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 growth, 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 frontrunner leaves workplace or one leaves the scene. Looking again over the numerous seasons of my life, I’ve come to respect 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 may ever have imagined. Along the way in which, I’ve been formed by exceptional lecturers, impressed by gifted colleagues, inspired by trustworthy buddies, and regularly challenged by generations of scholars whose curiosity and aspirations renewed my very own sense of function. 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, educational colleagues, mentees and even senior compatriots, in a single accord, determined to publish a group 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 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’, essentially the most exceptional reminiscence from my years at Victory College, as well as to being a complete school providing a wide range of technical and vocational topics together with technical drawing, wooden and metallic works, and so forth., got here by means of an occasion that appeared completely atypical on the time. In early 1972, the college 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 expertise was utilized to resolve an on a regular basis downside 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 instantly to native wants. How may I’ve recognized that the inventor of that machine, Prof. Gabriel Ayodele Makanjuola, would later develop into my trainer, mentor, and educational supervisor? How may I’ve imagined that I’d 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 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 statement. However, I couldn’t have imagined then the thrilling chance that data could possibly be utilized to resolve sensible issues affecting atypical 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 respect 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 essential classes you will 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 data carries accountability; scholarship finds its highest function in service; and establishments matter as a result of they protect and transmit values from one technology to the subsequent. Over the years, I got here to see the college not merely as a tutorial neighborhood 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 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 growth. Their impression extends far past the boundaries of their campuses as a result of the graduates they produce and the data 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 by means of educational excellence alone. Universities should regularly adapt to altering nationwide realities whereas remaining trustworthy to their core values. They should construct partnerships with trade, strengthen analysis ecosystems, embrace innovation and domesticate governance methods that encourage belief. I discovered that institutional transformation requires greater than strategic plans; it requires a shared sense of function that permits 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: 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 educational 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 beneath altering situations. I recognise that the identical precept applies to establishments. Leadership is most profitable when the buildings, processes and values established throughout one technology proceed to strengthen the establishment by means of the subsequent. 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 persistence. Unlike initiatives with clearly outlined completion dates, establishments are by no means actually 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 every thing. No administration resolves each downside. Our activity is just to make sure that the establishment is stronger, wiser and higher ready than it was when accountability was entrusted to us. Progress is subsequently cumulative, constructed patiently by means of the trustworthy contributions of many people throughout a few years. I thus see engineering not merely as a occupation, however as a method 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 ideas formed not solely my work as a tutorial and researcher but in addition my understanding of management, institutional growth and nationwide transformation. I’ll solely make sure that my advocacy for sources to assist institutional progress 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 atypical 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 usually 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 folks. Innovation is subsequently not merely the product of particular person brilliance; it’s the end result of societies or ecosystems that intentionally spend money on analysis, nurture expertise and supply alternatives for revolutionary 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 vitality and an abundance of alternatives for scientific and technological development. Responsibility, as a result of these strengths alone won’t safe our future. They should 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 resolve their very own issues are extra probably to spend money on the data, establishments and folks required to achieve this. That is the long run 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 completely inside our attain. If there’s one lesson I would go away with future students, it’s this: by no means separate data from function. Let analysis stay rigorous, but in addition related. Let innovation pursue excellence, however let it additionally pursue service. Let universities proceed to defend educational freedom whereas embracing their accountability to contribute to society. When these commitments are held collectively, data turns into way over an mental achievement; it turns into a drive able to remodeling nations and enriching humanity. But data alone can’t 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 in the end decide whether or not the fruits of analysis and innovation develop into enduring devices of nationwide growth.
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 equivalent to meals insecurity, mechanisation, post-harvest losses and local weather change?
Over the numerous many years I’ve devoted to agricultural engineering, I’ve develop 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 inspiration on which industrial growth, financial resilience, and, after all, meals safety and social stability will be constructed. Our agricultural methods should be able to responding to altering weather conditions, inhabitants progress, 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 conventional sector standing other than science and expertise; it has develop into one of many principal arenas through which data is translated into sustainable growth. The curriculum of agricultural engineering in our universities should mirror this holistic imaginative and prescient to be priceless to society by producing responsive graduates who will catalyse the transformation of our agriculture amid up to date and rising challenges.
What position ought to universities play in creating indigenous applied sciences relatively 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 function. Throughout my profession as an agricultural engineer, I used to be regularly reminded that essentially the most profitable applied sciences aren’t essentially essentially the most superior; they’re those that reply successfully to the wants, sources and circumstances of the folks they’re supposed to serve. Technology turns into transformative when it’s applicable, accessible and able to bettering on a regular basis life. This conviction formed a lot of my very own work in engineering and agricultural growth. I by no means regarded expertise as an finish in itself. Rather, I noticed it as an instrument for increasing alternative, growing productiveness and bettering human well-being. Whether designing tools, supporting analysis or strengthening establishments, I remained satisfied that innovation ought 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 impression. Our challenges are distinctive, and whereas we’ve got 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 subsequently mirror the environments through which folks dwell, the sources obtainable 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 expertise that solves home issues.
What had been essentially the most tough management selections 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 usually reveal extra about management than intervals of stability ever can. They require selections which might be seldom simple, the place competing expectations, institutional pressures and public scrutiny converge. There was the case of a high-ranking educational 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 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 buildings 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 buildings, the place it obtained applicable consideration earlier than selections had been taken’. Looking again, I stay satisfied that the best service a frontrunner can typically render will not be to dominate institutional processes however to defend them. Institutions earn legitimacy when their procedures are revered, significantly throughout moments of controversy. Another testy second got here when the management of the three mixed unions on campus, together with, surprisingly, the tutorial 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 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 could be uncovered. A frontrunner’s character and integrity should be stable sufficient to stand up to challenges to their braveness.
You stated 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 various backgrounds and generations who assert that my institutional legacy can’t be decreased to buildings, workplaces or administrative accomplishments alone; relatively, the extra enduring legacy lies in stronger educational communities, more healthy skilled networks and institutional cultures that proceed to worth excellence, collaboration and repair, and have develop into residing legacies as a result of they proceed to specific the beliefs upon which they had been strengthened by means of my exploits. As for my subsequent steps, Nigeria in the present day has greater than 300 universities. The difficulties they face aren’t, for essentially 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 trade 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 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 trade, 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 college, Victory College, in Ikare-Akoko and watched a machine pound yam. He didn’t know the title of the person who had designed and constructed that machine. He didn’t know that he would in the future 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 inside the mental custom that had produced the machine he was watching. I’ve thought an incredible deal, in these current years, about what that boy was the truth is watching on that afternoon; he was watching data go away a laboratory and arrive within the lifetime of an atypical 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 an incredible deal extra usually. That work will not be completed, and no single lifetime was ever going to show enough to full such a activity. 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 technology to contribute its chapter. It is now the privilege and accountability of those that observe to write the subsequent.
