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From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
A Professor of Plant Physiology/Food Chemistry, Professor Odunayo Adebooye, was on Wednesday, inaugurated and robed as the fourth substantive Vice-Chancellor of the Osun State University (UNIOSUN).
Speaking during his inauguration at Osogbo’s main campus, Adebooye promised to consolidate on the achievements recorded by the past Vice-Chancellors and expand the scope to ensure the sustainability of the institution.
He described himself as a product of grace owing to the constraints that surrounded his studies since his father died when he was just in primary 2.
Noting that he was reluctant to attend school despite the free admission form he obtained which was influenced by a catechist of St David’s Anglican Church Akiriboto-Gbongan in 1979, Prof Adebooye said he agreed to attend school just to appease his mother who desired education for him based on prophecy.
“I am just a product of grace. My father died when I was in Primary 2 in 1974. There was no hope for me again because of financial constraints but I completed Primary VI in June 1978. As soon as I left school, I started subsistence farming and hunting which I did for one year. In June 1979 when a catechist of my church, St David’s Anglican Church, Akiriboto-Gbongan, came to my mother late in the evening, to advise her that I should seek admission into secondary school. The catechist’s reason was based on the possibility of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) winning the governorship election as they promised that there
would be free education.
“I got the admission but the financial resources to sponsor me to school were not there because our bread-winner and pillar of our family was no more, my daddy. My mother, 86-years-old, Gladys Adebooye, decided that she would sell her belongings to send me to school because a prophet told her that I will become great. She believed that education could make the prophecy come to fulfilment.
“I started attending secondary school reluctantly just to please my mother because I erroneously felt I would soon drop out for a financial reason,” he narrated.
The Pro-Chancellor of UNIOSUN, Mallam Yusuf-Ali SAN, expressed displeasure over the rate at which vote-buying is becoming part of Nigeria’s democracy.
He said, “How do you take money from those who you are voting for and expect them to perform? When a man sells two or three houses to contest elections, he will surly recoup. Let us go home and tell our people. Are we better than 50 years again? Why can’t we change our ways,” he queried.
