AFE BABALOLA UNIVERSITY ADO-EKITI (ABUAD) GETS SUBSTANTIVE VICE CHANCELLOR
The Governing Council of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti has announced the appointment of Professor Elisabeta Smaranda Olarinde FCArb, FCAI as the third substantive Vice Chancellor of the 12-year-old which was recently ranked by the highly respected UK-based Times Higher Education Impact Rankings as the Best University out of the 197 universities in Nigeria and one of the best 400 in the world.
Until her elevation, Prof. Olarinde has been the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University since June 21, 2019 when the second substantive Vice Chancellor, Prof. M. O. Ajisafe, bowed out of office.
Prof. Olarinde enjoys the dual accolade of being the pioneer Provost of the best University’s College of Law, acknowledged by the NUC as the “Best College of Law in West Africa” and the pioneer Deputy Vice-Chancellor Administration and the Vice-Chancellor of ABUAD.
Meanwhile, the University community has hailed her appointment as most deserving given the visibility and sterling accomplishments witnessed since her appointment in acting capacity over two years ago. She has been receiving congratulatory and goodwill messages since her appointment was approved by the Founder/Chancellor.
The Provost of the College of Medicine & Health Sciences, Prof. Olaofe Ogundipe, his peers in the College Law (Prof. Tunde Yebisi), College of Postgraduate Studies (Prof. Abdulwahab Giwa), College of Pharmacy (Prof. Mbang Femi-Oyewo) and College of Sciences, (Prof. Oluwaseyi Adeyemo) have since paid her congratulatory visits with others lined for the coming days.
Many of Prof. Olarinde’s colleagues attested to her dynamisms, knack for hard work, attention to details, discipline and extreme sense of justice as some of the sterling attributes which have endeared her to a wide spectrum of people since she assumed duty in the University.
They further stressed that, “Professor Olarinde is a first-rate University administrator with superb sense of detail who has been able to steer the ship of the university because of her motherly instils and her passionate devotion to the ABUAD ideals”.
With outstanding accomplishments and unprecedented visibility which the university enjoyed during Prof. Olarinde’s tenure in an Acting capacity, many of the colleagues of this rare team player maintained that her best is yet to be seen.
Her track record has been made possible by the exceptional support of the Chancellor & Founder, Aare Afe Emmanuel Babalola, OFR, CON, SAN, FCI.Arb, FNAILS, LL. D (London), LL. D (UNILAG), LL. D (UNIJOS), LL. D, (UNAD), D. Lit (NDA) and the entire Management Team, staff and students all of whom she maintains “remain her motivation in office”.
Her letter of appointment signed by the Registrar & Secretary to the ABUAD Governing Council reads in part, “the appointment which takes effect from Monday 20 June 2022 is for a period of five years in the first instance and may be renewed subject to satisfactory performance”.
The brand-new Vice Chancellor has since resume duties.