The immediate past vice chancellor (VC) of University of Ibadan, Prof. Idowu Olayinka has said he was happy and satisfied that he was leaving the university better than he met it.
Olayinka,whose tenure as VC ended on Monday, said he would leave the assessment of his achievements to the people, said he took every decision during his tenure in the interest of the university.
“I am happy that I turned UI to projects site, commissioning three projects including water treatment, post graduate hostel at Ajibode and a gigantic building at the Faculty of Arts. Before now, there was inadequacy of offices and classrooms for both staff and students, yet, arts was one of the oldest faculties in the university.Now,everyone is happy. There are things I didn’t plan to do which I did, and there are things which I would have loved to do, but couldn’t do because of the paucity of funds,” he said.
Speaking on the controversy surrounding the appointment of his successor, which culminated into the directive by the federal government to the senate of the university to appoint an acting VC, Olayinka declared that he held no grudges against any one, stating that posterity will judge everyone.
The former VC stated that petitions written by some elements in the system did not start with his own regime.
He said: “ Immediately the appointment process of Prof. Isaac Adewole began in 2010, some people started writing petition. After the announcement that Prof. Adewole was the VC, some people went and placed advertorial in the newspaper, calling for the annulment of his appointment and demanding appointment of acting VC.
“Even when I was appointed in 2015, some people went to court. They were calling for the disqualification of my appointment. We had to play a hide and seek game to avoid being served a court paper. I am saying all these to let you know that we are in a very hostile and critical environment. But I believe, posterity will judge everyone for the role we played,” he said.
Olayinka thanked everyone who contributed to the success of his administration, adding that he would continue to lecture and contribute to the development of the university.
He stressed that he has no room for opinion policing about the success or otherwise of his performance.
