Unilesa grants Catholic Community’s request to build worship centre on campus
Professor Taiwo Olufemi Asaolu,
vice chancellor of the University of Ilesa, has granted the request of the
Osogbo Catholic Diocese to build a multi-million naira befitting worship centre
at the university’s campus.
The approval was given today when
Most Reverend John Akinkunmi Oyejola, Catholic Bishop of Osogbo Diocese, paid a
courtesy call on the vice chancellor and his management team.
Asaolu stated that the granting
of the request is part of the university’s plan to have a multi denominational
worship centres on campus as soon as possible.
Oyejola, in his opening remark
during a reception organized to honour him and his team of reverend fathers and
sister, had earlier requested for a piece of land from the vice chancellor.
He said the church is willing to
partner with the university community to ensure rapid growth of the institution.
Oyejola added that the Diocese
will always pray for the success of the university’s administration and the
wellbeing of the students.
Asaolu in his response, intimated
the Bishop and his entourage some of his administration’s achievements in less
than one year of his assumption of office
Some of these, according to him,
include the approval of the National Universities Commission (NUC) to run
thirty two (32) programmes including Nursing Sciences, Medical Laboratory
Science, Anatomy, Physiology, Public Health, Computer Science, Accounting,
Business Administration, Cybersecurity, Transport and Logistics Management,
Law, Education programmes among others. ‘’Our pioneer students resumed in
November and were matriculated on 12th December, 2023, while academic activities
for the 2023/2024 are ongoing,’’ he said.
In terms of physical development, Asaolu said ‘’it is pleasing to note that the university management, under my leadership, made remarkable progress. Through the support of the State Government and the Governing Council, we were able to put in place many projects in our effort to upgrade some of the facilities inherited from the defunct Osun State College of Education, Ilesa to university standards.
According to him, some dilapidated buildings were renovated and turned to good buildings for the faculty buildings; some abandoned buildings were renovated, restructured and converted to students’ hostels, the university library, the ICT centre, security unit, lecture halls, public toilets, sports centre and staff offices were all given immediate attention.
The hitherto dirty and unkempt
environment inherited from the erstwhile College of Education, he said, was
also given a facelift and the university environment is now wearing a good
look. ‘’All these contributed to the successes we recorded during the NUC
resource verification and the resource verification of the Council of Nurses
and Midwifes of Nigeria,’’ he said.
In terms of staff development, Asaolu
said the university has conducted many training programmes for its staff to
develop their capacities for effective service delivery in many areas such as university
administration, leadership, level advisors, teaching and learning software, training
of security personnel among others. As I am addressing you, 10 staff of the university
are currently in UNILAG for a training on entrepreneurship programme,’’ he
said.
Asaolu also reiterated that
funding of the university had so far come from the state government under the
leadership of His Excellency, Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, executive
governor of Osun State.
‘’I need to also state that we received donation of 150 mattresses from the staff of the University, donation of books from ICAN, donation of toilet buildings from OYOCO 86 and donation of books from the national library,’’ he said.
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