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Professor Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe: Our shared dream
Ayobami Salami
Before May 2017 when I was appointed the Pioneer Vice Chancellor, First Technical University, Ibadan, I only knew Professor Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe by his reputation, earned through his unassailable credentials. Shortly after my appointment, the then Governor of Oyo State and Visitor to the University, Senator Abiola Ajimobi (of the blessed memory), invited me for a meeting in his office to discuss my plans for the university. At the meeting were a few government officials, including the then Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Olalekan Alli. The governor then told me he was planning to appoint a substantive Pro-Chancellor for the university and he wanted my suggestion(s).
When the administration of late President Umaru Yar’Adua toyed with the idea of Vision 2020, a dream intended to birth Nigeria into the group of the best global 20 economies by year 2020, many Nigerians looked forward to the year with great anticipation.
As with human limitations, not the best of seers could foretell the disasters and destructions that were to follow. Perhaps, looking back, Nigerians ought to have peeped into year 2020 with loads of trepidation.
The real manifestations of year 2020, however, had not been one that inspired the hopes and the optimism Nigerians had longed for as it became one of the most deadly in the history of humanity considering the high number of deaths recorded on account of the COVID-19 pandemic that shook the entire world to its very foundation.