Varsity promoters sure of quality guidance, mentoring from UI

The Presiding Bishop Of Sword of Spirit Ministry and the Promoter of the Precious Cornerstone University, PCU, Bishop Wale Oke, has told the management of the University of Ibadan, that he is confident that the institution can provide the newly-licensed institution, the necessary quality guidance and mentoring that it needs to succeed.

The cleric made the remark, yesterday when he led members of PCU’s management team to UI, who have been selected as the mentors of the university, located in Ibadan, Oyo State capital.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Olayinka, however, warned that new universities that refuse to heed to the NUC’S directives to avail themselves of mentoring from existing Universities, would only run a trial and error exercise.

Bishop Oke said members of PCU’S management were excited when UI was selected as their mentor. He described the institution as the social responsibility arm of the church, pointing out that UI was a trusted and capable hand and has the capability to help the new institution become world class in line with the vision of the church.

“We are very glad that the premier university in Nigeria is the one to mentor us. They have the resources, the capacity and the experience that we can offer and tap into and we will tap into it maximally.

“Our expectation is that UI will give us matured guidance, they will be involved in the governing council meeting and the appointment of principal officers and genuine governance of the university according to the directives of the Nigeria Universities Commission, NUC. Our vision is to have a world-class university and one of the criteria for that is good governance of the university.

He continues: “The church will not get involved in the governance, we will just provide the vision, the direction, and the resources. We will leave the governance in the hands of the qualified and competent professionals who know how to govern a university.

“That is one of the areas in which, we shall rely on the competence and wealth of experience of UI to ensure the stability in governance and that PCU is governed according to world class standard to get a world class result”,

Responding, Prof. Idowu Olayinka has warned that newly licensed institutions that failed to take mentoring from older institutions are likely to run a trial and error basis and reinvent the wheel negatively.

The UI VC, while lauding the visitors for heeding the directive of the National University Commission (NUC) to allow the UI mentor the PCU noted, that the UI has all that it takes, to guide the new institution aright and help it avoid the challenges and obstacles it had summoned in time past.

His words” “We are fully disposed to being the mentor of the newly established Precious Cornerstone University. It is our greatest pleasure to be the mentor of the university because, we know the university has a lot of potentials and we are prepared to assist them in every way possible either, in the human capacity building, governance or in other capacities.

“Some institutions have failed to make themselves available for
mentoring as directed by the NUC but such institutions would only be running on trial and error basis because UI has the experience of 70 years behind it.

”We have made mistakes and we have also made a lot of achievements over the years. So, the idea is for us to be able to leverage on the advantages and the achievements that we have recorded over the last 70 years and there is no point reinventing the wheel.

“For the Precious Cornerstone University, we will let them know the good practices and the bad practices as well because we are not expected to dictate to them as that is not the intention of the National University Commission when they directed that we should be their mentors. It is just to assist them. The directive does not make the newly founded institution a subsidiary to us, but I think the PCU has started on a very good note.”

On the entourage of Bishop Oke, who doubles as the promoter of the newly licensed institution was his wife, Dr. Victoria Oke, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Gen. Oladayo Popoola (retired), the institution Pro-Chancellor and Chairman Governing Council, Dr. Bayo Adegoke, Chairman, Strategic Implementation Committee, Prof. Timothy Adejumo and other management staff.