I told myself if I was going to become a teacher, I would push till I reached the top. So, on my journey, I became the head of the Department of English, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, the Provost of the College of Humanities and Legal Studies, and the first female Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University.

How I became Africa’s first female professor in quantity surveying.

Yes, it is true. There is no doubt about it because I made the first professorship and I sat on the Senate for the appointment of subsequent professors. The first two professors came from Ibadan and I was the first female professor in Nigeria in any discipline at all. I got it in Library Studies.

As the first female vice-chancellor of the university, it comes with a lot of responsibility and expectations. Many people want to see what a female vice-chancellor can do. There are also high expectations from people who think the university is too complex for a woman to run.

As pharmacy professionals, we are responsible for striving for excellence in all we do and thus blazing the trail

My work in UI gave me the basic solid foundation on which I built my career. I served as a cataloguer, reference librarian, Information Technology services librarian, Faculty of the Social Sciences librarian, amongst others.

Last year, there was a hike when we had a trio of female principal officers appointed or come into office at the University of Ghana. This was the first not only for Ghana, but in the world.

I became a professor in 1973 when the university librarian started a library school in UI and they asked me to come and talk about how to organise maps. After talking about that, they said they would like me to move over and start a library because then we were taking the promotion exams of the UK and (they) wanted us to establish an academic programme. So, I went to Boston, United States, and did a master’s programme in librarianship and then came back and started the Department of Library Studies in Ibadan. I started the first programme except postgraduate and master’s degree programmes in Ibadan.

I actually wanted to study Pharmacy but I could not meet up with the cut-off points for Pharmacy for the three times that I did JAMB examinations. My dad tried his best using all the connections at his disposal including that of Late Mama H.I.D. Awolowo to get me admitted for Pharmacy, traveling with me to Jos, Markudi and Ikenne, because I was bent on studying Pharmacy but all to no avail because that was not God’s plan for me! Miraculously, at the last minutes, when all hopes were lost, God brought me into quantity surveying – the course I never heard of before at that time!

I am the first chemist and the first female scientist to receive the honor, who was contacted and asked to submit an application for the award.

Am I not a professor? I earned a PhD but there are professors who did not earn a PhD. I am stepping on toes. I am a woman and this is the first time a woman will act as VC. I understand that some people are not happy. I was mile ahead of my colleagues in the interview. Is it my fault that I am sound and that I am appreciated?

Robbie... asked me to create the new physics course—at least the first year of the new physics course. And I said, “Robbie, when you were chair of the faculty, you asked for complete teaching relief. Now I’m going to be chair... and you’re giving me the hardest teaching job in the whole institution. Don’t you think that’s a little unfair?" We... cut a deal... full financial support for a postdoc so I could hire somebody to help me on my research group while I was doing all this.

I have put in so much of hard work all these years, and to see those years of hard work finally bearing fruit now as me being No. 1, is very special. But with this the responsibilities are many fold as expectations keep on rising. However, I have never shied away from giving my best and I will continue to do so in the coming years.

If you taught chemistry at a university, you taught chemistry at a university which had a chief diversity officer, a department of African-American Studies, etc, etc. You knew what these people were. You knew what these people did. At least, you knew that whatever it was, it was not scholarship. You said nothing. What kind of servant of truth are you, sir? You served not truth, but the Party. Sign the form, sir.