OAU Inaugurates Bamire As 12th Substantive Vice-Chancellor

Prof. Simeon Bamire, OAU VC

The Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife on Tuesday inauguted Prof. Adebayo Simeon Bamire, a professor of Agricultural Economics from the Faculty of Agriculture as the 12th substantive Vice Chancellor of the institution.

Delivering his acceptance speech, Bamire says his administration will adopt an open door policy in running the affairs of the University for the next five years.

He promised to build on the success records of his predecessor, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede and called for the support of all stakeholders across various organs and unions of the institution to ensure a smooth and successful tenure

“There are so many things my predecessor has done, but there is always a room for improvement and incidentally, the rooms are so large this time around because of the inadequacy of funds, but by God’s grace, we are going to enhance our internally generated revenue in such a way that we will support government’s funding opportunities.

“We have land resources here and we will be able to make use of the land resources to enhance and promote a lot of things aside from generating income. It will be a knowledge base for our students.

“I am a man of peace and I find it very difficult to move ahead if there is disunity anywhere. That is why I’m appealing to our Unions that are not in good shape to come together so that we will be able to work as one because a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

The outgoing Vice-Chancellor, Ogunbodede expressed belief in the incoming VC to deliver on the agenda of the great citadel of learning, describing him as a man of peace, patience and letters.

A native of Oyan in Odo Otin Local Government Area of Osun State, Bamire was a former Vice Chancellor (Academics) and the immediate past Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the Obafemi Awololwo University, Ile-Ife.

The 63-year-old professor joined the Department of Agricultural Economics as Assistant Lecturer in 1992 and rose to the post of Professor in 2008.

He was a Visiting Scientist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan; the Vice-Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University in the 2007/2008 & 2008/2009 sessions; the Head of Department of Agricultural Economics for the 2010/2011 academic session.