Kunle Adelabu
It is definitely a new dawn at the newly created Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUSTECH) which used to be centre for agitations, divisiveness and crisis ridden, until recently, when there was change in the leadership position in the institution formerly known as Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH).
The new found love among the new management and staff unions has brought cooperation, unity and new ways of engagements within the institution. The implication of the present state of relationship is that the institution has been able to advance the interests of everyone concerned and focus on academic advancement, especially in the areas of science and technology.
It is under this new atmosphere that the new acting Vice Chancellor (VC) of the LASUSTECH (who came first as Rector of the defunct LASPOTECH), Dr Oluremi Nurudeen Olaleye, has been operating in the last 18 months which has been remarkable with the VC beating his chest that the storm is finally over with impressive achievements to show for it.
He reflected on these at the 10th Congregation of the institution (9th under the old system of LASPOTECH and first under the LASUSTECH), while addressing members of the press at the LASUSTECH Council Boardroom on Friday, May 20, 2022.
Dr Oluremi, recalling the transmutation of LASPOTECH into LASUSTECH, said that constitution of a Governing Council and Senate is very important to the running of a University system.
“Electing people by the Congregation of the institution into the Senate of the new University provides us an opportunity to talk to the media. That is why we decided to use the opportunity to tell the media what this administration has been doing for the past 18 months”, he said.
“It is no news any longer that this 45 years old Polytechnic has been transmuted successfully into a University of Science and Technology. We give all appreciation to God Almighty who has made the process, which was tasking, enduring and persevering process, to come to a successful conclusion”, he recalled.
“It is also no news that on February 2nd, 2022, Mr Governor assented to the Bill passed by the Lagos State House of Assembly, to transmute the Lagos State Polytechnic into the Lagos State University of Science and Technology.
“As such, a University is run on two legs – the Council and the Senate. Mr Governor, in his wisdom, has setup a very powerful Council that would pilot the activities of the new University, and as such, it is important for us to also setup processes in motion so as to inaugurate a Senate for the University”, Dr Oluremi said.
“The Senate is not completed until we have six representation of the Congregation. With the starting off of the Senate and the Council, we are rest assured that the process of an enduring University is put in place”.
The acting VC, speaking on the giant strides his administration has made, first, as a Rector of the defunct LASPOTECH, and now as acting VC of LASUSTECH, Dr Olaleye said that he came with agenda to improve the staff and management relationship; create conducive working academic and working environment and place the University on solid ground to be a great institution.
“This also gives us the opportunity to tell us what we have been able to do for the past 18 months”, he said.
“When this administration was coming on board, it set for itself a 9 – point agenda for which it want to establish a globally ranking Polytechnic which has now been transmuted into a University.
“When we came on board, the NBTE last ranked our Polytechnic number 17, a year after was the ranking by Webometrix which is a global ranking, we were ranked number 3 and as at last year, we moved to second best Polytechnic in Nigeria.
“It was on that pedestal that we were transmuted into a University. I don’t want to say that if we have remained a Polytechnic, we would have been ranked number one. It is a thing of pride. As we speak, the students’ population is about 50, 000. That is the populations of some towns and cities all over the world.
“We set a 9 points agenda for ourselves which we called ‘SSIIIIDAR’- Students welfare and development; Staff welfare and development; ICT driven Polytechnic; IGR improvement; Infrastructural development; Innovative programmes and courses; Development Partners relationship; Agriculture, a special interest, as well as Research Development.
Students’ Welfare and Academic Development:
“On the students’ academic and welfare, we set a 5 – point agenda and each of them has empirical and tangible achievements that we have made. We set out to improve the quality of learning. To do that, we have been doing the following in the last 18 months:
“We have activated our online teaching and examinations; we are now able to take some of our courses online and do some of them on CBT (Computer Based Test).
“We also set aside increase library collections and purchase of journal. In the last 18 months, the school has spent over a 100million on the development of the library.
“As we speak, we have over 200 solar lights installed and another 130 still coming.
“As we speak and with the support of the Lagos State Government, there is a Private Public Partnership on hostel accommodation that is ongoing.
“We also said that for us to do students’ academics and welfare properly, we would institute scholarship and awards for outstanding students. As we speak, in the last 18 months, we have the following scholarships for students in the school. There is Eko Club UK that gave our students scholarship”, acting VC added.
“We have given scholarship and cash awards to students that won the Southwest Games, Tokunbo Abiru scholarship for indigent students and we have also given the Barbington Ashaye Scholarship to Insurance students.
“On regular consultations with students’ leadership, we have had three retreats with the students’ union executives in the last 18 months. We always had our orientation for students and their leadership.
“The last on the students, is that we promised that we would create a guidance and counseling units, as we speak, the unit has been created and staffed with two PhD holders as Counselors”, he said.
Staff Welfare and Development:
“On the second ‘S’ which is the staff development and welfare, we promised to provide conducive working environment for the staff.
“We have been able to return peace to the system in the last 18 months, to God be the glory. There have been strong relationships between the management and the unions.
“We have been able to setup a reconciliatory committee. The committee is to look into activities where people felt slighted in the past and the committee has been able to resolve over 40 issues.
“For us to have conducive working environment, we rejig the security architecture of the institution. We have been able to increase the number of security outfit from three to four with extra 55 personnel.
“We have been able to provide extra 6 patrol vans and 8 motorbikes that are being used in providing security for staff and students. We also provided walkie talkie for personnel to communicate amongst themselves.
“To God be the glory, during the period of the 18 months, we have been able to clear the backlog of promotions for three years – 2017/2018, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020. 414 staff members were promoted. Among these were 164 academic staff, 136 senior non – teaching staff members and 114 junior non – teaching staff.
“We also completed the conversion of different cadres in the institution. We had 66 lower to higher cadre staff that were concerted; 14 non – academic to academic staff and 12 instructors to lecturers, making a total of 92 staff members converted. The last conversion that we had in the institution was about 8 years ago.
Still on the welfare and development of the institution’s staff, the acting VC also stated”
“With the support of Mr Governor and the entire executive Council, the minimum wage was implemented and 14 months arrears was paid to all members of staff”, he said.
“Lastly on staff development and welfare, we have also adopted the 2013 scheme of service for all cadres which was recently approved by the Council. This was one of the crux of the crisis that we had in the recent past”, he emphasized.
“We promised that we would have a robust management/staff system, during this period the management had three retreats.
“We promised to provide house and car loan to staff members, within 18months, car loans amounting to N3, 250, 000 had been granted to staff members. It’s reoccurring loan, once you get it, you start paying on a gradual note.
“To God be the glory, we have also been able to secure over 250 units of blocks of flats for staff members across Ikorodu metropolis under the federal housing authority. We secured for staff members in Ibeshe, Agbowa and Igbobo.
“Under the conducive working environment for staff development and welfare, we promised that we would engage enhance and encourage PhD scholarships, we speak in the last 18 months, the management had granted approval to five foreign PhDs and 12 local ones and one foreign Masters and five local masters. All those who are awarded are on their programmes as we speak”, the acting VC revealed.
“We also promised to increase budget for staff and training. During the period under review, we increased sponsorship of staff training. A total of 435 staff members were sponsored for training, seminars and conferences.
“This administration has also created a human capacity development which is saddled with the task of training staff and improving their capacities on their jobs.
“We promised that we would give a comprehensive insurance scheme and as we speak, the management and staff unions have commenced registration with the Lagos State Health Management Authority”, he said.
Information Driven Institution:
“At the beginning of this administration, we promised to build an information driven institution with that, we promised a wide Internet facilities on campus, online distance learning, interconnectivity of the administrative services, improved e – library and digitization of lectures”, he recalled.
“On wide Internet facilities, the management with the support of the council has provided a 512 megabytes per seconds campus wide interconnectivity provided by Tahila based services. We have also received a 50 megabytes bandwidth campus wide Internet connectivity sponsored by Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.
“We also had a 25 megabytes per seconds bandwidth increase for upgrade of existing wireless cloud project implemented by the NCC sponsored by Mr Governor, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu.
“During the period, we promised that there would be online distance learning, as we speak, we have created the open distance flexible e – learning within the period and we have admitted 800 candidates as the first set thst would be going through the programme.
“We have also access our TETFUND grant of over N85m for the development of library infrastructures”.
Infrastructural Development:
“For the infrastructures of a tertiary institution to be we developed, we will talk about improved electricity supply; improved Internet and intranet; construction of more of classrooms and offices; regular maintenance of the existing infrastructures; installation of CCTV cameras; adequate campus illumination and construction of hotels using Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) models”, the VC said.
“On improved electricity, there is installation of solar panel street lights by the Sustainable Development Goal.
“We have continuously maintained our generating sets. I make bold to say that we have over 25 generating sets within the large campus and we had tried within the period to always maintain them.
“The state government had given approval for the purchase of CCTV cameras on the three gates which would be installed anytime from now.
“On the construction of hostels, Mr Governor has setup a Public Private Partnership (PPP) for hostel accommodation within the school.
“As we speak, there is ongoing review of the University website which will be uploaded soon for people to access.
“During the period, the institution had spent over a hundred million on procurement of accreditation equipment for students’ use.
“We also have, as we speak, ongoing construction of 40 – bed hospital within the campus which is supported by the Sustainable Development Goals.
“There is ongoing construction of a fire station within the school which is supported by the Lagos State Government.
“Also ongoing are constructions of three classrooms with each containing 300 students when completed. This is being done by the management of the institution. We also have ongoing construction of School of Technology Block D and review of the Master Plan by the Lagos State Government.
Innovative Courses:
“On innovative courses, we have started Health Safety and Education Driver Training Computer Induction Program which is run by our Consult.
“We have also commenced ICT Professional Training by Cisco Certified Network Application (CCNA) which is ongoing. We are training students for that.
“We have a completed Automotive Development Centre within the institution and after its completion, we have been able to train people on Automotive Engineering.
“Still on innovative courses, the HCDC have started programmes for staff within the school which will be scaled up to the member of the public too. We have had Internal Auditor Certification training. We have also had training for the Bursary staff and Account in Digitalized work.
“We have also have Executive Drivers Improvement Workshop also by HCDC.
Increase Revenue Generation:
“A new programme has been created which is called the School of Part – Time Day Special and as we speak, it has enrolled over 7000 on the campus, this has increased the IGR of the school”, Dr Oluremi said.
“For LASPOTECH Agro business, we have started the production of palm oil. We have been planting cassava, tomato and maize on hectares of land. For maize, we it planted on 10 hectares; cassava 10 hectares and 2 hectares for tomatoes, which we want to scale up to 10 hectares of land.
“Over 1000lites of palm oil is produced on monthly basis.
“We have also planted 400 siblings of coconut, but we are going to 2000. We hope that it would beautify our campus the more and at the same time, improved our environment.
“We are also going to engage in feed mill which would commence any time from now and by the time it commences, it will do ten tones per day. We intend to do fish, poultry and feed mills.
“We have also started our LASPOTECH water and I am sure that those who live in Ikorodu would have been seeing our bottle and sachet water.
“We have also scaled up the activities of our bakery. We have also registered nothing less than five different Ventures that would cater for the increase in our IGR.
Development Partners:
“In the last 18 months, we have improved our relationship with LASPOTECH partners like TETFUND and others. We have been able to access our past physical Infrastructures development funds for 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21”, the acting VC said.
“We have partnered with SDG in respect of the provision of 200 streetlights and hospital and we have also told them that we still need more from them and they have promised to do more. They have promised us something very big that would serve the whole of Ikorodu community.
“We had collaboration with the Federal University of Technology, Oye Ekiti, we are continuing with that.
“We have signed Memorandum of Understanding with not less than five organisations.
“We have also had partnership with Abike Dabiri Erewa Civic Centre where we have asked the entrepreneurship sector to take advantage of it.
Research Advancement Training:
“Our research agenda is in line with the vision of the state. We have started restructuring and refurbishment of our Directorate of Research, Innovation and Development. We have had a University, Industry and Government Partnership where we had five agencies of government present and about ten industries within Ikorodu.
“We have had technical session where we interacted and we will continue to interact so that University aside been the ivory tower, would be able to solve problems emanating from the government and industries and at the same time, give a guide to government activities.
”We have also setup departmental research orientation such that researches in the institution are piloted in line with the themes agenda if the Lagos State.
“Also, very soon, the Lagos State University of Science and Technology will be off the NEPA grid and will be generating its own electricity. We started about 9 months ago, done lots of work to know our consumption and it’s based on that we would be generating out electricity”, Dr Oluremi said.
