Barely six months to the end of his tenure, Prof.Felix Kolawole Salako has indisputably left his footprint monumentally on the sand of time as the Sixth (6)Substantive Vice-Chancellor of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB).
The renowned Professor of Soil Physics assumed the helmanship of the University at a time when the institution was caught in the suffocating webs of crisis of confidence that shook the citadel of higher learning to the foundation and threatened to relegate it to the dust-bin of history.
The media was not only awashed with the crisis for over a year,more devastating was the heinous effect of the unhealthy rivalry among warring factions who were seemingly not ready to sheath their swords.That was when Prof.Salako became the Vice-Chancellor of FUNAAB.
That was when the much needed peace was very elusive in the University. At the time, it was glaring that the immediate challenge of whoever assumed the saddle of FUNAAB is calming of frayed nerves ditto restoration of peace.
Two prominent Nigerians who are sons of the soil captured the mood and the needful. Therefore,it isn’t much of surprise that the duo of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Paramount Ruler and Alake of Egba-land ,
His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo,in their Goodwill Messages at the inauguration of Prof. Salako charged him to as a matter of urgency return the the university to the path of peace and development.
They reposed so much confidence in Prof Salako”s ability to restore the University and take it to greater heights based on his track record as the immediate past Deputy Vice-Chancellor(Development) among other sensitive offices he held and made a huge success’of.
Today,as Prof.Salako look forward to handing over the baton of leadership in few months time, he has carved the enviable niche of a peace maker who despite odd challenges suceeded in maintaining and sustaining relative peace on campus.
It is on record that no crisis has ever engulfed the University since his Administration came on board ,a feat that he’s always quick to attribute to the grace of God, the ingenuity of his Management’s exploration and deploration of roundtable jaw-jaw in settling issues with Unions and other stakeholders.
This is a major achievement of Prof. Salako Administration because without peace and tranquility, catalogue of progress and development that I will be pin-pointing here in my subsequent posts wouldn’t have been achieved.