By Noami Omoruyi
The Ajayi Crowther phenomenon
Vice-Chancellor of the Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, Prof. Dapo Asaju is a game-changer of some sort. He is working quietly, making a noiseless impact. He is also changing the paradigm and creating new templates in places where he worked.
In the last two decades or thereabout, Asaju has made himself available to the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, helping the church with some of its institutions.
Incidentally, the two institutions: ACU and Crowther Graduate School of Theology were named after Bishop Ajayi Crowther; the man God used mightily to propagate the gospel in Nigeria. Many people don’t know that apart from translating the Bible to Yoruba, Crowther was also instrumental in translating the Bible to the Igbo language.
Beyond that, Crowther literally traversed the landscape of Nigeria taking the gospel to nooks and crannies of the country. So, the two institutions that Asaju supervised in the last 11 years or so are authentic emblems of the Church of Nigeria.
A Bishop Theologian, Asaju gave a historical account of how he became the provost of the theological school in a recent interview with Advent Cable News network. He said he was sent to the college by the former Primate of the Church, The Most Revd. Peter Akinola.
The assignment for him was a journey of faith because the school had to be built from ground zero.
He said the institution was built by the grace of God, through his labour and that of his wife adding however that “There was subvention from the primate office but the subvention was not enough to run the school”
God gave him the wisdom to make do with the little he had which enabled him to build the institution to an enviable standard, first as Bible school, a language school and eventually, a postgraduate arm up to the PhD level.
In no time, the school became a top-class institution. Before he left, the college had about 23 professors as lecturers. They also had professors from Cambridge University, Oxford University, Moore University, Australia. Many professors who are Anglicans from various Nigerian universities like Jos, Calabar, Nsukka were also all coming to teach there.
The college turned out to be the best theological institution in Nigeria according to Asaju who was a one-time Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academics of the Lagos State University and one time Chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities of the same university.
He said, “People came from all over to study there including pastors from Pentecostal and Charismatic churches apart from those in the orthodox churches.”
Dapo Asaju: From Crowther Graduate School to ACU
He, however, had to move. But then, a lot of drama characterised his movement from the theological school to the university.
Giving insight on how he got to ACU, he said, “In 2010, there was a vacancy in the office of the Vice-Chancellor at the university. The then Bishop of the Diocese of Lagos West, The Rt. Rev Peter Adebiyi asked him to move to the university. He declined, because The Most Revd. Peter Akinola, who consecrated him had told him to remain in the theological school for five years before going anywhere else.
Although Akinola was no longer in office as the primate as at the time he was being asked to come over to ACU. It was difficult for Asaju to fall into the temptation of running against a laid down instruction despite the allure of the VC office. Attempts to convince Asaju to accept the offer failed.
Five years after in 2015 exactly, the position for the vice-chancellor of ACU was vacant again. He was invited to take to occupy the post. Though he declined again, he could not hold onto his stance because his five-year mandate in the Crowther Graduate School had expired.
He accepted the offer reluctantly. When he got to the University, he discovered that the school needed many repairs though the owners of the university had done all they could.
Just like what he experienced in the theological school there was no sufficient funding from the stakeholders of the university. The Anglican churches connected to the school only make contributions to the school once in a year. The money he got was hardly able to pay a month’s staff salary. But he was able to manage the resources at his disposal.
Prof. Dapo Asaju: A total of 100 buildings have been constructed so far.
The good news is that in the four years and ten months of his tenure as the university’s vice-chancellor, the roads on the campus have been tarred, streetlights installed. A total of 100 buildings have been constructed so far.
There were only four faculties prior to his administration. Now, they have 13 faculties running. There was only one campus, now, there are about four campuses. They now have seven guest houses from none.
He said, “The University is now top flight and top-rated in terms of its academic output.”
Asaju notes further, that “the university system runs effectively and there is a very high level of discipline. It looks like you are abroad if you’re on campus.”
Now, the university can boast of over 600 staff with a wage bill of over N72million monthly. “We have never owed salaries. The university has started postgraduate studies running up to the PhD level for most of the programmes which we have never had before.”
He said inaugural lectures never held in the university prior to his administration, “now 17 professors have been appointed and have delivered inaugural lectures. They have also started the HND conversion programme and have affiliated most of the Anglican theological colleges with the university. Some colleges apart from theological schools are affiliated to the university.
“So we have more students from outside doing part-time programmes than even those inside. All programmes now have full accreditation which cost over N500million. By the grace of God we are comfortable now” he said.
How did he manage to do all these with lean resources, he says, “We never gave contracts to anyone, we went by direct labour executing every project. I call the lecturers especially HODs in the engineering departments to supervise the aspects of the development related to them as part of their work. The architecture department supervised according to their work as well. That was how we were able to save funds.”
Last year, the school produced 42 first-class graduates. Asaju was however confident to say just like the Biblical Samuel that he had not taken advantage of the system to enrich himself. “Apart from my salary, I have not gained kobo. I have never indulged in corruption or any such thing.” He said.
Church Times Findings
From Church Times’ findings, the schools have also survived through donations of well-meaning individuals. Some of the structures were built by prominent Nigerians including people like Theophilus Danjuma, Mrs. Folorunso Alakija, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) and a host of others. The stakeholder dioceses as stated by Bishop Asaju also have been doing their best even though it turned out that the funds have not been enough.
Asaju had confessed in an interview with Church Times three years ago that running a university is not a tea party while trying to justify the school fees of ACU.
His words, “I have since found out that if you are running a university you are not on your own. You are under NUC and NUC regulates the kind of staff you must have. Unless you have a large number of students it will be difficult to pay the salary of staff. Here our wage bill is about N56 million yet, we don’t get subvention from the Church. The fees we charge in ACU are the lowest in all private universities in Nigeria and we have been charging that amount since 2011. The unique thing about our charges is that we allow parents to pay in three instalments. If we are to charge cheaper fees we need to get somebody to pay the subsidy or we close shop.
He reasoned then that ACU had its good days and had its bad days. But the fundamental problem is that we are still asking for more commitment to the school from all the stakeholders.