The 9th substantive Vice-Chancellor of Ekiti State University, EKSU, Professor Joseph Babatola Ayodele has assured members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, that the institution is ready to partner with the Union to move the State forward.
He gave the assurances when the leadership of NUJ, Ekiti State Council, led by its Chairman, Kayode Babatuyi paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday.
The V.C, who hailed NUJ for their show of support and developmental journalism initiative to the University urged them to continue to sustain the support they gave to the former V.C.
He seized the opportunity to reiterate his commitment towards the six-point shared prosperity agenda of Governor Biodun Oyebanji while thanking the governor for having confidence in him to run the affairs of the institution.
The VC equally pledged to act on the various requests made by the NUJ within the financial regulations and capacity of the University.
His words: “The University is very ready to continue to partner with NUJ, to move this University forward and the State. We will continue to support the council.
“I will like to seek that from time to time we can rub minds together on how to move the University forward.
“We have to ensure that we continue to produce high quality, high level man power to add value to this State and to support the good and lovably initiative of our governor.
“The issue of partnership with your institute, just get done with your proposal. We will process it and it is equally going to project the image of the University that we have MoU with IIJ.”
Earlier, the NUJ Chairman congratulated the V.C on his appointment as the 9th substantive Vice-Chancellor of the University while reassuring him of the commitment of the Union in projecting the image of the institution.
“We have come to assure and reassure you of our support. We are here to tell you that the council, which is the umbrella body for all Journalists working in Ekiti State are ready to project the image of this University to the world positively.
“You have extended hands of fellowship to us and it is our turn to also see how we can reciprocate this gesture.”
The Chairman went further to make few requests that will further strengthen the Union and the University towards projecting the activities of the institution to the world.
One of the major request is a partnership between the International Institute of Journalism, IIJ, and the University to enable Students’ of IIJ further their studies at EKSU through Masters Degree programs.