USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: GREAT IFE AT 50, GLANCING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD

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From: maggie anaeto <maganaeto@yahoo.co.uk>

Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2012 18:16:51 +0000 (GMT)

To: <ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>

Subject: GREAT IFE AT 50, GLANCING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD

GREAT IFE AT 50, GLANCING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD   by Ayo Olukotun   Great Ife Africa's most beautiful campus We are conscious, vigilant and progressive.... For learning and culture, Sports and struggles. There is only one Great Ife in the universe Another Great Ife is a counterfeit .... (Abridged version of Obafemi Awolowo University Students' Anthem)        The entire span of the past week at the Obafemi Awolowo University was taken up with activities - scholarly, sporting and cultural – celebrating the golden jubilee of the university.  Highlights of the anniversary included a colourful and marathon parade by students and staff led by the Vice Chancellor, Prof Bamitale Omole; a tension soaked football match resulting in a 1-1 draw between the institution and the University of Ibadan as well as a memorable lecture delivered by Dr Christopher Kolade, Nigeria's former ambassador to the United Kingdom.   On the last day of the anniversary, the musical virtuoso of 'Lagbaja', an alumnus regaled an unprecedently huge crowd at the university's sporting complex.      Ife, along with the Universities of Lagos, Nsukka, Zaria and of course, Ibadan represent the strivings and vision of the independence generation of Nigeria's leaders as they sought to endow their country with higher education of a quality comparable to any in  the English speaking world and beyond. Anyone looking for evidence that Nigeria was better served by the regionally devolved federalism of the first republic which of course had a weak centre need not look farther than the universities which came into existence 50 years ago, funded by the agricultural economy of the period.  Ife is the conscious and visionary brainchild of a productive and innovative regional political leadership led by Obafemi Awolowo. Conceived on an epic scale, its iconic landscape,  idyllic suburbia and aesthetically regaling architectural template fixed it in the class of the globe's most beautiful campuses.  Separated from the hustle of the city, it was to be a centre of learning in the mould of Oxford, Harvard and Cambridge. Its motto, 'for learning and culture', underpinned its aspiration of academic excellence with an indigenous perspective; a university cosmopolitan, yet local to the extent that it would have an original African dimension.      Has Great Ife lived up to its tremendous billings or to employ the pertinent query of Sam Ohuanbunwa, an alumnus: What exactly is great about Great Ife? Dr Christopher Kolade in his lecture entitled 'Possessors at the Gates' provides part of the answer when he spoke of 'the many great Alumni and the many dimensions of real value that they have added to Nigerian society and the thousands of alumni who add eminent value to other societies beyond the shores of Nigeria'. An indication of the formidable asset building of Ife was provided doing the recent Ondo state gubernatorial election with several commentators noting that the three leading contestants, Rahman Mimiko, Rotimi Akeredolu and Olusola Oke are all alumni of Great Ife.  For those who may not know, such political figures as Olurunimbe Momora, Ademola Adeniji-Adele, Babafemi Ojudu, Oluremi Tinubu, Segun Oni, Kayode Fayemi, Ernest Ndukwe, Alex Akinyele, Femi Falana, among others were all students of Ife.  Even today, the following serving vice-chancellors: Bolaji Aluko, Femi Onabajo, Tola Badejo, Jimmy Adesanya and a university proprietor, Jide Owoeye are all products of Ife.  In the corporate world, Bunmi Oni, Bunmi Olaopa, Dele Fajemirokun, Jimoh Ibrahim, Bola Akingbade, Gbolahan Osibodu and  Demola Aladekomo readily come to mind.      How can one forget the epistemic schools of global acclaim that flourished in Ife in the late 1970's and 1980's? The literary and dramatic school that featured Wole Soyinka, Biodun Jeyifo, Adebayo Williams, G. G. Darah, Chidi Amuta, Kole Omotosho, Oyin Ogunba, Yemi Ogunbiyi and others.  The revisionist historiography of Segun Osuba, Toyin Falola, Julius Ihonvbere, Orobola Fasehun and several others. How about the excellent pharmacy school and the halo of academic severity in all faculties with its heavy toll of student casualties who had to scamper aboard or elsewhere in Nigeria to take their degrees?  We can speak too, of academic journals of global reckoning such as ODU, Quarterly Journal of Administration and Ife Social Sciences Review.      I have always wondered what auspicious things would have happened on the academic front had the critical conversations of those years not been rudely snapped by structural adjustment policies which had devastating consequences for the survival of that academic technocracy. Buttressing the informative dialogues of those years was a tradition of oppositional politics deriving from Yoruba protest motifs as well as from a spirit of critical enquiry expressing itself in militant student activism and radical unionism epitomised by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The 'long trek' of Ife students in the mid 1970s, the seminal outpourings of campus newspapers some of which had to operate underground to evade official censorship, the ferment of Marxist matadors, the caustic national debate on the funding of university education championed by the likes of Omotayo Olorode, Idowu Awopetu, Dipo Fashina, among others as well as the constructive rascality of a long line of student activists all exemplify this heroic tradition. In later years, student militancy lost its intellectual verve and submitted too often to raw physical energy expressing itself in orgies of violence resulting in outright bans of student organisations. That blot notwithstanding, the Ife tradition of critically engaging officialdom constitutes an important trademark syndrome of Great Ife.      To be noted too, is the administrative adroitness of vice-chancellors such as Hezekiah Oluwasunmi, who was part and parcel of the magnificent achievements of the early Ife; Ojetunji Aboyade, who as vice-chancellor insisted on one term when he could have taken two and on teaching his classes meticulously; Wande Abimbola, whose deep understanding of Yoruba values and engaging wise cracks help to tide him over several testy occasions. Recently, the continuing tradition of appointing alumni as vice-chancellors and leveraging on the alumni network for rapid development have proved efficacious in redeeming some of the worst effects of underfunding.  It is notable in this respect that the current vice-chancellor, Omole, who is known as 'Mr Integrity', has perpetrated the beautiful possibilities of engaging the alumni in renovating infrastructure which began under the productive tenure of Michael Faborode.      The challenges for the future include re-situating the university on the world map in an age of declining federal grants, restoring the sanctity of the academic calendar too often broken by unionist assertions, upgrading the quality of graduates as well as recapturing the intellectual audacity of a bygone era in an age of increasing philistinism both nationally and within the university communities. Daunting agenda no doubt but Ife must somehow find the nerves to pursue that ennobling vision in order to matter in a knowledge-driven global marketplace.   Prof Olukotun is Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Entrepreneurial Studies at Lead City University, Ibadan. ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com 07055841236