When the forces of evil embark on an orchestrated campaign to undermine and rubbish the good and commendable works of a quiet achiever, they need to be educated and reminded that no matter how hard they try the forces of good will prevail and vindicate the achiever.
The Rector of Yaba College of Technology, Dr. Kudi Ladipo, the woman who has been at the forefront of a vibrant crusade to restore the well-known glory of the 65-year old institution, has been the subject of malicious vilifications, all forms of shameless falsehood, cheap blackmail and concocted stories.
This wicked campaign of calumny posted on some online news media is being sponsored by a former disgruntled Rector… whose woeful and pathetic performance as the head of the institution is well-documented and will be a ready source of materials for anyone interested in writing a book on how to mismanage an institution. On reviewing this past Rector’s disastrous tenure in Yabatech, interested authors will be delighted to discover the original definitions of maladministration, misappropriation, malpractice, misconduct, negligence and incompetence.
Since Dr. Kudi Ladipo became Rector in spite of (this former rector’s) prayers and evil machinations to block her appointment, this former Rector has not had a good sleep. In recent times, he has been working tirelessly to damage this woman’s reputation and make nonsense of her achievements, all with the aim of frustrating her and ultimately truncating her drive towards achieving the vision for technological education as enunciated in the transformation agenda of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration.
Human behaviour is inexplicable most of the time. This was the same person who enjoyed massive support and rode on the goodwill of Dr. Kudi Ladipo to become Rector and had full two terms with total co-operation from her. But he chooses to conveniently forget this, just because his preferred candidate was not appointed Rector. Therefore, for him his lifelong agenda for now is to use all means available to him to stop Yabatech from making meaningful progress. Given this type of character on display, how best can the height of iniquity be described?
And in his determined effort to realise his goal, he has recruited some…. staff members as foot soldiers. He has been using these staff to undercut their boss, giving them instructions on what to do to nail her completely. But no amount of spin will deceive Yabatech students. They know the truth. They know that their Rector has their interest at heart. They know that she has taken remarkable strides in the effort to take the institution from the depths of disrepair which her predecessor left it to magnificent heights once ascribed to the institution. She has to her credit the Epe campus of the college as well as the development of new programmes.
The second woman to have headed Yabatech so far, Dr. Kudi Ladipo today is by all accounts the most popular and the most adored Rector in the history of the college. She has managed the school well and most observers in the education sector say she is in the mould of Professor Grace Alele-Williams, the Iron Lady who was one-time Vice Chancellor of University of Benin and the first to attain that position in the history of Universities in Nigeria.
If there is a similar woman in the country’s educational system now following in the dogged but focused footsteps of Professor Alele-Williams, such a woman deserves all the encouragement and support she needs to succeed – not to deliberately manufacture mischievous distractions that will paint her in bad light in the eyes of the public just because some resentful persons want to achieve at the end of the day an end that is nothing but atrociously selfish.
Contrary to the story being pushed out by her detractors to the effect that she is working hard to abort the plans of the Federal Government to convert Yabatech to a degree-awarding institution, let it be restated here and now that this a rotten lie hatched in the horrendously fertile imagination of the inventors. Dr. Kudi Ladipo is a self-respecting, law-abiding woman who readily defers to constituted authority. She cannot and has never stood in the way of government to carry out any policy that will advance the cause of education in the country.
For the avoidance of doubt, on many occasions she had stated that she welcomes the idea of Yabatech becoming a degree-awarding institution. What she however, seems to advocate is not changing the name in any way. For instance, the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, awards degrees in multiple disciplines yet it retains its name. This is the kind of status she also canvasses for Yabatech.
It goes without saying that as the head of the first ever technology-based institution in the country, Dr. Kudi Ladipo believes strongly in science and technology as the bedrock of industrial growth and national self-sufficiency. Therefore, she lends herself to any approach aimed at deepening the content and curricula of technology education and vocational education. An exciting blueprint for the development of the nation’s technology and vocational education is embedded in the 4-year education development plan of the Jonathan administration being implemented under the leadership of another quiet achiever, Professor Ruqayyat Rufa’i, Minister of Education.
The Minister is very passionate about the technology branch of the nation’s education and is determined to work towards its expansion in the shortest possible time. Dr. Kudi Ladipo is already effectively pre-occupied with functions that would lead to achieving this noble goal. This is not a surprise, for as the saying goes, only the deep calls to the deep.
By Concerned Friends of YABATECH
