GIANT STRIDES BY PROFESSOR FELIX KOLAWOLE SALAKO
By: Phenomenal Azeeza & Ableman.
Like biblical Moses who came when the future of the people of Israel was bleaked and the existence of Israel nation was on the path of extinction Professor Felix Kolawole emerged at a time of academic, administrative and infrastructural chaos. He came in as the choice of the consensus of well-meaning academicians in the university.
The academic calendar has been jeopardized by incessant strikes coupled with student unrest that resulted in the closure of the school for several weeks. There was the issue of trust among the managerial participants especially the Senior Staff Association of the Nigerian University (SSANU FUNAAB CHAPTER) members as well as other different Unions in the institution.
The dearth of Infrastructure in the school campus prompted one of the students of the university to pen a blunt but constructive letter to the person of Vice-Chancellor.
Instead of the Vice-Chancellor take a rude decision concerning the open letter he invited the student writer and showed him the foundation of the projects he was embarking on. Those projects numbered more than fifteen commenced simultaneously.
A few weeks ago, Campus Radar, a student media platform carried on an assessment tour of the projects constructed after the inauguration of Vice-Chancellor Professor Felix Kolawole Salako.
In the quest to explore the intellectual wizardry of the university academicians during Senate meetings, the university management embarked on building a new Senate Building complex that appears to be named Senate Building Phase 11 which is however located behind the main senate building. The project Extension of the Senate Building Chamber complex that is located a few meters away from the university’s library is under rapid construction with a lot of mouth-watering features boozing out of it.
The main Senate Building complex is designed to only contain a certain number of lecturers during the general Senate meetings. Now with the well-deserved promotion of several lecturers to professors, it is understandable that the complex cannot contain the number of Professors the institution now boast of hence there was a need to build a new complex to accommodate the erudite scholars into the system.
The Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Professor Salako spent most of his first year in the office running into his second year in Abuja, negotiating and mobilising for the quick interventions of Federal Govt agencies to arrest the infrastructural decadence on Campus and fast track the construction and completion of new projects in a record time.
There are more than fifteen amazing projects undergoing construction.
Many of the projects have been completed but yet to be commissioned while the rest of the projects are undergoing completion.
The projects are as follows:
NEEDS ASSESSMENT 2013/ COPLANT PHASE II;
Needs Assessment 2013 is sited very close to the College of Plant Science. It hosts a spacious and comfortable hall of lecture, well-ventilated office rooms and well-tiled floors.
AGRICULTURE FARM INCUBATION CENTRE: In front of Coplant Phase 11 is a new beautiful building with its own big Mikano Electricity Generator. Glancing through the designer board we discovered that the new building will be known as AGRICULTURE FARM INCUBATION CENTRE. The centre as we suspect will be a research house for the production of highly productive eggs.
AGRICULTURE FARM LABORATORY COMPLEX :
Another wonderful news is the construction newly completed Agricultural Farm Laboratory Complex. A good structure building with a touch of an architectural masterpiece. It is well furnished with all modern laboratory tools and materials.
However, it houses a well- functioned Mikano generator. Its street is beautified with solar light and a well-tilted walkway.
To make life sweeter in the similitude of that of an eagle in the sky for the College of Animal… student, the university crafted out a multi-million naira project. This building occupies vast areas of land and it is also very tall.
The COLANIM PHASE II is located behind the famous JAO lecture theatre. It also has a mini electric transformer however, it is yet to be completed.
Behind the College of Environmental Resources Management is a beautiful but not too big building which is under construction. COLERM has two buildings already so the ongoing construction is under speculation if it belongs to the College of Environmental Resources Management
The Yakubu Mahmoud Hall was also plastered with new paint to make it look beautiful and serene
A new 250 capacity lecture hall has also been constructed at the back of the ceremonial building a few meters away from the College of Management Science building.
Meanwhile, there’s the repair of lost or broken chairs inside the JAO theatre halls to meet the yearnings of the students when the physical classes resume.
Within the vicinity of the Ceremonial Building is another magnificent building constructed for the College of Physical Science which will probably be known as COLPHYS PHASE 11 while there also another beautiful theatre hall whose name and seating capacity is yet to be known. It looks quite amazingly beautiful.
There are five completed COMFORT ZONES constructed by Prof Salako administration.
One is located around the ceremonial building, one at Student Union Building (Area) one at Car Park and the other two are sited within the Campus.
The amazing thing is that in the past few years the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB) was established not many projects have been embarked upon within the space of five years and remained completed until the reign of Professor Felix Kolawole Salako. He embarked on more than fifteen projects and within the space of three years, most of the projects have been completed while the remaining projects remain on their completion. The lawn has now been married with merciful construction activities, especially during the period of lockdown and the ten-month-old strike.
Prof Salako also has a flesh for collaborative leadership. He has been able to work with all the Unions leaderships in the university through a harmonious and respectful relationship while also not hesitate to rapidly promote well-deserved lecturers to their height of academic excellence
All these and others are what the Campus Radar Media thought it wise to bring to the notice of fellow funaabites and non – funaabites because when we see progressive leadership it is quite honourable and dignifying to appraise it as much as we’ll like to criticise and critique them if such performance goes red now that we are swimming in the blue sea of merciful infrastructural development.
