Folasade Ogunsola

"We are very innovative, we are very creative, and we are very entrepreneurs."

"Fundamentally, preparedness builds on a system that’s working."

"If Nigeria’s university system will be returned to its rightful place as the lighthouse that inspires development aspirations, university managers and all concerned must begin to think anew and walk the talk. The ultimate goal is to enrich and enhance the quality of students to make them more intellectually nimble, competent, not only for national development, but to shape the future."

"Nigeria Universities needs to develop the courses around sports like sports medicine, that is the next step for us. I am hoping that we will be able to interest some corporate organisations to have a sports academy because I think we have everything that it takes."

"The leaders of communities are chosen from their citizens and our leaders are, therefore, a reflection of who we are as a people."

"The fourth industrial revolution is here upon the world but that Nigeria has been lagging."

"Corruption thrives where there is lack of excellence. But we are not different from other countries."

"The art is part of our vision; it is an expression of who we are."

"It required that we had a strong central coordinating centre and that we engaged the community early, used media effectively, and sent out short easily-understood messages."

"There’s Value in the Valley”. One thing (out of the many lessons in the book) that stuck in my head was “nobody is after you”. People are going about their day; they’re not even noticing you"

"I then realized that what was important was the quality of the time spent. You need to know what people need at the time they need it. These are some of the lessons I learned from that period."

"started off my life as a really shy person. I always sort of pulled back from a lot of things not because I didn’t want to do them but because I was shy, even till university. There are so many examples I can give"

"It is in service to others that you get elevated or you achieve your dreams"

"If you don’t think you’re valuable enough to take yourself to a conference with your salary, why should someone else invest in you? We sometimes think that the valuable things are the tangible assets when in fact, it is the intangible things—your knowledge and skills which are the outcome of your personal self-investments—that are important."

"Don’t get into seeing money as the only benefit to being involved in project, think of the experience and the skills that you are getting; it is worth more than money because they are investing in your knowledge base."

"What I have found with University of Lagos is that we have been lucky. We have heard progressive vice chancellors. So, every vice chancellor has put something down that allows one to grow. We developed a 25-year strategic plan in 2014 and we are working through that strategic plan where every vice chancellor builds on what we have."

"In Lagos, because of the difficulties, we have taken it as a responsibility to try, but we can only do with what we have. Building hostels is not cheap. Right now, we are renovating the old hostels to make them more livable, though it is a very expensive venture."

"Yes, I have been in the system, we do not have funding, but have done a lot of things by improving what we do with collaborations with other universities outside the country. They appreciate us more than Nigerians."

"The funding is not just on UNILAG, of course, the Lagos State government is supporting. We have reached out to partners, industries, companies and a whole lot of other people to support us."

"Our students and researchers stand to gain from exposure to diverse networks and knowledge systems. This kind of cooperation supports not only innovation but also the institutional growth of our universities."