Redeemer’s University, TAU forge partnership in renewable energy, agric others

In a bid to forge institutional partnership towards the attainment of strategic goals of excellent and effective service delivery, innovation, sustainable growth and efficient use of resources in higher education and its administration, the Vice-Chancellor of Redeemer’s University, Professor Shadrach Olufemi Akindele, ffan,fffps, has paid a courtesy visit to his counterpart in Thomas Adewumi University, Professor Francisca Oladipo.

Prof Akindele, and his team, who made the visit to the Oko-Irese in Kwara State campus of the university on Tuesday 9th September, 2025 were received by the institution's helmsman and the other principal officers of the university.

The team from Redeemer’s University comprised the Registrar, Mr David Akintola; Dean Faculty of Natural Sciences and Chairman, University Committee on Agricultural Projects, Prof Olumide Adesanya; Director, Corporate Affairs, Mr. Adetunji Adeleye; Deputy University Librarian and Acting Director, Students Support Services (DSSS), Dr Basiru Adetomiwa; Acting Director, Redeemer’s University Centre for Entrepreneurship Development Studies (RUNCEEDS), Dr Elizabeth Abiola-Oke and Secretary to the Management Team, Mr Ademola Adedeji.

The team were taken on a tour of the university including the university library and classrooms where desks and chairs made by staff and students were in use, solar farm, engineering workshop, nursing and anatomy laboratories, livestock and crop farms, cattle ranch among other facilities.

Telling the story of the university and its founder, Dr. Johnson Bamidele O. Adewumi, who is also the university's proprietor and Chancellor, Prof Oladipo said, “We were licensed on May 18, 2021, so we are just a little over four years old. Our chancellor is a lover of education. 

“He was born and grew up in this community. He completed his primary education, and after secondary education, he got an opportunity to be offered a scholarship. He went to the UK’s Imperial College precisely for his Masters and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering.

“And then, because he's in love with the community, he came back. However, the primary school he attended when he was little had disappeared. 

“So, he decided to build a primary school, this was in 1996, so that children from his community could go to school. And then, a year later, he built a secondary school.”

She said that the establishment of the university was, therefore, a natural progression, adding “our vision is to provide an excellent and suitable academic environment for the development of ideas and knowledge for the benefit of mankind.”

Prof Oladipo, who was appointed vice-chancellor on August 1, 2022, however, noted that attracting the best hands to an obscure location such as theirs was a challenge. This challenge, however, became a sort of motivation for self-reliance. “Everything around construction, woodwork, metalwork, blockwork, we produce ourselves.”

Speaking about studentship, she noted: “In addition to their career, whether it is nursing, or public health, or computer science, or chemistry, they must have two international certifications.”

Oladipo, a professor of computer science, said: “if there's one thing we all have in common, it's the commitment to academic excellence.”

She stated that the institution had attained self-sufficiency in key areas such as food production, agriculture, and power generation via renewable energy.

“Now with the expansion of the university, we are also looking for partnerships. We want to teach others how to do this because that is really the way to go.”

Prof Akindele, in his response, said, “It is a thing of joy for us to be here today. It's a trip we've been looking forward to, and thank God we are here.

“This trip was actually initiated by the interaction that took place far away in Morocco during a recent conference of Association of African Universities.”

He noted, “When you remain within your own place, you think you know it all. It is until you visit other places that you will then realise that there are things to learn.

“As a person, I'm always eager to learn, and we are here to learn.

“We are so excited that many of the things around you are done by yourself. That is so amazing because it's something we want to learn to do exactly.”

Citing areas of similarity and possible collaboration, Prof Akindele noted that Redeemer’s University is big on entrepreneurship and runs vocational educational programmes. 

“We introduced something new which we are starting with 100 level students. Whatever course you are registering for, you are also registering for a vocational course that you will run throughout your entire time in the university, so that by the time you are graduating, you graduate with your degree, as well as with a certificate in that vocational course.”

He said the former’s success in renewable energy was also an area to learn from.

 “Your success in renewable energy is something that is very, very remarkable because, as we all know, energy is so critical in an educational system.”

He further shared the successes Redeemer’s University has achieved in the areas of research, internal revenue generation, grant funding and donations, scholarships for indigent students, and student enrolment, among others.

Concluding, the vice-chancellor said, “An institution must always see opportunities to learn and take advantage of those opportunities in order to remain relevant and current. So we are very pleased to be here.”