Embracing the Larger Society
After my fulfilling foray at Ife, I went for the youth service in 1974/1975. I served in Maiduguri the then headquarters of Northern States. I was allowed to practice my profession so I was kept in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry supporting the industrial establishment. It was a dream come through because right from my childhood I had always wanted to be an engineer and what type of engineering wasn’t clear. It wasn’t that I had any role model considering the rural setting where I grew up. But In those days, we had consulted books widely in the school’s library and we used to have group discussions. Again, Engineering was higher than Medicine in those days. The leading courses were Engineering, Medicine and Law. Teaching was taken seriously because teachers were getting money. Those who read Mathematics were offered automatic employment with accommodation and a brand new car. It was tempting and the lure was there but I knew what I wanted.
Embracing Teaching
Developing passion for teaching, research and administrative services, and then aspiration to be a professor came as I progressed in my career. Again, lecturers were well-paid in those days. A professor earned the same salary as the Prime Minister at the time – £3,000 a year. That was why it was easy for a lecturer to be recruited from Britain and they were coming because the salary was the same. By the virtue of your performance as a student you were encouraged to go into research. Having had a first class in Chemical Engineering and a potential for research, I wanted to go for Master and PhD. I did my Masters and PhD in Canada in University of Waterloo. It was from abroad that I got recruited into the University of Lagos in 1977. Along the line I was asked to come and represent my people between 1994/1996. I served as a commissioner in Ogun State. It was a good experience for me because it taught me how to serve people.
I Became a Professor of Chemical Engineering in 1998
Each lecturer’s ambition is to get to the top of his/her profession. Anybody who is in this job would aspire to become a professor and your research capability is key. I was doing my work and had applied to be an associate professor before I went to Ogun State to serve in 1994. I was appointed associate professor when I was in Ogun State and as soon as I came back there was an opportunity for me to put on for professorship. I did. I became a professor in 1998.
Experience in Unilag
Taking lecturing as a profession gives you a lot of opportunities: to practice your discipline and to also develop others to take over from you. Most of us in engineering service the society and my brand of engineering supposed to look at turning raw materials to useful product. And without us no industries in any nations can move on. And that is why you need a lot of engineers to be able to make our products more serviceable for us by creating employment. So the passion to do it, create yourself and recreate other people and that is what pushes one. Part of our duties here is service. I served my community, serve my nation and can serve the world if invited. I have served as a project manager for UNDP/ ILO before covering a project that was in 16 states in Nigeria. I did it for a whole year and the experience I got there I brought it to the academic community. If I were not here I wouldn’t be able to hold that position. When I found myself at the helm of affairs of Unilag, all the experiences garnered both in public service helped.
I Never Aspired to Become VC
Looking back, were there things I would have done differently? Well, yes. Sometimes I went round things as you know that life is not a straight line, you have to manoeuvre. But each of the experience I got along the way had helped in my career life. For instance, I didn’t go straight to HSC as others did. I didn’t go straight to secondary school after primary education. I lost a year and had to spend two terms in a Secondary Modern School. I didn’t have the guidance so I was the one moving. Since one is good enough my parents were ready to push but didn’t have the capacity where next to go. I just manoeuvre myself into the system.
I never aspired to become Unilag’s vice chancellor. I was contented in my profession and of course, I have had administration experience having served in Ogun State. As at that time I wanted to serve the system and even served in one committee or the other and enjoying my practice. I served as DVC and others followed. It was destiny.
Acquiring PhD was My Best Moment
Talking about my best moment; I think it was the day I completed my PhD in University of Waterloo in Canada. I was married before I went for my graduate work so I had a family. I went with my wife and had our first two babies in Canada. We had opportunity to stay back in Canada but we were eager to come back because Nigeria was doing well. Nigerian naira was stronger than US and Canadian dollars. I left Nigeria in December 1975. Staying back wasn’t an option. The Ph.D was an area that was unique and was working with two supervisors.
The senior one was in charge but never on ground as he was always moving round looking for grants locally and internationally. But the younger supervisor who was always around understood what I was doing. By the time I presented my work at a seminar when the senior one was around he would condemn everything I did. It was frustrating and if I wasn’t determined I would have been frustrated. But I later wrote my reports and this man to my amazement commended me and said, ‘Did you do all this?’ That became a turning point in my life.
I met my wife in secondary school
I got married in 1975 – to Momudat Adedoja, a native of Abeokuta. Both of us were in secondary school though I was her senior. She trained initially as a nurse at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital in those days. When we went to Canada she studied Sociology, came back and joined the public service. She retired as a director in the Lagos State Ministry of Education. The union is blessed with four children: three boys and a girl. I thank God that they responded to training. The first one read Chemical Engineering and has a PhD in Petroleum Engineering. I never pushed any of my children to embrace any career. The second one studied architectural design, the third studied electrical engineering and the fourth read Microbiology and later did an MBA.
How I Will Like to Be Remembered
So I would like to be remembered as one who has been able to come through life, influenced as many people I could positively and touched life in a way that when people remember me they think positively about me.
My philosophy of life is that always position yourself and there is nothing wrong being ambitious but do it within the limit and not by pushing things away because you want to get there.