After greater than 4 many years in academia and public service, former Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof. Michael Faborode, recollects 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 lately clocked 70, he discusses indigenous know-how, institutional improvement, and his plans to advance greater schooling 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 had 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 pacesetter leaves workplace or one leaves the scene. Looking again over the various seasons of my life, I’ve come to admire that each alternative to be taught, to educate, to lead and to serve has been a part of a a lot bigger journey than I might ever have imagined. Along the best way, I’ve been formed by exceptional lecturers, impressed by gifted colleagues, inspired by trustworthy associates, and frequently challenged by generations of scholars whose curiosity and aspirations renewed my very own sense of objective. Whatever I’ve been privileged to contribute has all the time been enriched by the lives and contributions of others. The recollections I’m abandoning are captured in two books that had 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 known as a Festschrift, in my honour. It is titled ‘Technology, Leadership and Governance: Reflections in honour of Professor Michael Oladimeji Faborode’. The second e book, 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 folks will take of their values. In truth, the evolution of the title of the e book, ‘A Tall Dream ‘ and what the back-cover tree connotes, as narrated within the e book, are themselves considerably attention-grabbing.
Looking again to your early education, did you ever think about that your journey would lead to changing into an engineer, scholar and college administrator?
That is a really attention-grabbing query. As recorded in ‘A Tall Dream’, probably the most exceptional reminiscence from my years at Victory College, as well as to being a complete faculty providing a wide range of technical and vocational topics together with technical drawing, wooden and steel works, and so on., got here via an occasion that appeared totally unusual on the time. In early 1972, the varsity hosted an agricultural present that included an illustration of a newly developed yam pounding machine designed by researchers from the University of Ife. As college students, we watched with real curiosity as know-how was utilized to remedy an on a regular basis drawback acquainted to just about 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 trainer, mentor, and tutorial supervisor? How might I’ve imagined that I might ultimately research Agricultural Engineering on the University of Ife, working throughout the very mental custom whose fruits I had witnessed years earlier as a secondary faculty scholar? 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 suppose 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 remark. However, I couldn’t have imagined then the thrilling chance that information might be utilized to remedy sensible issues affecting unusual folks, nor that of changing into a scholar, not to mention a college administrator, and in the end a vice chancellor. But I can now say that it began from house in Supare. There, I learnt to respect work, worth schooling, settle for correction, and admire the significance of serving one thing bigger than oneself. The journey that might ultimately 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 essential classes you might have learnt out of your 40 years in academia?
There are, after all, a number of classes, so selecting the three most essential shall be tough. However, if I have 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 believed, questioned, and understood the world. It taught me that information carries duty; scholarship finds its highest objective in service; and establishments matter as a result of they protect and transmit values from one technology to the following. Over the years, I got here to see the college not merely as a tutorial group however as one of many nation’s most strategic establishments. Governments might change, financial situations might fluctuate, and applied sciences might evolve, however universities present the continuity via 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 affect extends far past the boundaries of their campuses as a result of the graduates they produce and the information they generate in the end form each sector of society. My years in college management additionally revealed that this broader mission can’t be fulfilled via tutorial excellence alone. Universities should frequently 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 techniques that encourage belief. I discovered 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 typical imaginative and prescient. Hence, universities stay amongst humanity’s best establishments as a result of they create one thing that appreciates relatively than diminishes with time: information. Yet information alone doesn’t remodel nations. It have to be organised, shared and utilized via 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 anticipated 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 beneath altering situations. I recognise that the identical precept applies to establishments. Leadership is most profitable when the constructions, processes and values established throughout one technology proceed to strengthen the establishment via the following. The final take a look at of institutional design is subsequently continuity, not character. I additionally got here to perceive that institution-building is basically an train in endurance. Unlike tasks with clearly outlined completion dates, establishments are by no means really completed. Every technology inherits unfinished work, addresses the challenges of its personal time and leaves additional tasks for many who observe. This requires humility. No chief accomplishes all the pieces. No administration resolves each drawback. Our job is just to be sure that the establishment is stronger, wiser and higher ready than it was when duty was entrusted to us. Progress is subsequently cumulative, constructed patiently via the trustworthy contributions of many people throughout a few years. I thus see engineering not merely as a career, however as a method to perceive society’s challenges and apply information to remedy them. It teaches disciplined considering, techniques evaluation and the sensible software of concepts for human profit. These ideas formed not solely my work as a tutorial and researcher but additionally my understanding of management, institutional improvement and nationwide transformation. I’ll solely be sure 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 assume Nigeria has struggled to translate the improvements produced in its universities and analysis establishments into applied sciences that unusual 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 endure from a scarcity of concepts. What has usually restricted our progress is our skill to create environments through which these concepts can mature into improvements that strengthen our economies and enhance the lives of our folks. Innovation is subsequently not merely the product of particular person brilliance; it’s the consequence of societies or ecosystems that intentionally spend money on analysis, nurture expertise and supply alternatives for modern concepts to flourish. Indeed, I discover myself stuffed with each hope and duty. Hope, as a result of our nation possesses extraordinary mental expertise, youthful vitality 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 have to be supported by establishments that encourage discovery, insurance policies that reward innovation and cultures that commemorate 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 remedy their very own issues are extra possible to spend money on the information, establishments and folks required to accomplish that. That is the longer term I’ve all the time 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 it’s also a future that I imagine stays totally inside our attain. If there may be one lesson I would go away with future students, it’s this: by no means separate information 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 duty to contribute to society. When these commitments are held collectively, information turns into way over an mental achievement; it turns into a pressure able to reworking nations and enriching humanity. But information alone can not remodel society; Ideas require establishments that may implement them, leaders who can champion them and governance techniques that may maintain them. The high quality of our management, the energy of our establishments and the integrity of our public life in the end decide whether or not the fruits of analysis and innovation turn into enduring devices of nationwide improvement.
What are the largest challenges at the moment confronting Agricultural Engineering schooling 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 various many years I’ve devoted to agricultural engineering, I’ve turn into more and more satisfied that Nigeria’s (and Africa’s) future shall 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 all the time seen it as the muse on which industrial improvement, financial resilience, and, after all, meals safety and social stability may be constructed. Our agricultural techniques have to 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 know-how; it has turn into one of many principal arenas through which information is translated into sustainable improvement. The curriculum of agricultural engineering in our universities should mirror this holistic imaginative and prescient to be worthwhile to society by producing responsive graduates who will catalyse the transformation of our agriculture amid up to date and rising challenges.
What function ought to universities play in creating indigenous applied sciences relatively than relying closely on imported options?
For me, a know-how’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 frequently reminded that probably the most profitable applied sciences aren’t essentially probably the most superior; they’re those that reply successfully to the wants, assets and circumstances of the folks they’re supposed to serve. Technology turns into transformative when it’s acceptable, accessible and able to enhancing 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 know-how as an finish in itself. Rather, I noticed it as an instrument for increasing alternative, rising productiveness and enhancing human well-being. Whether designing tools, supporting analysis or strengthening establishments, I remained satisfied that innovation needs to be guided by the realities of society relatively than by the attraction of novelty alone. Technologies that can not be adopted, maintained or tailored inside native contexts seldom obtain lasting affect. 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 world information with native understanding. Technology ought to subsequently mirror the environments through which folks stay, the assets accessible to them and the aspirations they search to fulfil. Development is strengthened when innovation grows from inside relatively than being imposed from outdoors. As illustrated earlier, the yam-pounding machines symbolize a responsive know-how that solves home issues.
What had been probably the most tough management selections you had to make throughout your profession?
Every chief ultimately encounters moments when precept is examined by circumstance. From my years in college management, I’ve come to recognise that these moments usually reveal extra about management than intervals of stability ever can. They require selections which can be seldom simple, 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 selections, it additionally requires the self-discipline to distinguish between conditions that decision for fast private intervention and people who demand confidence within the establishment’s personal techniques. Universities derive a lot of their energy from shared governance, the place duty 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 selections had been taken’. Looking again, I stay satisfied that the best service a pacesetter can generally render isn’t to dominate institutional processes however to shield 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 known 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 aspect 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 have to be strong sufficient to stand up to challenges to their braveness.
You mentioned the true measure of management is what continues to flourish after a pacesetter 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 diminished to buildings, places of work or administrative accomplishments alone; relatively, 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 residing legacies as a result of they proceed to categorical the beliefs upon which they had been strengthened via my exploits. As for my subsequent steps, Nigeria right this moment has greater than 300 universities. The difficulties they face aren’t, for probably the most half, difficulties of expertise; relatively, 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 remedy, one establishment at a time, and I’m not persuaded that the training 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 cause. It will in the end be judged by the establishments it succeeds in strengthening, by the analysis it carries out from the laboratory into business, and by the younger folks 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 faculty, 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 sooner or later research beneath that very same man, nor that he would observe 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 throughout the mental custom that had produced the machine he was watching. I’ve thought a fantastic deal, in these latest years, about what that boy was in actual fact watching on that afternoon; he was watching information depart a laboratory and arrive within the lifetime of an unusual family. Everything I’ve tried within the 40 years since has been, in a single type or one other, an effort to shorten that journey of worthwhile information switch, and to see it made a fantastic deal extra usually. That work isn’t completed, and no single lifetime was ever going to show ample to full such a job. But the work is standing, and there are palms ready to carry it additional than I’ve been ready to carry it myself. It has been the privilege of my technology to contribute its chapter. It is now the privilege and duty of those that observe to write the following.
