Continues from last week

In some universities, especially federal and state universities, where the VC is very close to the Visitor, President or Governor, or Proprietor (in case of private universities) then the VC turns from being a mere semi-autocrat to a monster; wielding so much power which if abused, as they frequently are, can cripple the university for decades.

“An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.”  That was the gospel according to Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882. Universities had, since the first one was established in Morocco, become the primary institutions of society – expanding the frontiers of knowledge and creating the leaders of the future. Several things, too numerous to list seriatim, have changed between the time the first university was established at Fez and today’s universities worldwide.

But, one element had remained unchanged – one person, male or female, sitting in one office, as VC or President, had cast the shadow which reflects the character of the university at any point in time. Sometimes, to them is given the opportunity to determine the fate of nations. Anyone who fails to recognise the impact of the education received by Ghandi, Mandela, Reverend Martin Luther King, Obama  and our own Jonathan in the governance of their countries has not looked closely enough.

Let me close this article by reminding all of us, old enough to dimly recollect what happened to one of our own universities here in Nigeria – or more to the point Lagos State University.

LASU, at one point, had the unenviable reputation of having no VC who lasted a full tenure. Struggles for the VC’s chair among the top professors, political intrigues, students’ unrest, cultism etc, all combined to ensure that no full academic year was completed without a crisis necessitating the closure of the university for months at a stretch. One of my nephews, who started at LASU, was quickly transferred to OAU – when he received direct admission, finished two full years ahead of his colleagues who stayed behind at LASU.

Still the problems continued until a man, who had all the attributes of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821, was appointed VC. He was (and still is) short; not muscular; a chorister since his youth and grew up in a thoroughly Christian home in Lagos. But, he had the heart of a Giant Alakuku. The strange fellow we used to go and see, at the Biney Zoo, at Yaba, in the 1950s.

Enter Professor Abisogun Leigh, OFR – Game Change.
Given his stature, his soft and gentle manner of speaking, a perfect gentleman and scholar, appointing Professor Leigh to head LASU in the midst of one of its worst crisis was like throwing Daniel into the lion’s den. Nobody gave him a chance to succeed. But, the world is always full of surprises.

The small man, with the big heart proceeded to master the situation at LASU, as he recollects with “blood, sweat, tears, prayers, fasting and the determination to make a difference.” It was during Professor Leigh’s tenure that LASU had its first full academic year without a closure. That is the kind of difference a good VC can make…

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