By Anthony Arugba
The long awaited Vice-Chancellorship race to select a worthy successor for outgoing VC, Prof. Andy Egwunyenga has been laid to rest.
It was a keenly-contested exercise that saw the very best professors the Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka, have to offer slogging it out to earn the right to be VC. However, in the end, Prof. Samuel Ogheneovo Asagba, emerged the 8th substantive Vice-Chancellor of the Delta State University. He is a Professor of Environmental Biochemistry and Toxicology.
Born in Sapele Local Government Area, Delta State, Prof. Asagba attended Army Children School, Mokola, Ibadan 1968 – 1974 and Ibadan City Academy, Eleta, Ibadan 1974 – 1979. After his primary and secondary eduction, he obtained a B.Sc in Biochemistry from the University of Benin, UNIBEN, in 1986, M.Sc. in Biochemistry in 1991, and Ph.D as well in Biochemistry 2001. He is happily married with wonderful children.
Asagba was later employed into the services of Delta State University, (DELSU), Abraka, on September 22, 1994, as an Assistant Lecturer where he rose through the ranks and file to become a professor in 2010. Since then he never looked back in his quest to get to the top of the most elite mountain in university administration -Vice-Chancellorship.
Prof. Asagba’s administrative experience is staggering as he served as Departmental Time Table Officer 1996 to 2001; Departmental Coordinator, SIWES 1996 to 2001; Departmental Coordinator, Seminar/projects 1996 to 2006; Departmental Coordinator, Pre-degree 2001 to 2006; Senate Representative, Faculty of Science 2005 to 2007; Associate Dean of Student Affairs 2006 to 2007; Acting Head, Department of Biochemistry 2007 to 2008; and Chairman, Examination Monitoring Committee 2009 to 2010.
As the scholar continued to shoulder on, he was appointed Head of Department, Biochemistry a second time from 2011 to 2014; Representative of Faculty of Science on Post-Graduate Board 2011 to 2013; Dean, Faculty of Science 2013-2015; Chairman, Tetfund Conference/Workshop Committee 2014 to 2015; Provost (DELSU, Asaba Campus) 2016 to 2019; Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration) 2019 to 2021; and Dean, Faculty of Science (Sabbatical Leave) Dennis Osadebay University, Asaba 2022- 2023.
Prof. Samuel Asagba’s Vice-Chancellorship holds a greater prospects for staff and students of DELSU than any other candidate that contested for four reasons.
Firstly, the brand new minted VC, Prof. Asagba is eminently qualified. He rose through the ranks and file. He served as Head of Department on two separate occasions, Associate Dean, Dean of Faculty on two separate occasions, Provost of the defunct Asaba Campus and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Administration. It implies that Asagba held lower and upper management positions. He will utilize his wealth of experience to catapult DELSU to unimaginable enviable heights.
Secondly, he has a verifiable record in transparency, accountability, and frugal disposition in resource management. Asagba has a clean slate in both public and private enterprise. He was never indicted for financial misappropriation while he served at various capacities in the university.
If Asagba could serve at both lower and upper management positions on several occasions, it means there must be something spectacular about his personal character and ability to accommodate his colleagues-men and women from diverse ethnic configuration of our state and even beyond.
Another reason to consider is that Asagba is better in terms of personality and human conduct. He does have his flaws which is intrinsically human, but on a comparative note, he is a better human being with ability to listen to the yearnings and aspirations of staff and students. He did same when he served at various lower capacity, much now on a larger scale now.
Lest we forget, investigations reveal that Prof. Asagba’s assessment and score by Google Scholar, a scoring system for rating scholarly publications of lecturers, showed that he has the highest score among contenders for the vice-chancellorship position. He has 1484 citations, h-index 20 and i10-index, which is the overall score for scholarly publications with at least citations, is 47.
While his peers who were among the top contenders for the VC race scored 27, 5,1 and even zero, Asagba is on a league of his own. So, on a comparative advantage Prof. Asagba is the undisputed best man for the job.
Even though there were whispers from naysayers that Governor Sherrif Oborewovri shouldn’t have appointed him as VC since they are from the same ethnic configuration-Okpe axis. The question now is, should the governor ignore the best candidate or pick the worst of the lot as VC just because he is the governor’s kinsman? Exactly! Your guess is as good as mine! In football competition, the coach will always start with his best 11 and need be substitute much later. So for naysayers to suggest that the Governor should pick second 11 over first 11 defies simple logic.
Apparently, DELSU is in safe hands. Prof. Asagba Vice-Chancellorship is a step in the right direction. We are overly confident that his emergence will make DELSU a model institution to other state and federal institutions. Let’s all join hands to take make DELSU better than it is.
