By Abubakar Imam
Last Friday (April 28, 2023), the University of Ilorin, the nation’s most sought-after University, recorded another monumental milestone in its eventful history. The main campus of the institution was agog with pomp and pageantry as staff members and students of the University as well as some members of the public trooped out in their numbers to usher the institution’s new Registrar, Mr Mansur Adeleke Alfanla, into his office.
The reception accorded Mr Alfanla was hugely unprecedented in the annals of the University, particularly as it has to do with the assumptions of duties of its successive Registrars. The new Registrar is the 7th holder of the position at the University that was established by the administration of the nation’s fourth Head of State, General Murtala Ramat Mohammed, in October, 1975.
He takes the position previously held and at various times by Dr Folaranmi Modupe Olowoleni(2018-2023),Mr Emmanuel Dada Obafemi(2013-2018) and Mrs Olufolake Oladunni Oyeyemi(2003-2013) as well as Alhaji M. O. Balogun(1998-2003). The founding Registrar of the University was Chief Olu Daramola, who was in charge between 1975 and 1985 while Alhaji Abdulkadir Oba Adebayo Alao, the second Registrar of the institution, served from 1985 to 1997.Alhaji Alao,the longest serving of the lot,was the first son of the University’s host community,who held the influential position.
Mr Alfanla’s appointment as the Registrar of the University of Ilorin by the institution’s Governing Council last month did not come as a surprise to those who are either staff members or stakeholders of the University. This is because Mr Alfanla was generally seen by all as a man who was either “self prepared or was adequately prepared” for the top position.
The new Registrar is a man who has seen it all. He witnessed the best of times and the worst of episodes in the history of the University. He was part of the tranquility of the University as he witnessed the worst of its epochs. He was only left with occupying the high office, a privilege that has now been achieved.
Since he joined the services of the University during the tenure of its 6th and highly phenomenal Vice Chancellor, Prof. Shuaibu Oba AbdulRaheem, OFR, NOPM; Mr Alfanla, who was one of the “almajri” brought into the services of the Better by far University by the Talba of Ilorin, (apologies to Prof. Lasiele Alabi Yahaya), has been tried, tested and trusted with many critical assignments by the University administration. It is on record that he performed his duties creditably well in each of the positions and responsibilities he was saddled with to the satisfaction of the university authorities. His dignity and integrity in the last 25 years undoubtedly informed his progression from the entry point to the very pinnacle of his career.
Mr Alfanla’s tenure as the University’s Admission Officer during the tenures of Prof. Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede,CON, and Prof. Abdulganiyu Ambali, OON, stood him out as a distinguished university administrator. Throughout his tenure as the head of the highly strategic and sensitive University Admission Office, Mr Alfanla discharged the responsibilities of the office with absolute professionalism, uncommon credibility, unmatched transparency and exceptional probity.
Aside his primary duties, Mr Alfanla also served as the Chairman of the University’s Chapter of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) with uncommon dignity and remarkable agility. While canvassing for and insisting on the rights and privileges of members of his SSANU, Mr Alfanla was always mindful of the need to accord deserved respect to the constituted authorities. He was able to pilot the affairs of UNILORIN SSANU perfectly and peacefully and without rocking the boat.
Mr Alfanla’s performance as the Chairman of the local SAANU was fantastic. He was evidently rewarded with remarkable progression in the leadership hierarchy of the Union as he was subsequently elevated and elected as the Union’s National Treasurer.
The new Registrar’s leadership styles and the tremendous goodwill he enjoyed among the rank and file of the institution must have appealed to his colleagues in the University Congregation (a body constituted by staff members who are University graduates), which eventuated in his election as one of the Congregation’s two representatives on the University’s Governing Council. He was, therefore, a member of the Council for two years during which he “spoke” for the University staff without disrespecting the views of other internal and external members of the Council. He is, by his new position, the official scribe of the Council.
It was, therefore, not surprising when the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Wahab Olasupo Egbewole, SAN, while addressing a delegation of the National Executive Council of the Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU) led by its hardworking National President, Alhaji Aliyu Otta Uthman, fsi, which paid him a courtesy visit in his office recently, said that Mr Alfanla was “a good product that needed little or no advertisement”. The ever-smiling Vice Chancellor gave the verdict when he was commenting on the personality, career and factors that accounted for the emergence of Mr Alfanla,who he also described as a critical stakeholder in the University, as the UNILORIN’s new Registrar. Prof. Egbewole expressed the conviction that Mr Alfanla had paid his dues and was, therefore, fit to serve as the Registrar of the University.
Some weeks earlier, the Emir of Ilorin and Chairman, Kwara State Council of Chiefs, Alhaji (Dr) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, CFR, described the new Registrar as “made from heaven”. The first-class Monarch, who was addressing a delegation of the University management led by the Vice Chancellor, which visited his ancient palace to formally introduce the new Registrar to him and simultaneously seek more royal blessings for the University, said that Mr Alfanla’s appointment during the sacred month of Ramadan coupled with the Registrar’s solid academic and parental backgrounds as well as all he had heard about him convinced him that he (Alfanla) was Allah’s choice for the position.
The views of the respected Monarch and the Vice Chancellor on the new Registrar of the University of Ilorin are not different from those of the two former Vice Chancellors of the University, Prof. Shuaibu Oba AbdulRaheem, and Prof. Abdulganiyu Ambali, OON, who, in separate comments, described Mr Alfanla as a round peg in a round hole. The two academic giants stated this while speaking at this year’s edition of the annual Ramadan Lecture of the Ilorin Emirate Staff Association (IESA), University of Ilorin. The positions of the two gentlemen, who had seen it all, on Mr Alfanla, are well informed. The former was in charge when the new Registrar was employed at the University while the latter related with him closely as SSANU Chairman and Admission Officer.
Similar views were shared by the leaderships of the University’s branches of the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU), the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and, of course, the Senior Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (SSANU). They all commended his choice as the University’s Chief Scribe. This was not because of the new Registrar’s relationship with each of the trade unions but a product of their thorough evaluations of Mr Alfanla by his comrades.
The new Registrar is, no doubt, a man of many parts. He is a journalist by training and an administrator by calling. He is also a unionist by choice and a cleric by “biological induction”.
The emergence of the former SSANU Chairman as a Registrar in the administration of an ex-ASUU Chairman certainly portends great hope for the University of Ilorin. Employees of the University,academic and non teaching, would not need to ask or fight before been given. The two comrades would surely show “comradeship” in the administration of the University.
A Unilorite in every ramification, Mr Alfanla has not worked anywhere else and in substantive capacities outside the University of Ilorin since his graduation from the University into the real world about three decades ago. He, therefore, knows the University of Ilorin very well as he knows the back of his palm. Most staff members of the University, particularly those in the Registry, are equally not unknown to him. He is, in fact, a man in whose fertile mind the geography and constituents of the University are firmly seated.
He is also a man of high and sound characters. The new Registrar is, no doubt, intellectually sophisticated, morally disciplined, highly focused and greatly religious. He is a no nonsense figure as he is a man who neither gives nor takes half measures. He is upright and gifted with abundance of native intelligence. He is equally very dutiful and courageous as he is highly industrious. Industrious colleagues should, therefore, anticipate a great future with him while the indolent ones should be prepared to change for the better.
The new Registrar, who hailed from Alomimata Compound,Kamaldeen Street,Okekere area,Ilorin, was born into the family of a renowned Muslim cleric and accomplished teacher of Arabic and Islamic studies,Shaykh Musa Alfanla Al-Adabiy and the late Alhaja Aminat Alfanla, who hailed from Ile Kejebu,Agbaji,Ilorin, over five decades ago. His father was the Roisulul Mualimin(Head Mallam) of all schools owned and operated by the Ansarul Islam Society of Nigeria(AISN). The late Shaykh Alfanla was a beloved student and close disciple of the pioneer Grand Mufti of Ilorin and founder of AISN, Shaykh Muhammad Kamaldeen Al-Adabiy,MFR,OFR,ORSA,and a teacher who raised many who later became very important in life.
A distinguished product of the famous Ansarul Islam Primary School, Okekere, Ilorin; the Government Secondary School, Ilorin and the Omupo Grammar School, Omupo, Mr Alfanla was equally educated at the Bayero University, Kano; and the University of Ilorin for his Bachelor of Arts in English/Mass Communication and LL.B and LL.M degrees, respectively. This thorough-bred administrator joined the services of the University of Ilorin in 1998 as an Administrative Assistant and steadily progressed through the ranks until his appointment as a Deputy Registrar in 2016.
The new Registrar, who until his new appointment was the Secretary of the Postgraduate School, University of Ilorin, is bringing to his new office immense expertise and profound goodwill garnered over the years. He would, no doubt, add a lot of vigour to the Egbewole team towards achieving its lofty dreams for the University, the nation and humanity.
As Mr Alfanla, who is happily married and blessed with children, settles down for the tasks ahead, yours sincerely joins others in wishing him a very rewarding, peaceful and prosperous tenure of office.
Imam is National Secretary, Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union and Secretary-General,Ilorin Emirate Association, University of Ilorin.
