He is a recipient of a number of scholarships, awards and honours among which are NAPE Outstanding Earth Science Lecturer Award (NOELA), 2020 and Thambo Mbeki Leadership Award for Excellence, 2015. In this interview with AYOYINKA JEGEDE, he speaks on issues around university education in the country.

According to the National Universities Commission (NUC), over 58 private universities were established from 2015 till date including Mountain Top University (MTU). How have you been faring?
Mountain Top University was established in 2015. We were given operational licence in March 2015 and we opened for activities in August 2015. We did our official opening in December 2015 and had a total number of 177 students during our first matriculation exercise.

We thank God that the Spirit of the Lord brood over this place and today there is no way anyone will enter here and not see that the Spirit of the Lord is actually at work because a lot of transformation has taken place between 2015 and now. As you can see, this is a growing university and expansion is almost on a daily basis.

We are growing daily and today our population has increased from 177 at inception to 1,600 currently. As we bring in more programmes, definitely the population will continue to increase.

Mountain Top University was ranked 11th based on the last ranking done by the NUC. We still remain the 11th best in the country. Among all the private universities, we are the sixth. We are the fifth in the South West geo-political zone.

Thus far, the Lord has been our strength and has been helping us. Thank God for the support from the Chancellor and the proprietor, Prof. Daniel Kolawole Olukoya, as well as the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries and all the friends of the university, who have been strong pillars of support from 2015 till now. Mountain Top University is envisioned as a dynamic centre of excellence in the liberal tradition for the production of top-rate, morally sound graduates of distinction, who will be globally competitive for outstanding impact on the Nigerian societal and global development.

We started with 15 programmes, which cut across two colleges – College of Basic and Applied Sciences, otherwise known as CBAS and the College of Humanities, Management and Social Sciences (CHMS), which is about three in one college. It will be split with time as we grow.

Also, our university runs postgraduate programmes in many disciplines and part-time programmes are also available. We also have a research centre known as the Centre for Genomics Research in Bio-Medicine. We are also doing very well in terms of providing research facilities and state-of-the-art equipment for teaching and research.

Thus far, with the help of God, we are faring well. When compared with those that were established at the same time with us, I am not sure any of them can compete with us. We have kept to being the best and we will continue to be the best and surpass those who have been in existence before us.

What is the state of infrastructure at the university?
By God’s grace, today we have the best of facilities when it comes to teaching and research. Virtually all our departments are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, which can compete favourably with other institutions in the developed world. This is in line with the mission of the university.

For example, in Music Department, we have all the necessary musical instruments that are second to none in this country. Our Chancellor, Prof. D.K. Olukoya, has a lovely flair for music. Also, the church, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, is known for her dynamism and involvement with music. This has positively reflected on the activities of our Music Department and today we have the best of facilities. This cuts across other programmes.