Omoluabi Principle, A Guiding Philosophy Of OAU – Ogunbodede

 

Yusuf Oketola

THE Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, has said the guiding philosophy of the institution set by its founders emphasised the Omoluabi (moral integrity) principles.

Ogunbodede said this in an interview with newsmen on Tuesday, in preparation towards the 60th Year Celebrations of the establishment of the institution, which commence on June 6, 2021.

The Vice-Chancellor said:  “The guiding philosophy of the university set by its founders emphasised the Omoluabi (moral integrity) principles, which entail hard work, integrity, public spiritedness, and an honour code. OAU, also referred to as ‘Great Ife’, has in its 60-year existence, lived up to this expectation. Also, a core value of OAU is the defence of the rights of individuals and groups in the society.

“The motto of the university is ‘For Learning and Culture’. Education is seen as the dominant tool for the development of society. The mission of the university is to nurture a teaching and learning community; advance frontiers of knowledge; engender a sense of selfless public service; promote cultural adaptability and add value to African culture.

“The university strives to ensure that our graduates meet not only the employment requirements of the nation and the world at large, but also the challenges of principles higher than mere self-interest and self-fulfilment in a rapidly-changing technological world”.

Ogunbodede noted that OAU is a comprehensive public institution established in 1961, by the regional government of Western Nigeria, as a conventional university that places a premium on teaching, research and community service.

He said: “The university which commenced classes in October 1962, as the University of Ife, was renamed Obafemi Awolowo University on May 12, 1987, in honour of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who lived between 1909 and 1987, and the first Premier of the Western Region of Nigeria, and one of the founding fathers of the institution. The take-off site was the campus of the defunct Nigerian College of Science and Technology, Ibadan, and the university is at present situated on a vast expanse of land totalling 11,861 hectares in Ile-Ife, State of Osun in the South-West of Nigeria.

“The visionary founders set out to establish a university that would be unique in a number of ways; they dreamt of a university of the highest standard and of world-wide repute in the Western Region of Nigeria.

“Fired by the nationalist spirit of the age and the fervor deriving from newly-won political independence, they conceived of a university that would not be a mere colonial ivory-tower, but rather a true African university both in form and in substance.

“The university started the first Faculty of Pharmacy in West Africa, the first Department of Chemical Engineering, the first Technology Production and Development Unit and the first campus Intranet/Internet facility in the country.

“The arts and the sciences were given adequate space to co-mingle with ease, so that a graduate of the sciences could feel at home in the world of the liberal arts, and in the same manner, the arts graduates could pick their way through our increasingly scientific and technological world.

“The idea was to make the products of the institution emerge as well-rounded educated people with a capacity for adapting to change.”

In addition, the Vice-Chancellor asserted that the university in recent years has achieved rapid growth and development, particularly in the areas of academic programmes, research, staff training, and infrastructural development and staff/students’ welfare.

He disclosed that all the 93 academic programmes in the university are currently accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC), making OAU one of the few universities with 100 per cent accreditation of its programmes; noting that the lockdown and ravaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic also caused OAU to put in place the necessary machinery to facilitate the deployment of appropriate technology for online teaching in the university.