Getting Our Universities Back on Track: Reflections and Governance Paradigms from My Vice-Chancellorship.

• Author: Coker-Kolo, Doyin
• Position: AFRICA - Book review

Mimiko, N. Oluwafemi. Getting Our Universities Back on Track: Reflections and Governance Paradigms from My Vice-Chancellorship. Austin, TX: Pan-African University Press, 2017.

Using a personal narrative approach, Mimiko chronicles his administrative experience as the vice chancellor of a relatively new state university in Nigeria: the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Okoko (AAAU), in Ondo State. He shares how the experience shaped his perspectives about life personally and spiritually and, on a larger scale, about public service in Nigeria. His ingenuity as a storyteller makes this somewhat voluminous book an easy and interesting read. He uses a down-to-earth, humorous, and sometimes intense literary approach to bring his thoughts alive to his readers. While the book may be considered an autobiography of sorts, Mimiko also sheds light on the history of higher education in Nigeria. He discusses the challenges in its leadership since independence and how these challenges have impacted the educational system in Nigeria structurally and otherwise. His credentials as a seasoned administrator, a full professor of international stature, and a trade unionist make him uniquely qualified to offer an insight into the state of higher education in postcolonial Nigeria. This publication speaks to many constituents--administrators, faculty, politicians, students, and researchers interested in learning about the administration of higher education in Nigeria. It is a case study of a young university going through a teething period and a play-by-play of how to build a university from the ground up under the most restrictive, politically contentious, underresourced and antagonizing environment imaginable.

The book depicts the continued dilemma facing the development of Nigeria as a state and efforts to develop its higher educational system. On the one hand, Mimiko extolls higher education as the engine that drives growth and development in any society. On the other hand, he laments that higher education in Nigeria is still in search of relevancy and is struggling to become competitive in the current knowledge-driven age. He writes eloquently about the virtues of academia but contrasts that with the reality of life for academicians in a country such as Nigeria, where campus strikes, student cultism, professional apathy, corruption, and inept leadership abound. How the author overcame these challenges to bring efficiency, innovation, self-reliance, and...