Prof. Funsho Olorunfemi, former commissioner in the then Ondo State and currently a lecturer at the University of Ilorin, tells ‘NONYE BEN-NWANKWO about his life and career
Geography wasn’t a popular course during your days, why did you decide to study it?
When I was in secondary school, I spent a lot of my money buying books on chemistry and biology. But I wasn’t spending money on Geography books. When results came out, I would pass Geography very well. I would still pass chemistry and biology but I wasn’t top in the class. I then asked myself, if Sunny Ade could be playing guitar and is being paid so much money, why shouldn’t I study a course I would pass with ease? That was why I just decided to go for Geography. The subject was a lot easier for me to pass. I hardly bought books on it yet I would still pass it with ease. I understood the subject fundamentally.
My parents had no formal education at all. What was important to them was for their son to go to the university. I didn’t get any counselling at all from anybody. I took the decision myself, nobody convinced me to study Geography.
Weren’t you interested in doing a professional course like Medicine or Law or Engineering?
Science was the most important thing they emphasised on in my place. My aunt that I grew up with in Ilesha (Osun State) encouraged me to study French. I had a classmate in secondary school who understood French very well. I went to him and begged him to be kind enough to teach me French. We had one or two appointments but he failed to show up. Pounded yam is my best food but if you make too much shakara about giving it to me, I would leave it and go and soak garri to drink. My classmate wasn’t too welcoming about teaching me the French, so I had to abandon it. I made up my mind that whatever I chose to do, I must do it well and excel. Everybody has an endowment. It is for you to see how you can maximise that talent in you.
But was it also your ambition to be a teacher?
In truth, when I went to the University of Ibadan where I had my first degree, it was there I made up my mind to be a lecturer. Even when the pay was bad, I still wanted to be a lecturer. In the early 80s when I joined the services of the University of Ibadan, I had a good friend who was also a friend to the then governor, he asked me what I wanted and I told him I wasn’t going to leave the teaching profession. Even if I was paid one kobo per month, I would still teach. It is my choice. I chose to lecture. When I finished school in 1975, there were many opportunities. But I was interested in research. I went to the Ministry of Education and got appointment as Education Officer 2. From there, I saw advertisement at the University of Ilorin and I got a job. So far, I have not had any regret.
But there was a time you were a commissioner in your state, why did you leave the teaching profession to become a commissioner?
I have had the opportunity of leaving the university not less than five different times. I went on sabbatical leave at the National Population Commission some time in 1988/89. Thereafter, I went in as a commissioner in 1991. To the surprise of many people, I never knew the Military Administrator of Ekiti State (then Ondo State). I met him February 2, 1991. By February 18, 1991, I was made a commissioner.
How did it happen?
Most people don’t believe it when I tell them I never knew the man before. When I met him, he was convinced I could do the job. I was introduced to him by somebody at the Dodan Barracks. When I was in NPC, I gave information concerning census. The guy was impressed. I always make honest contribution in any assignment I am given. So he sent me a note to meet the governor. The governor asked me if I wanted to become chairman of a company, commissioner or director-general. I told him I was okay with anything. He said I should make my priority. I now said commissioner, DG or chairman, in that order. The governor said okay. He told me to come on a certain day. He said I shouldn’t tell anybody, otherwise they would begin to lobby and may displace me. So I told my wife and we went to see him. When I was the commissioner, if I took any document to him, he would sign without excuses. He had so much confidence and trust in me. I was the only commissioner he appointed; he inherited the other ones from his predecessors.
The next time I left the university, I went to the National Employers Consultative Association in Lagos. I ended up writing a book for the association. This year, they have come to me again as a consultant to write another book for them now that the association is going to be 60 years.
I left NECA and I went to National Space Research and Development Agency. I didn’t know the DG then, Prof. Boroffice, who is now a senator, took note of my objective criticisms. He posted me to the National Centre for Remote Sensing in Jos as Director and Chief Executive Officer, during which I performed excellently well. My area of specialisation in Geography is the use of satellite in imagery in the conduct of census.
Also, I went to the Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys in Ife. It was as if I shouldn’t leave after. There is no place I have done my sabbatical without controversy. Whenever it was time to leave, they wouldn’t want me to.
When you are on sabbatical, you are expected to go back to school after a year. When I was in National Space Research and Development Agency, the then minister of science and technology wrote my vice chancellor to seek his permission so I would be able to go to Jos and reorganise the centre.
How was it being a commissioner during the military era?
I must confess I enjoyed it. For things to be effective, you only need a visionary leader. Then, just five persons could govern Ekiti State perfectly. But things have changed. I was in charge of Lands at a time and some people were fighting over a land. I called them to my office. There was a particular woman who was gorgeously dressed. I told the woman to stand up and I asked the people there if they didn’t admire the woman and the way she looked. All of them said they admired her. I told them we just wanted to give Akure a facelift. Akure was in tatters. It wasn’t befitting of a state capital. It is a practical way of relating with people. I told them there was no need fighting over land. There was a time two important personalities were fighting over a plot of land in the state. The governor told me I should go and resolve the matter. When I resolved it, the governor was impressed. He asked me how I was able to do that. I told him I just drove to one of the big men’s house in Ibadan. I saw the man, I prostrated and I greeted him. He asked me who I was and I told him. He was shocked. He said he was baffled a commissioner could greet him that way. He said he would do whatever I wanted him to do for me. That was how I got the plot of land from him. There was no fight again. You must be ready to live up to expectation and do what is right. As a commissioner, the governor gave me free hand. He believed in me. He knew I had integrity, which is important. I was so transparent in my dealings.
We learnt you became a professor when you were in your 40s…
I became a professor in 1998. I was born in 1952. I got my PhD before I was 30. I was 24 when I got my first degree. I got my PhD when I was 28. I became a senior lecturer when I was 31. But the problem started then. People were wondering how I was so fast. They knew I could become a professor at 40, so they started criticising me. I was delayed from 1983 and I was never promoted until 1999. Even when I was qualified to become a Reader (associate professor) in 1987, it didn’t happen.
Do you feel bad about that?
If I had given my inaugural lecture in 1991 when I should have become a professor, I would have written on something else. But God in His mercies and wisdom knows how He works. I gave my lecture in 2001 titled, Better by Far and today, that slogan is monumental. It is written on the big gate at the entrance of the University of Ilorin. The petrol station of the university is Better by Far. The Radio station is Better by Far. Everything is Better by Far and I am acknowledged for it. When I am passing, students and lecturers would be hailing me and calling me Better by Far as if I am a politician. Nothing could be more glorious. That is why I do not have any grudge against those who were involved in the delay of my promotion.
Most commissioners these days use their portfolios to make money, don’t you wish it was so in your own time?
I don’t have any regret about that at all. I never acquired anything. As at that time, my allowance per month was N2, 000. I would give it to my secretary and we would use it to buy fuel for the car. In all honesty and sincerity, if you work and you are happy with the allowances they give you when you are in public office, the perks of the office should be good enough for you. How many houses would you want to live in at a time? You cannot sleep in more than one room at a time. I prayed to God to give me two houses and He did. I have a house in the village. It may not be the modern standard but I live there and I am okay. I have another one where I work. It may not be a fantastic standard but I am happy. I have no regrets that I didn’t accumulate wealth when I was a commissioner. It was service. To me, it is madness if you sleep in more than a room a day. My salary is okay. We may be complaining but it is better than before. If I didn’t leave when I was earning N5, 000 per month, I wouldn’t leave now. I started with N500 per month and the money was very useful. I would buy bread of N5 and I would still keep some in the fridge. But it is not the same today.
Don’t you feel bad that with your competence and qualification, you have yet to be appointed as the VC of any university?
I applied to be Vice Chancellor, somehow politics was involved and I was not selected. But at 63, all my children are graduates and married. What else am I looking for? I know and even my university knows that in terms of integrity, competence and all that, I am due to be a VC. In Nigeria, what works is ‘who you know’ and not ‘what you know.’ I don’t feel bad because I know if it were based on competence, I am qualified. I was interviewed at the Ado Ekiti University and I was found to be the best but I wasn’t given. At a university in Ondo, I was interviewed and I came first among those of us that were interviewed. Surprisingly, I wasn’t given. But I am satisfied and I am happy with myself. I am still looking forward to becoming one. They have changed our retirement age to 70. I still have several years ahead of me so I can still become one if God permits.
So will you still be teaching in the next seven years?
I hope to be teaching still if I don’t take early retirement. At no point will I say I regret teaching. I am not a typical teacher. I make my students my friends so they would be interested in listening to me. I encourage them not to see me as somebody who is far from them. I tell them to be free to ask me questions. The purpose of my coming to class is to give them knowledge. I make it mandatory to take attendance in every class I teach. The students must attend at least 75 per cent of my class before they can write the exam. I say this in such a way they would know it is in their interest. I still enjoy going to class. I quarrel with my colleagues who don’t go to class. Even when I go, I have to go with an assistant lecturer who understudies me and occasionally, I ask him to teach the class. I do this so that when we retire, we would be happy that we have mentored so many people.
Female students are always complaining of sexual harassment, do you think their complaints are usually false?
It is very correct. It happens. I arranged a micro recorder when a lady complained to me that a lecturer was harassing her. She was able to get the recording and she gave it to me and I listened to it. I called the lecturer and I told him he would never make progress in the university if he continued that way. I corrected him. I hate sexual harassment. Any emotional relationship should not be by force, it should be mutual.
In all these years of your career, have you had an experience where a female student offered you sex in exchange for high marks?
I cannot lie, it has happened. But I stood my ground. I am a radical person. Just recently, a female student came to my office and said she hadn’t been coming to class. She asked me what she could do. I told her she should make sure she attended subsequent classes. I told her if at the end of the semester, she was able to meet up with the 75 per cent attendance mark, then she would write the exam. I was a student and I was even radical but I never missed a day of my classes. The time I would miss a class would be if the student union government said we were demonstrating. I wouldn’t go to class; I would even join those who would go and disrupt classes.
Don’t you think your radicalism would have cost you your growth in your career?
It is so. But then, you have to make sacrifices. You must live for something. I don’t fall for anything. I must be convinced. The radicalism really affected my promotion, I must confess. But I am happy my promotion was delayed. It has allowed me to forget it. Even though I am the oldest professor in my faculty, I have never been made the dean of the faculty. When it comes to voting, they would say if I get there, I would do this and that and as such, they would not vote for me. We are even problems to ourselves. You are doing plagiarism, copying somebody else’s work and you say I shouldn’t expose you; I will certainly expose you. You award marks arbitrarily and you say I shouldn’t expose you; I will expose you. I stand for fairness.
You should still miss your wife since she died last year…
I still miss her a lot. We finished from the same secondary school. We were class mates. We came from the same village. We knew each other as school mates, later on as friends and later on as lovers. We got married and stayed married for 38 years. Of course I still miss her. It was difficult for me to accept that she died. I still cry occasionally. She died on June 5, 2014.
How was growing up?
Growing up was very good. My parents could afford to send me to school. We weren’t many. I was the only surviving child of my mother. My father married another wife who had other children for him. But by the time the kids were growing up, I was already in secondary school. I had no competition. Luckily as well, I had scholarships. After my HSC, my parents didn’t have to pay for my fees again. I got several scholarships. There was a time I was suspended from my secondary school for a week.
Why?
The teacher cheated me and I wasn’t happy, so I told my father. I didn’t start my radicalism today. One day in the dining hall, I was at the pavement and an announcement was being made and I could hear the announcement. But the teacher got annoyed and asked why I should be standing there instead of sitting in the dining. He punished me. I told him I didn’t agree with him. I showed him the people who were in the classroom and I told him he must also catch those people and punish them as well. I could hear what he was saying but those people couldn’t hear, so why should he punish me. I saw it as cheating. I told my father and he agreed with me.
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