By Sebastine Obasi

The ambassadorial-ship of a former Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, (FOUYE) Ekiti State, Prof Abayomi Sunday Fasina, if confirmed by the Senate will advance Nigeria in all positive ramifications, FOUYE Deans and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have said.

President Bola Tinubu recently sent his nomination of Fasina to the Senate for confirmation as a non-career ambassador/high commissioner-designate.

In an interview with journalists on Sunday, they stated that Fasina, has great international connections, enviable antecedent and intellectual sophistication, capacity and capability to represent the image of Nigeria very well in the prospective country of his posting. They stated that he will bring more collaborations and linkages among Nigerian universities and those of his host country. Dr. Dayo Sobowale, Dean, Computer, Information Engineering, said: “He will represent the image of this country well. Any country is protected within six months, you will start feeling his impact in Nigeria here. I can say that confidently because I worked directly with him, and I know what he stands for, When it comes to work, he is someone is highly innovative. Any country he is being posted to, he will look at what is in that country and how to bring in more Public Private Partnership. He is going to create a synergy so that Nigerian and Nigerians will benefit from that country. He started by saying ‘think outside the box,’ later he said, ‘think without the box.’ That means you do everything to ensure that you think without the box. That means be innovative.”

Also speaking, Dr. Adeola Kehinde, Dean, Faculty of Law, Kehinde; said: “His posting will definitely be impactful on Nigeria’s educational sector. Looking at his anticedent as a former FOUYE VC, he did exceptionally well. His achievement this time will be more enormous because I am sure that he will put in more efforts to ensure that he does not disappoint the President for the confidence he reposed in him.

“As at the time he was in FOUYE, he had many achievement, phyiscal, infrastructural, human capacity development etc, it was so enormous. “He will increase linkages and collaboration between universities of Nigeria and those of other countries that he will be posted. At the time he was FOUYE VC, he brought in a lot of collaboration between FOUYE and universities across the world. So many institutions all over the world collaborated with FOUYE and they are still existing till now. When is there as an ambassador, he will definitely do more.” For Taiwo Owolewa, Head of Administration, NANS, “FUOYE is one of the fastest growing universities in Sub-Saharan Africa then ably led by him. He sharpened the university system to the extent that it is now competing with other universities that have been in ages. That is the work of Fasina. “We have the confidence that if he is given the opportunity, he is going to perform better in an advanced country. Nigerian students will benefit from his appointment because he is a man that wants to see us growing. “He is going to open more opportunities for students and Nigeria.”