On our Radio Show last Tuesday, Parrot Xtra Hour on Radio broadcast live on Splash 105.5 FM, our guest, the Vice Chancellor of Lead City University, Professor Aderemi Adeyemo revealed how the institution has been able to continue to expand.

He also used the opportunity to admonish the Federal Government of Nigeria on what it should do to end the perennial Academic Staff Union Of Universities’ industrial action in the country’s public universities.

Can you briefly introduce yourself sir?

By the grace of God, I am the Vice Chancellor of Lead City University, which is the first private university in Ibadan. It was established in 2005, we are 17years old now and to the Glory of God, we are doing very well, we are the best and presently, we have over 10 faculties.

We have Faculty of Law, College Of Medicine, Faculty Of Pharmacy, Faculty Of Social And Management Sciences, Faculty Of Arts, Faculty Of Education, Faculty Of Communication And Information Sciences, Faculty Of Basic Medicals And Applied Sciences, Faculty Of Engineering. We thank God, and for where we are today, it is God that has brought us this far, it is not by our doing. I am also the Chairman of Association of Private University VCs and Registrars of Nigeria.

Briefly, what was life like during your undergraduate days?

During our own time, things were not like this, we had only public universities at that particular point in time. I attended the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University, I attended University of Ibadan, I attended University of Nigeria and I did a program in Lead City University. I also attended a foreign university, Charisma University.

How did you actually get to become the VC of Lead City University?

That is a good question. You see, I have always wanted to be a teacher. I started my career as a secondary school teacher in Ile-Ife, before moving to Olode Grammar school, but Ife being a university community, I was able to use that opportunity to develop myself, after that I moved to Osun State College of Education, Esa-Oke as an assistant lecturer before I became a principal lecturer.

Later, I moved to Ladoke Akintola University, before joining Lead City University in 2006 and I became the pioneer HOD of Accounting Department, and to the glory of God with the support of my governing council, the teaching and non-teaching staff, it was my department that was first granted accreditation from NUC and ICAN.

Later, the department was merged with Business Administration, Management and Accounting, and later got full accreditation for management and accounting.

Later, I was appointed as Director of part time program, I was also appointed as Vice Dean, Faculty Of Social Sciences in 2017. To the glory of God, I was appointed as the Deputy Vice Chancellor in November 2017 before becoming the acting Vice Chancellor in 2018 before later being confirmed as the substantive Vice Chancellor.

Can you tell us more about some of your achievements since you became the institution’s Vice Chancellor?

Lead City University is a specialized university and all members of staff ranging from the principal officers, teaching and non-teaching staffs are friendly.

Our doors are always opened for students to interact with us, unlike during my own days in the university, I saw my Vice Chancellor just during the convocation.

In our institution, we deal with knowledge for self-reliance, we want our students to be job creators so that at the end of the day, they will be employers of labour and this is a recognition of the power of education and this has been our mission.

The vision of the university is to contribute to the development of tertiary education in Nigeria by providing qualitative access to knowledge and training with innovative and challenging teaching techniques that guarantee a balanced education and we have been moving towards this.

Our students are doing very well and most of our graduates are employers of labour and they are doing very well in their chosen professions and I am very proud to say that Dr. Kola Ladoke, your manager at Lagelu 96.7fm here is one of us, we are very proud of his achievements.

What is the process or what are the processes involved in getting admission into your institution?

Lead City University is a school of choice for any parent to enroll his or her ward. We want our students to be independent once they are done at our school and avoid searching for jobs. Our graduates are doing well in their chosen fields and some of them are currently members of staff of our institution.

Some students in software engineering department developed an application that our students use in eating in school, it wasn’t free, the university funded it. We have some graduate students that studied Nursing, Medical Laboratory Science who are currently working in the university’s hospital. Our courses range from diploma, certificate to degree programs among others.

Any prospective student for a degree program will apply through Joint Admission Matriculation Board, (JAMB) and pick our institution as the choice university and our school fees are affordable. Our admission hotline is 08153318708, 08061633228. For people based in Lagos, Ogun state, they can pick up the form and visit our liaison office in Lagos and can call the number 07044043333.

Our students upon graduation are given two certificates both in their field of study and in professional training they undertook on campus – it could be on tailoring, photography or based on their interest. We also have an institute which is known as the Institute Of Personality Development – and when our students are done, they will get their certificates on that.

I want to reemphasize it that our students are of good behavior, they behave decently and responsibly. We also give them different trainings and invite people to the university environment to train our students.

How have you been promoting harmony in your University?

Many Nigerians believe that most private universities are expensive but our own is not like that. In our university, at least the council is so benevolent and we do not believe in charging outrageous fees and people can pay in installments. God is the founder of Lead City University and what God has placed his hands on, no man can disrupt. Our university is not a school for one religion, for those that are Muslims, there is a mosque for them and for the Christians, there is a chapel popularly known as Chapel Of Peace where they can worship. Our vision is to be one of the best and that is our next target now, to transform the university to global visibility.

Talking about the global visibility you just spoke about now, can you attempt to enumerate some of the partnerships you’ve been able to establish?

Our university has been getting so many awards and we were able to secure grants in 2018 from the United States of America. We won a grant worth over 100million, we are one of the private universities in Nigeria that accessed it. I and three other lecturers went to the US to receive the award. Our workers and lecturers too are also getting grants from the World Bank and I even presented a paper at a World Bank-organised event and it was one of the best.

I will like you to talk about how you have been surviving the National Universities Commissions (NUC) accreditation hurdles?

In 2017, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Professor Abubakar Rasheed, came to our university twice and he was really impressed. In fact, Professor Abubakar was so impressed to the extent that he told us that he had never seen a private university like this.

We have full accreditations for all our programs and we have started our MBBS program, medicine, pharmacy, Pharm. D, physiotherapy and dentistry.

If you are given the opportunity, what advise will you give the Federal Government on how to permanently solve the issue of constant ASUU industrial actions?

I will appeal to the government to please find a lasting solution to this lingering ASUU industrial action for the interest of the Nigerian educational system because it is worrisome, it is uncalled for, for universities to be closed for more than eight months. I think the government should find practical approach.

In terms of practical approach, I think we run a system and our own system is different. You cannot compare our own university with public universities in terms of ownership, but I think to a large extent the public universities have seasoned scholars.

The governing council of each university and ASUU should come together and have a framework, you know you cannot compare the system of a federal university to a state university, the ownership differs and even the employees/employer relationship, teaching staff and non-teaching staff, I think there is need for university councils to have a framework to find an holistic way of trying to make sure that things work.

I know lecturers must be paid and paid fully. I will never subscribe to a situation whereby the lecturers will just be treated shabbily.

ASUU and the government should come out with a framework that will give us a very good blue print in order for the Nigerian university system will become more stable and vibrant. The Federal Government should fulfill its promise to ASUU and the situation whereby you sign an agreement and you fail to honour it is unfair.

I think the two parties are learning their lessons now, I believe that at least to a large extent, something positive will come out of it. What I am saying in essence is that the government should be sincere and make sure that the Nigeria University system works out.

At least Nigeria is blessed, go to some of our public universities, we have great scholars that are globally recognized; the government should come up with a holistic approach to solve the ASUU problem. The governing councils of public universities also have roles to play and the strength of each university is taken into cognizance.

A documentary about Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering in Chicago has been released by Nigerian investigative journalist David Hundeyin.

In response to Tinubu’s alleged involvement in the cocaine trade when he was a young man in the United States, David created a piece about him that he titled “From Drug to Presidential Candidate.”

In connection with Bola Tinubu’s drug trafficking and money laundering case in Chicago, a court in the United States recently released certified true documents.

The records indicate that Bola Ahmed Tinubu forfeited $460,000 to the US government.

Although there was no new material in the 56-page document made public by the district court’s Chicago headquarters, it did validate some details of the case that had been discussed informally by the media for years.

Watch the video below:

Patience Patrick, a lady, has an interesting story about how she married her neighbor’s younger brother, Nigeria News reports.

Patience wrote in a closed Facebook group about how her neighbor moved into her family compound when she was four or five years old and always claimed to be her younger brother’s wife.

Patience stated that her neighbor also requested permission from her parents to visit Gombe state, where she met other family members. She went on to say that the lady made them wear a little brides gown and a suit and photographed them together.

Patience told how, in a full circle, she and her husband began.

Read her story below:

”My husband’s elder sister came to stay in our family compound as a tenant wen I was about 4 or 5 years. She loves children and was very fond of me and my younger brother then, so she would always tell my mum dat she has found a wife for her younger brother (me oh) and they will just laugh about it.

So dat year December she pleaded with my mum to allow me follow her home to see her parents for Christmas, because they were already friends with mumcy it wasn’t hard for my parents to agree oh and we traveled to Gombe together with her.

She told her parents and siblings that she brought wife for Joseph, and they will always joke and tease him with him, while huncle was feeling shy and not liking it, It was sweeting me my thing( I was young and naive abi??).

One Sunday morning when we came back from church my husband’s elder sister wore this gown for me oh ( can’t remember how she got the gown though, I think it was the one her little bride used cos she was recently married), she made him wear his one in town suit too, she called photographer oh and we took pictures. She kept saying she had joined us oh remain God’s own.

Holiday was over and we came back to Jos, she brought the pictures and gave my mum one copy of it.

Fast-forward to many years later when I was in ss1 and huncle (my husband) had just graduated from sec school, he came to his elder sister’s house in Jos though she was not in our compound again but she wasn’t staying very far, so I used to still visit her sometimes with my parents and other times I go alone to help her children out cos of the nature of her job (am older than them of course).

So as usual na one time I went to the house and I met huncle there. And then we got talking, he asked me out ahhhh brother calm down I still dey secondary oh till I graduate. He agreed and waited for me till I graduated from sec school, we started dating.

I got admission to university and he also went for force training. He did something that hurt me and I broke up with him. He pleaded and I refused cos there was also one guy in head too dat time, after trying to no avail he just told me ” he certain that I am his wife so no matter where I go or who I date I will still come back” and I was like abeg gatat. I think he got and angry and even blocked me on his social media handles, ahhhh wetin concern me.

Later on once in a while we got talking again just as friends though even though I knew he still liked me, i even told him how my one of my boyfriend broke my heart, guess wat he said??? ” That’s how they will keep breaking ur heart till you decide to come back to me”

That was how huncle started posting one girl’s picture on his wastapp status with love emojies ahhhhh na so jealousy start oh ( no b like say we dey date oh).

One day I asked him he was posting her picture oh, he said he was getting married to her November 2020!!

Ewooooo my blood is not flowing again. Dat was wen i realised I was really in love with this guy ahhhhhhhh later told me he was just joking oh, and we came back together, the next thing was I want to come and see your parents and that was how God’s work was completed in our lives”