After greater than 4 many years in academia and public service, former Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof. Michael Faborode, remembers his profession, management classes, and the challenges of translating college analysis into sensible options. In this interview with Funmi Ogundare, the professor of Agricultural Engineering, who just lately clocked 70, he discusses indigenous expertise, institutional improvement, and his plans to advance increased training and innovation. Excerpts:
After over 4 many years in academia and public service, what does retirement imply to you at this level in your life?
To me, retirement means taking a break from all of it, pausing to savour the legacies I’ve left behind, and charting a brand new engagement of stewardship to humanity and humane causes, albeit in much less demanding methods. It has been a busy, continuous, pulsating working lifetime of selfless service. Many have been shocked to realise that I had clocked 70 years. To me actually, the true measure of a lifetime of management is what continues to flourish after a frontrunner leaves workplace or one leaves the scene. Looking again over the numerous seasons of my life, I’ve come to recognize that each alternative to be taught, to train, to lead and to serve has been a part of a a lot bigger journey than I might ever have imagined. Along the way in which, I’ve been formed by outstanding lecturers, impressed by gifted colleagues, inspired by trustworthy pals, and regularly challenged by generations of scholars whose curiosity and aspirations renewed my very own sense of objective. Whatever I’ve been privileged to contribute has at all times been enriched by the lives and contributions of others. The reminiscences I’m forsaking are captured in two books that have been unveiled at my valedictory. Friends, tutorial colleagues, mentees and even senior compatriots, in a single accord, determined to publish a set of reflective essays, in any other case referred to as a Festschrift, in my honour. It is titled ‘Technology, Leadership and Governance: Reflections in honour of Professor Michael Oladimeji Faborode’. The second guide, which blends my very own autobiographical reflections with these of some eminent students, is titled ‘A Tall Dream: Knowledge, Leadership, Institutional Transformation and Nation Building’, which traces my life journey from the cradle in my small village of Supare-Akoko in Ondo State to the Vice Chancellor’s workplace at Ife and past. Both are compelling reads, particularly the memoir, and I hope individuals will take of their values. In truth, the evolution of the title of the guide, ‘A Tall Dream ‘ and what the back-cover tree connotes, as narrated within the guide, are themselves considerably attention-grabbing.
Looking again to your early education, did you ever think about that your journey would lead to turning into an engineer, scholar and college administrator?
That is a really attention-grabbing query. As recorded in ‘A Tall Dream’, probably the most outstanding reminiscence from my years at Victory College, as well as to being a complete school providing quite a lot of technical and vocational topics together with technical drawing, wooden and steel works, and many others., got here by means of an occasion that appeared completely strange on the time. In early 1972, the varsity hosted an agricultural present that included an indication of a newly developed yam pounding machine designed by researchers from the University of Ife. As college students, we watched with real curiosity as expertise was utilized to resolve an on a regular basis downside acquainted to nearly each family. The machine attracted widespread consideration as a result of it represented one thing uncommon: an indigenous technological innovation responding straight to native wants. How might I’ve identified that the inventor of that machine, Prof. Gabriel Ayodele Makanjuola, would later turn into my instructor, mentor, and tutorial supervisor? How might I’ve imagined that I might finally research Agricultural Engineering on the University of Ife, working inside the very mental custom whose fruits I had witnessed years earlier as a secondary college pupil? Even extra remarkably, I couldn’t have foreseen that my postgraduate journey would later take me to the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, the place Prof. Makanjuola himself had obtained his doctoral coaching. I assume Victory College didn’t merely put together me for college; it broadened my creativeness, cultivated my mental self-discipline, and nurtured my behavior of cautious commentary. However, I couldn’t have imagined then the thrilling chance that data may very well be utilized to resolve sensible issues affecting strange individuals, nor that of turning into a scholar, not to mention a college administrator, and finally a vice chancellor. But I can now say that it began from house in Supare. There, I learnt to respect work, worth training, settle for correction, and recognize the significance of serving one thing bigger than oneself. The journey that may finally lead me into engineering, scholarship, institutional management and public service didn’t start with ambition. It started with formation from house.
What are the three most vital classes you’ve gotten learnt out of your 40 years in academia?
There are, in fact, a number of classes, so selecting the three most vital will probably be tough. However, if I need to, I’ll determine what has formed my life most profoundly: my time at college. Long earlier than I held management positions, the college formed how I assumed, questioned, and understood the world. It taught me that data carries accountability; scholarship finds its highest objective in service; and establishments matter as a result of they protect and transmit values from one era to the subsequent. Over the years, I got here to see the college not merely as an educational neighborhood however as one of many nation’s most strategic establishments. Governments could change, financial circumstances could fluctuate, and applied sciences could evolve, however universities present the continuity by means of which societies renew themselves. They educate future leaders, advance scientific discovery, protect mental traditions and create the concepts that affect public coverage and nationwide improvement. Their impression extends far past the boundaries of their campuses as a result of the graduates they produce and the data they generate finally form each sector of society. My years in college management additionally revealed that this broader mission can’t be fulfilled by means of tutorial excellence alone. Universities should regularly adapt to altering nationwide realities whereas remaining trustworthy to their core values. They should construct partnerships with business, strengthen analysis ecosystems, embrace innovation and domesticate governance methods that encourage belief. I realized that institutional transformation requires greater than strategic plans; it requires a shared sense of objective that allows workers, college students and stakeholders to work collectively in pursuit of a standard imaginative and prescient. Hence, universities stay amongst humanity’s best establishments as a result of they create one thing that appreciates reasonably than diminishes with time: data. Yet data alone doesn’t remodel nations. It should be organised, shared and utilized by means of establishments able to changing concepts into options that enhance society.
If you had the chance to begin your tutorial profession once more, what would you do otherwise?
I’ll nonetheless return to learn engineering. My years in engineering have continued to form my perspective on the excellence, integrity, and resilience of human establishments. Engineering taught me that each well-designed system is predicted to carry out reliably lengthy after its designer has accomplished the work. Success is measured not merely by the brilliance of the unique design however by the system’s capability to proceed functioning successfully underneath altering circumstances. I recognise that the identical precept applies to establishments. Leadership is most profitable when the constructions, processes and values established throughout one era proceed to strengthen the establishment by means of the subsequent. The final take a look at of institutional design is due to this fact continuity, not persona. I additionally got here to perceive that institution-building is basically an train in persistence. Unlike initiatives with clearly outlined completion dates, establishments are by no means actually completed. Every era inherits unfinished work, addresses the challenges of its personal time and leaves additional duties for many who comply with. This requires humility. No chief accomplishes every thing. No administration resolves each downside. Our process is solely to be certain that the establishment is stronger, wiser and higher ready than it was when accountability was entrusted to us. Progress is due to this fact cumulative, constructed patiently by means of the trustworthy contributions of many people throughout a few years. I thus see engineering not merely as a career, however as a means to perceive society’s challenges and apply data to resolve them. It teaches disciplined pondering, methods evaluation and the sensible utility of concepts for human profit. These rules formed not solely my work as an educational and researcher but additionally my understanding of management, institutional improvement and nationwide transformation. I’ll solely be certain that my advocacy for assets to assist institutional development structurally is extra strident. The world should not tolerate leaders who’re egocentric, self-centred and nationally unpatriotic.
Why do you suppose Nigeria has struggled to translate the improvements produced in its universities and analysis establishments into applied sciences that strange Nigerians can use?
Throughout my profession, I’ve been privileged to work with college students, researchers and colleagues whose ingenuity satisfied me that Nigeria doesn’t undergo from a scarcity of concepts. What has typically restricted our progress is our potential to create environments through which these concepts can mature into improvements that strengthen our economies and enhance the lives of our individuals. Innovation is due to this fact not merely the product of particular person brilliance; it’s the end result of societies or ecosystems that intentionally put money into analysis, nurture expertise and supply alternatives for progressive concepts to flourish. Indeed, I discover myself full of each hope and accountability. Hope, as a result of our nation possesses extraordinary mental expertise, youthful power and an abundance of alternatives for scientific and technological development. Responsibility, as a result of these strengths alone is not going to safe our future. They should be supported by establishments that encourage discovery, insurance policies that reward innovation and cultures that remember creativity, self-discipline and excellence. If my journey has taught me one lesson, it’s that real transformation begins with a change in how we think about ourselves. Nations that imagine of their capability to resolve their very own issues are extra seemingly to put money into the data, establishments and folks required to accomplish that. That is the longer term I’ve at all times hoped for Nigeria: a future constructed on excellence, sustained by integrity, enriched by innovation and guided by a shared dedication to the frequent good. It is a future that calls for a lot of us, however additionally it is a future that I imagine stays completely inside our attain. If there may be one lesson I would depart with future students, it’s this: by no means separate data from objective. Let analysis stay rigorous, but additionally related. Let innovation pursue excellence, however let it additionally pursue service. Let universities proceed to defend tutorial freedom whereas embracing their accountability to contribute to society. When these commitments are held collectively, data turns into excess of an mental achievement; it turns into a drive able to remodeling nations and enriching humanity. But data alone can not remodel society; Ideas require establishments that may implement them, leaders who can champion them and governance methods that may maintain them. The high quality of our management, the energy of our establishments and the integrity of our public life finally decide whether or not the fruits of analysis and innovation turn into enduring devices of nationwide improvement.
What are the most important challenges at present confronting Agricultural Engineering training and analysis in Nigeria, and the way can Nigerian universities make Agricultural Engineering extra responsive to challenges resembling meals insecurity, mechanisation, post-harvest losses and local weather change?
Over the numerous many years I’ve devoted to agricultural engineering, I’ve turn into more and more satisfied that Nigeria’s (and Africa’s) future will probably be formed, in no small measure, by the way forward for its agriculture and the way it cohabits with rising digital and resilient applied sciences. Throughout my skilled journey, I by no means regarded agriculture merely as a supply of meals or employment. I’ve at all times seen it as the inspiration on which industrial improvement, financial resilience, and, in fact, meals safety and social stability might be constructed. Our agricultural methods should be able to responding to altering weather conditions, inhabitants development, evolving markets and new technological alternatives. This requires investments in analysis, improved infrastructure, expert human capital and establishments that encourage steady innovation. Agriculture can now not be seen as a standard sector standing aside from science and expertise; it has turn into one of many principal arenas through which data is translated into sustainable improvement. The curriculum of agricultural engineering in our universities should mirror this holistic imaginative and prescient to be useful to society by producing responsive graduates who will catalyse the transformation of our agriculture amid modern and rising challenges.
What function ought to universities play in creating indigenous applied sciences reasonably than relying closely on imported options?
For me, a expertise’s best worth lies not in its sophistication however in its relevance and health for objective. Throughout my profession as an agricultural engineer, I used to be regularly reminded that probably the most profitable applied sciences will not be essentially probably the most superior; they’re those that reply successfully to the wants, assets and circumstances of the individuals they’re supposed to serve. Technology turns into transformative when it’s acceptable, accessible and able to bettering on a regular basis life. This conviction formed a lot of my very own work in engineering and agricultural improvement. I by no means regarded expertise as an finish in itself. Rather, I noticed it as an instrument for increasing alternative, rising productiveness and bettering human well-being. Whether designing tools, supporting analysis or strengthening establishments, I remained satisfied that innovation must be guided by the realities of society reasonably than by the attraction of novelty alone. Technologies that can’t be adopted, maintained or tailored inside native contexts seldom obtain lasting impression. Our challenges are distinctive, and whereas now we have a lot to be taught from the experiences of different areas, our most enduring options will emerge after we mix international data with native understanding. Technology ought to due to this fact mirror the environments through which individuals reside, the assets accessible to them and the aspirations they search to fulfil. Development is strengthened when innovation grows from inside reasonably than being imposed from exterior. As illustrated earlier, the yam-pounding machines symbolize a responsive expertise that solves home issues.
What have been probably the most tough management choices you had to make throughout your profession?
Every chief finally encounters moments when precept is examined by circumstance. From my years in college management, I’ve come to recognise that these moments typically reveal extra about management than durations of stability ever can. They require choices which might be seldom easy, the place competing expectations, institutional pressures and public scrutiny converge. There was the case of a high-ranking tutorial workers member accused of plagiarism, that’s, utilizing the work of others with out clear permission or correct acknowledgement. In such circumstances, “authority should never replace due process”. While management inevitably entails making choices, it additionally requires the self-discipline to distinguish between conditions that decision for fast private intervention and those who demand confidence within the establishment’s personal methods. Universities derive a lot of their energy from shared governance, the place accountability is distributed throughout senate, council and different statutory our bodies. Respecting these constructions was not an administrative formality; it was an expression of confidence within the establishment itself. As recorded in ‘A Tall Dream’, ‘an investigative committee was constituted and entrusted with the responsibility of examining the issues before it. From the outset, I considered it essential that the committee should carry out its work without interference from my office. Once its assignment had been completed, its report was submitted through the University’s recognised governance constructions, the place it obtained acceptable consideration earlier than choices have been taken’. Looking again, I stay satisfied that the best service a frontrunner can generally render will not be to dominate institutional processes however to defend them. Institutions earn legitimacy when their procedures are revered, notably throughout moments of controversy. Another testy second got here when the management of the three mixed unions on campus, together with, unusually, the educational workers union (ASUU), conspired to mislead their members into believing there was what they referred to as a double deduction of pension financial savings. Convinced that nothing was amiss and bolstered by a trusted bursar and bursary workers, I requested that we arrange a committee comprised of the administration and the unions with a membership of six, three from both facet and headed by their nominee in order that they might management how the investigation was managed. It was unbelievable that they reneged on the committee after realising their insincerity can be uncovered. A pacesetter’s character and integrity should be stable sufficient to face up to challenges to their braveness.
You mentioned the true measure of management is what continues to flourish after a frontrunner leaves workplace. What do you imagine ought to stay as your institutional legacy and what’s the subsequent step for you as you retire from the college?
From the Festschrift in my honour, I’m excited by the beautiful coherence and resonance of views from numerous backgrounds and generations who assert that my institutional legacy can’t be decreased to buildings, places of work or administrative accomplishments alone; reasonably, the extra enduring legacy lies in stronger tutorial communities, more healthy skilled networks and institutional cultures that proceed to worth excellence, collaboration and repair, and have turn into dwelling legacies as a result of they proceed to categorical the beliefs upon which they have been strengthened by means of my exploits. As for my subsequent steps, Nigeria at this time has greater than 300 universities. The difficulties they face will not be, for probably the most half, difficulties of expertise; reasonably, they’re difficulties of institutional design, of funding technique, of the affected person and unglamorous work of constructing partnerships, and of the lacking hyperlink between a laboratory bench and the business that wants what that bench has produced. These are exactly the issues I’ve spent 40 years studying to resolve, one establishment at a time, and I’m not persuaded that the educational ought to retire merely as a result of the person has reached the age at which he should. The MF Centre for Higher Education and Engineering Innovation is established as a working enterprise for that purpose. It will finally be judged by the establishments it succeeds in strengthening, by the analysis it carries out from the laboratory into business, and by the younger individuals it equips to proceed that work lengthy after these of us who started it have completed. Let me briefly take you again down reminiscence lane: More than 50 years in the past, a boy stood within the grounds of a secondary college, Victory College, in Ikare-Akoko and watched a machine pound yam. He didn’t know the identify of the person who had designed and constructed that machine. He didn’t know that he would someday research underneath that very same man, nor that he would comply with him to the very college in England at which that man had taken his doctorate, nor that he would spend the entire of his working life inside the mental custom that had produced the machine he was watching. I’ve thought a terrific deal, in these current years, about what that boy was actually watching on that afternoon; he was watching data go away a laboratory and arrive within the lifetime of an strange family. Everything I’ve tried within the 40 years since has been, in a single kind or one other, an effort to shorten that journey of worthwhile data switch, and to see it made a terrific deal extra typically. That work will not be completed, and no single lifetime was ever going to show adequate to full such a process. But the work is standing, and there are fingers ready to carry it additional than I’ve been in a position to carry it myself. It has been the privilege of my era to contribute its chapter. It is now the privilege and accountability of those that comply with to write the subsequent.
