professor in UK, US going on strike for three weeks, he won’t be able to breath because many of his researches will stop and he will have to start all over again and that will cost him not just money but time. But here, universities can be close for as long as five months, six month we do as if it is only teaching that is going on in the university system. Government should return the universities to the original concept of what the university is.
If I have my way, we’ll stop even this idea of combining two results to go to the university. The education system is supposed to be a pyramid, the number of graduates ordinarily should be far less than the number of product of other institutions but what do we have in Nigeria, it is the Nigeria universities that are producing more of the graduates and that is why unemployment is much here, we are producing about ten thousand graduate of economics every year, where are banks that we will take them, where are the economic planning authorities? We produce in economics, business administration, accounting, banking and finance for instance all these are management courses and where are those companies that will absorbed the hundreds of graduates every year. That is why we are having problems for the economy.
I can tell you how many people in my secondary school set that attended universities, more went to colleges of education, polytechnics, they eventually came to the university later when it started becoming available they now started doing different courses. Those that attended universities were those who have grade one and two results. But today if you go back and check even people you know were strugglers in secondary schools all of them went to universities at the end of the day, they started re-doing WAEC until they were able to combine 2-3 results, went to university through pre-degree or diploma and ended up in the university. In doing so we even started killing the polytechnics that should have produced the middle level manpower. Universities are supposed to produced management class, there should be middle level manpower and low level manpower that is how economy is structure.
So when people talk about unemployment and all, even today I can tell you every government have over-employed and that is why we are having problems go and check the budget of Nigeria, and see the level of amount of money to be paid as salaries and allowances, you will find out that it is almost 70% of the budget and we are expecting development. When they say the budget is 4 trillion and personnel has taken 2.5 trillion out of it because the system that ordinary should not have more than 500-1000 staff has about 3000. There are some universities with about 9000 staff. By the time government give you maybe about nine to ten billion as personnel cost, so how much will they give the university for other things. So those are the things that if I have time to sit with the president, these are things we are going to discuss.
Return the universities and you will see that in 5-10 years is either some universities are talking of merging with themselves or they stop running some courses completely because they cannot attract students. They would ask the staff in those places to go and maybe those staff can do better in other system.
Universities like ours that is established for agriculture, we start having to open up to other courses, because with agriculture, how many students are we going to be able to attract? And the lower the number, the poorer you become in terms of finances.
If you have an advice for your successor, what would that advice be?
I cannot ask anybody to be like myself because we are of different breeds, but for any good registrar there are three things that such a person must hold at heart. One, he must know the definition of the job of a registrar that he or she is responsible to the Vice- Chancellor for the day to day administration of the university. And for that reason, he should ensure that he studies and understands the rule and regulations, the laws of the university and understand management of the human resources. Be fair and just, don’t be favouristic and don’t lean to side of any union. Do your job and go home to sleep very well each night.
Thanks for your time and wishing you success in future endeavours
Thank you.
