(Contributor)
By – Olu Remilekun
Beyond reasonable doubt, the University of Ibadan plays host to the gene and history of great men who have served and won greatness with honest toil. One among those was Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo. Condolences! Ayo Banjo lives still. In 1988, Professor Banjo in a video testified to the cancer that plagues Universities today.
“We are now in a state of transition in which very clearly people are not sure what they want in their Vice Chancellors, but since the funding problem is the prominent function of the day and people, I think I will agree that the administrative functions of the Vice Chancellor are becoming more important than his academic functions. And within the administrative functions, I think people will now agree that the best candidate for the post of a Vice Chancellor is the best fundraiser.”
In 2022 – at the 73rd-anniversary celebration of the University of Ibadan, the Vice Chancellor’s address promised hope. Appealing to the former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, you said, “Mr. Visitor, Sir, one of the biggest challenges the university has had to contend with over the years is gross under-funding. Being a public institution, the main source of funding is the government which, owing to the prevailing hostile economic environment has increasingly been unable to cater for much of our financial needs. However, the University continues to thrive with a great ray of hope that better days are ahead.”
Sir, this is a hopeful student trying to salvage the University from bridging the social contract it professes to defend. This is to report the effort of persons – “animals in human skin” as Fela Kuti described, who are against the right of Nigerians to education – the dignity and essence of what the University of Ìbàdàn stands for.
The University of Ìbàdàn is the First and Best, in Nigeria. Her anthem, the Font, instills this consciousness. The people of Ibadan generously leased this over 2,550 acres of land to our founders for 999 years because of our potential to raise true minds for a noble cause, social justice, and equal chance. Without any form of doubt, Unibadan pledged to serve the people’s cherished goals (self-reliance and unity), so that Nigeria may, with pride, help to build a truly free world. It is, I believe, high time the school stand up against attempts to make it travel against her beliefs.
The cherished goals of the University are under attack. The composers, Isidore Okpewho and Olaolu Omideyi saw this coming and added tool to combat it. Self-reliance and unity informsthe preparedness of the University to scale through times such as this when the tyrannical institutions within and without will deny her the resources to carry out her duties to true learning and knowledge production. The Vice-Chancellor has been positioned by time to lead the vanguard against this threat to the life of the nation. To err is human. This consciousness reminds us of the need to continuously remind you and the management that our anthem also gives answers in times like this. Rather than put the burden of self-reliance on poor parents and students, the second stanza of our anthem says we RAISE true minds for a noble cause, social justice and equal chances. The fight against neoliberal policies is the noble cause of this season. The hike in school fee is not socially just, because it will deny majority of students and parents the equal chance to education and true learning. Don’t give in Sir.
Sun Tzu, the Chinese philosopher, says ‘it is a disgrace to be honoured in an unjust state.’ I believe that is what our anthem firmly agrees with. The greatness of this University of Ìbàdàn, her position as the first and best can only be continuously and truly won with honest toil. This informs us that we cannot apply any method toward achieving greatness. The choice of placing the burden of the University’s self-reliance on poor parents and students is unjust and should be refrained from.
It is also our duty as the Premier University to guide our people to know that the best of wisdom is turned into service and not the suppression of the right to learn. Fundamentally, in all the decisions of your office as the Vice Chancellor, our anthem demands that you help enshrine the right to learn and not encourage attempts otherwise. Students have a cardinal responsibility to remind your distinguished self and other members of the University management that education is a right and that your responsibility is to ensure it stays that way, enshrined!
The University anthem emphasizes social justice and equal chance. You know the anthem like the back of your hand and we admire the way you sing it in the Thursday rituals of Inaugural Lectures. We plead that you live it Sir. This is to remind you of the social contract that the anthem creates between the leadership of the University and the public. Do not let the world mock us as the Yoruba says “eni ta fi joye awodi ti ko le gbe adire” – ‘the one ordained to lead the convocation of eagles who cannot hunt a chicken’. Because you are of UI, we know that you have all it takes to save the future of this country as you ensure that the right to education is protected. We paid school fee last session with the hope and assurance that our futures will be protected with the promise of character and sound learning.
Sir, our founders promised to guide the people to know that wisdom’s best is turned into service.At this moment in time, no one is better equipped to deal with the threat against the right to learn. Once again, we plea that you hearken to the spirit of ‘The Font’. The anthem concludes that a mind that knows is free. This song places the responsibility on you, and all of us, to “Help build a world that is truly free.” As a fundamental right and necessary tool for the reclamation of the dignity of the university and education, we call on you to lead this just struggle against neoliberalism and every uncanny attempt to deny us our right to education. This Font, our Font, teaches us to lead this struggle and serve as an example for other universities that the best of wisdom, which we are the fountain of, is best turned to service.
When the lifestyle of a people and their methods of solving problems do not resonate with the spirit of their rituals – songs, and pledges, the people and leaders deserve to be reminded of destinations and the stipulated honest means to the imagined ends. Before we become tone-deaf to the mockery of the world, let us retrace our dance steps to the beats of our song. What will Ibadan say about us when the fountainhead of true learning, deep and sound, a soothing spring for all who thirst andboundsof knowledge to advance, suddenly runs dry of the knowledge to enshrine the right to learn? God forbid!
But, change is constant. Rituals are not cast in iron. If cast in iron, the furnace prevails. Our songs, no matter the hope and justice they promise, can always be changed to suit our new dances. As the His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu had thought it wise to take the country back, back to the colonial songs because they produce more beautiful symphonies with our realities, we can also find a new song. However, we will remember that there was a time when our song says our greatness has to be won with honest toil.
The essence and power of our anthem is not in the letters but in the spirit and responsibility it puts on us as the Premier University in Nigeria. Defend this right to education so that the sand of time will continuously remind us that there was a Vice Chancellor who fought and stood in the gap and ensured that thousands of University of Ibadan students did not become dropouts. Our parents will also have renewed hope in the possibility of a world that is truly free because of your act of leadership, courage, and wisdom. In your own words, “however, the University continues to thrive with a great ray of hope that better days are ahead.”
Our dear Vice Chancellor, Remember “The Font”.
