TRIBUTE: Adieu, my motivator, Prof. Ambali
By Oladimeji Akeem Bolarinwa
It was 2013 and I was just a middle-level career Lecturer 1 at the University of Ilorin.
My journey started in 2012 when Emeritus Prof. Oloyede’s Administration selected best hands and supported the Centre for Research, Development and In-House Training (CREDIT), University of Ilorin, to provide strong technical support to academic staff research grants applications.
I was lucky to key into this vision. I had a proposal pre-wrtten for another purpose and when the TETFund NRF application call came, I packaged my proposal and submitted while receiving huge support from the CREDIT, headed by Prof. Adenike Oladiji (now VC FUTA).
At that time, I only wanted to fulfill all righteousness and prove wrong the rumours that only the “anointed” staff are granted such an opportunity.
After a few months, the announcement for the TETFund NRF was made and out of the nine awards awarded in the country for the year, UNILORIN won five!. And my application was one of the them!!!
UNILORIN was showered with encomiums and the Vice Chancellor was invited to receive the awards on behalf of the five of us. By this time, Prof Ambali was the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin.
Another interesting part was that, I was the youngest (both in age and in cadre) of the five UNILORIN grant awardees. The other four were in professorial cadre while I was a Lecturer 1 waiting for promotion to Senior Lecturer cadre.
Then in the late 2014, while I was in Malaysia studying for Ph.D. in Health System Management, I received a strange call from someone claiming to be from UNILORIN VC and asking for the data page of my Nigerian Passport. Initially, I ignored it for a fear of being scammed. Later, I got an official correspondence from the Vice Chancellor’s Office stating that I (together with the other four grant winners) have been selected to be part of the Vice Chancellor’s travel team to Alabama and Winsconsin USA to strengthen research collaborations with US institutions.
In January 2015, I found myself amongst the high level UNILORIN Management members and other very senior awardees of TETFund NRF in the USA (for the first time) sharing ideas and learning.
I still wonder till date how on earth did Prof. Ambali think of honouring us this way and whether he knew at the time how impactful his decision would have on me.
The experience of the journey itself was another story, but the summary was that I saw a humble and visionary leader with an epitome of humanity. This rubbed off on me so much!
Till date, that singular vision of Emeritus Professor Oloyede administration and the reward system of Prof. Ambali administation motivated me to believe that our system can still be fair to all, and that the reward of doing things rightly still have a place in our system.
Tilll date, I am still basking in the euphoria of a young academic staff receiving such an honour from a University management. And it forms the drive for my research grants seeking journey till date.
May the Almighty Allah grant Prof Ambali the best place in Aljanat!
Oladimeji Akeem Bolarinwa, a Professor of Epidemiology ad Public Health, is theDirector of IMRAT. University of Ilorin.
