Encomium
Redeemer’s University (RUN) has shelved its planned movement to the permanent site in Ede,Osun state, ENCOMIUM Weekly has been reliably informed.
We learnt the university owned by the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) would no longer relocate this June but in September 2014. Our source said the June movement was shelved to enable the university management complete work at the site.
“There is no accommodation for all the staff for now. Some would even have to look for where to live off campus. There are also other logistics problems which have not yet been sorted out by the university. This necessitated the need to hold on till September”.
Meanwhile, a good number of academic and non academic staff of Redeemer’s University may not be moving to Ede, if the private university eventually moves. The reason being that some whose spouses and some members of the family work or do business in Lagos (less than an hour drive from the university’s temporal site) may find it difficult to abandon their jobs or other endeavours for the permanent site.
“I’m seriously looking for another job. My husband can’t move to Ede with me and my children. I can’t leave things to chances. I naturally need him around. His own job will suffer if he joins me in Ede. That’s my dilemma,” lamented a staff.
The university closed last week and would be reopening in August before moving to its permanent site this September.
Redeemer’s University is presently at Redemption City, Ogun State. Established in 2005, it operates a collegiate system and awards B.A. and B.Sc. degrees. In the 2012/2013 academic year, the university admitted its first set of M.A., M.Sc, and PhD students.
Redeemer’s University currently has over 2000 students. It is presently at a temporary site within the RCCG camp ground near Mowe, Ogun State. The university has three colleges – the College of Natural Science, the College of Management Science, and the College of Humanities.
It boasts of a total of 26 academic programmes and it is hoped that an engineering college will be added in few years.
Though the university is still in its temporary site, a distance of about four kilometers to the formerly proposed permanent site between Shimawa and RCCG Camp, the new permanent site where the university will relocate to in September is in Ede, Osun State.
Redeemer’s University’s Vice Chancellor is ‘Debo Adeyewa, a pastor in the RCCG and a Professor of Meteorology from Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. Many distinguished Nigerian academics have taught or are still teaching at the university, among them are Professors Oyewale Tomori (immediate past Vice Chancellor, former World Health Organisation executive for Sub-saharan Africa and a Fellow of the prestigious Nigerian Academy of Science); Jide Osuntokun, Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Letter, former Nigerian Ambassador to former West Germany, and Pro-Chancellor and chairman, Governing Council, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti); Olu Obafemi, Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Letter; Funsho Akere, Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Letter, former vice chancellor, Adekunle Ajasin University, Ondo State, and Pro-Chancellor and chairman, Governing Council, Ondo State University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa). Others are Professors E.B. Kolawole, former vice chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State); Ahmed Parker Yerima (former Director-General of the Nigeria National Theatre, National Troupe, and the Abuja Carnival and 2006 winner of the NLNG Prize for Literature); Ayo Akinwale, and many more.
The university Arts Theatre is named BOJA Arts Theatre in honour of Bunmi Oyeyemi Julius-Adeoye (December 27, 1973 – May 16, 2010), one of Nigeria’s popular female playwrights of the 21st century who started the Theatre Arts Department of the university and acted as its pioneer head of department (2005 – 2007). In 2013, the university won a World Bank grant to fund the establishment of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID). To win the grant, Redeemer’s University emerged the best rated university among 15 prestigious universities selected from West and Central Africa.
Arguably, in the league of outstanding private universities in Nigeria, Redeemer’s University enforces modest and corporate dressing among its students. In fact, the university has a dress code for male and female students.
The information reaching ENCOMIUM Weekly is that the top- notch university and citadel of learning has now shelved its plan to move to the Ede, Osun state permanent site in June. September, 2014, is the likely new relocation date.
-UCHE OLEHI
