A total of 103 Utility Vehicles had been procured in the last three years of the incumbent administration of the University, it has been revealed.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Oluwafemi Olaiya Balogun disclosed this fact while inaugurating the Committee on National Institutional Ranking Exercise (CONIREX), in the Senate Chamber of the University, recently.
Professor Balogun said the rationale to radically increase the near empty Transport Pool of the University was borne out of genuine commitment “to enhance and strengthen the productivity” of both the Academic and Administrative sectors of the University.
Giving his assessment of the chaotic transportation machinery that he met on assumption of office, the Vice-Chancellor said, “what we met on ground, when we came was pathetic, the few functional vehicles available were at best ‘coffin-on-wheels’ and were breaking down every moment”.
The Vice-Chancellor said it delighted him that transportation was no longer part of the concerns of the University Management and that there would no longer be excuses for inability to deliver on responsibilities with the level of infrastructural development in the University.
According to him, “we are delighted that it had never been witnessed in the last three years, that students will carry placards, demonstrating for buses, water or electricity”. He then promised that as a responsive Management, “we shall do more”.
He enjoined other staffers clamouring for consideration on Project Vehicles to appreciate that “no sentiments are attached to the issue of allocation of vehicles”, but that Management prioritized, based on the need assessment.
Reacting to the development in an interview, the Acting Registrar, Mr. Adeleke Adeboye, said the situation could be better imagined if the current administration had not taken the radical steps it took on transportation.
Mr. Adeboye observed that it was a good managerial decision of the Vice-Chancellor to take the initiative, saying, “you know that from time to time, the University still engage the services of the Ogun State Bureau of Transport to complement our fleet for the students, but all that will stop soon, when we take delivery of seven brand new Luxury buses, already paid for”.
In his own reaction, the Acting Bursar, Mr. Olusola Ilesanmi, said, the procurement of the 103 vehicles had not drained the University financially as the fund was sourced from the Extra-Governmental Earnings (EGE).
Mr. Ilesanmi stressed that the Vice-Chancellor should be commended, as “he had through personal initiative, substantially widened all revenue base of the University. According to him, “the alternative would have been for the University to be experiencing handicapped operations and incurring huge bills on repairing almost dead vehicles”.
Last Updated on August 24, 2010 by admin
