INTRODUCTION
The Directorate of Corporate Affairs is a Unit under the Vice-Chancellor’s Office and the Public Relations arm of the University administration through whose activities the University has continued to maintain a robust media visibility. It is as old as the University itself, having been established few years after the inception of the University. It commenced operation as Information Unit of the Registry in 1978 under the headship of an Assistant Registrar, Mr. Ayanda Fajenyo. It was, however, moved to the Vice-Chancellor’s Office as a full-fledged Directorate during the Vice-Chancellorship of Prof. Shuaib Oba AbdulRaheem in 1999. The pioneer Head of the Directorate is Dr. Isiaka Aliagan, who was Deputy Director. He took over from late Mr. J.O. Orinya, who was acting when the then Principal Information Officer, Mr. Fajenyo, was transferred to the Postgraduate School as Secretary.
When Dr. Aliagan left in 2008, the headship mantle of the Directorate then fell on Dr. Mahfouz Adedimeji, who was pulled from the Department of English to become the Deputy Director and Head of the Directorate, which had just been upgraded from Information to Corporate Affairs with the upgrading of its functions to include the whole gamut of information and communication. Dr. Adedimeji returned to his primary assignment as an academic in May 2012 with the employment of Mr. Kunle Akogun, a consummate professional journalist and media manager to head the Directorate in the capacity of Deputy Director. Following the satisfactory performance of his duties, Mr. Akogun was promoted Director in 2018, thus becoming the first substantive Director in the history of the Directorate.
ACTIVITIES
The Directorate of Corporate Affairs is composed of three sub-units: the Public Affairs Unit; the Unilorin FM Radio Unit; and the Protocol Unit. By dint of sustained professional excellence, the Directorate has continued to deliver on its statutory mandate of managing the corporate communication of the University. Being an essential service provider to the University community, the Directorate was open throughout the period of COVID-19-imposed nationwide lockdown, carrying out its normal activities of production of the weekly UNILORIN BULLETIN and media relations. The Unilorin FM too was on air throughout the period.
In carrying out its mandate, the Directorate engages in several media activities that have continued to ensure unprecedented positive media visibility for the University. Among the various media activities carried out by the Directorate are: issuance of media contents including newsworthy items and publications, exclusive news placements and editorial control of sensitive reports, hosting of timely and regular Vice-Chancellor’s press briefings, social media engagements and production of specialized publications. Apart from constantly keeping the University positively fresh in the minds of members of the external publics, the Directorate also publishes a weekly news bulletin, the UNILORIN BULLETIN, to serve the regular information needs of the University’s internal publics, i.e. the staff, students and other members of the University community. The BULLETIN‘s usefulness has gone beyond the immediate University environment, as people in faraway places also savour its rich editorial content and high production quality. This is understandably due to the wide circulation of the journal’s e-edition every Monday. Other publications of the Directorate include the UNILORIN STAR, an annual publication, and the UNILORIN SENATE DIGEST, an occasional publication highlighting major decisions reached at the periodic meetings of the University Senate.
UNILORIN FM
The UNILORIN 89.3FM radio station, which is also under the supervision of the Directorate, has also been doing very well. The radio station has continued to maintain its leadership position in the Community Radio sector in and around Kwara State. The multiple award-winning radio station has also continued to complement the public communication component of the community service mandate of the University. I t i s g r a t i f y i n g t o n o t e t h a t a n e w s e t o f e q u i p m e n t w a s r e c e n t l y purchased for the radio station to replace the obsolete transmitter and console, which have been in use since the past 10 years. This will go a long way in normalizing our hours of transmission, which was drastically cut down in August 2018 following the destruction of the studio by thunderstorm.
SUPPORTING SERVICES The Directorate also provides secretarial support services to several critical University Committees. These include: the Ceremonials Committee, which handles all important ceremonies of the University, including the Convocation ceremony, among others; and the Library and Publications Committee which regulates publications of academic staff and handles the publication of Centrepoint, an academic journal of the University.