By Wole Adejumo
At that moment, the only person I could call was Mrs. Balogun, the Director, Vice-Chancellor’s Office (as she then was). “There is trouble, ma”, I announced over the phone. I was already thinking of the likely consequences of events of the preceding 48 hours. Her response jolted me back from the thoughts. “Wole, what actually happened?”
After I had taken some minutes to explain, she said “okay, now what can be done to salvage the situation? Can you still meet the deadline? Is it possible?” I told her I already made some contacts and was 50% certain. I also told her there was one more person to call and he was in church, being a Sunday. “Call the second person and let me have a feedback”, she said.
I thanked her, made the call and by the time the job got done, aside those who already knew, no other person heard that there was a hitch. What would have been a public relations disaster was successfully averted.
In the University of Ibadan where she came from, she was fondly called “Iya Balogun” but at the Abiola Ajimobi Technical University, Ibadan, she earned herself the sobriquet “Iya”, the Yoruba word for mother. The reason soon became obvious; till date, everyone sees a mother in her. Someone who gives great counsel in times of need.
As a thought leader in her field, undertaking tasks with perfection in mind helps her achieve good results and almost everyone who has ever worked with her agree that for her, peak performance is a non negotiable requirement. Not one who would demonize colleagues, Mrs Balogun teaches both by words and example. Like a true leader, she shows how things are done. And when it is time to correct, she does it wholeheartedly.
She is interested in results but will always insist on following the due process; “you cannot do the right thing the wrong way and expect to be right at the end of the day”, she usually says. Apart from being a listening leader, she is an emotionally intelligent leader who is both strategic and collaborative. No wonder her appointment as the First Substantive Registrar of the Abiola Ajimobi Technical University in 2020 was regarded as pitch perfect by members of staff then. It was likened to having a round peg in a round hole as she had built capacity for the position long before her appointment.
Her love for work is simply unfathomable and sometimes when she enters the overdrive mode, her staff adopt coping mechanisms as things must get done. My first fortnight in the Office of the Registrar seemed worse than the “one week, one trouble” that preceded my redeployment there. Over time however, she brought out an Administrator from a blogger cum journalist. It took a lot of sweat but it eventually happened. I have since found her to be a great manager of human and material resources. Putting her significant experience to use in moving the Tech-U Registry forward is an achievement she can wear as a badge of honour.
Without sounding hagiographic, the Registry of the Ladoke Akintola University (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso has gained a relentlessly vigorous and phenomenal administrator with her appointment as the sixth Substantive Registrar of the institution. She epitomises devotion and dutifulness.
While congratulating Mrs. Balogun as she resumes on 14th August, 2024, it is not out of place to wish her divine guidance and favour from all angles.
Adejumo sent this piece from Ibadan
