Olatunji-Bello, whose tenure as the university’s ninth Vice-Chancellor ended on Saturday, September 19, 2026, said she inherited an institution confronted by infrastructure deficits, inadequate toilet facilities, flooding, financial constraints and academic programmes requiring accreditation.
Speaking in an interview with WALE AKINSELURE, she said her administration sought to address the immediate challenges while also laying the foundation for a more financially productive, digitally driven and research-oriented university.
One of the areas she highlighted was LASU’s internally generated revenue (IGR), which she said rose from about N3bn when she assumed office to N13bn.
She recalled that she initially considered the university’s revenue position inadequate, particularly in view of the number of programmes being introduced and the growing responsibilities of the institution.
“When I came in, I was going to defend the budget of the university. I was told that our dedicated revenue was N3bn; I was baffled,” she said.
According to her, the then Deputy Chief of Staff challenged the university to raise its revenue and initially set a target of N7bn.
“And I said, I will try. He said, ‘Let’s push it to N7bn,’ and that was how we started. And by the end of that year, we had over N7bn,” she said.
The achievement, she explained, encouraged her administration to set a higher target of N10bn the following year.
To achieve this, the university expanded its academic offerings, particularly postgraduate programmes, while leveraging digital innovation, consultancy services, diploma programmes, short-term courses and partnerships.
“We brought in new programmes with the SPT digital innovations. I challenged the DVC admin, who is the director of ICT. The digital aspect of our processes in the university brought in a lot of money for us,” she said.
She added that LASU introduced more than 75 postgraduate programmes and explored what she described as legal avenues for increasing revenue.
“We explored all legal ways of bringing in money, and we made N10bn easily. And then, the following year, it went from N10bn to N12bn,” she said.
The university eventually recorded N13bn, including an allocation for capital expenditure, although Olatunji-Bello acknowledged that maintaining the growth in subsequent years would be difficult.
She noted that LASU had reduced intake for some diploma programmes and discontinued some programmes, meaning the revenue trajectory could not simply be assumed to continue indefinitely.
‘N13bn IGR does not cover our salaries’
Despite the increase in internally generated revenue, Olatunji-Bello said LASU was not financially self-sufficient and could not operate solely on its internally generated funds.
She disclosed that the university’s monthly payroll had risen above N1bn, while its electricity bill alone stood at about N140m monthly.
“All the N13bn IGR does not cover our salaries. Our payroll right now is over N1bn per month,” she said.
The university, she added, still had to spend heavily on cleaning, security, electricity, diesel, academic activities and other routine obligations.
“We still have to augment salary payments with about N240m every month,” she said.
For her, the financial realities confronting public universities mean that institutions cannot be expected to achieve complete financial independence without addressing the question of funding and fees.
“Universities can achieve financial self-sustainability. If they can innovate and ensure improvements in the institution, money will come in. But then, if the money comes in, how do you spend it?” she asked.
She argued that maintaining quality infrastructure and academic standards requires substantial funding.
“You can’t have academic excellence without paying for it. I enjoin parents to ensure their children are well-educated by prioritising their fees. Good quality education needs money,” she said.
Flooding, sanitation and inherited projects
Looking back at the beginning of her tenure in 2021, Olatunji-Bello said she encountered an institution where students and staff faced several environmental and infrastructural challenges.
She particularly recalled the lack of adequate toilet facilities for students and recurring flooding.
She said her administration provided toilet facilities across faculties at the Ojo and Epe campuses.
LASU also embarked on drainage works to address flooding, according to the former VC.
“We used to have flood problems in LASU, and we decided to work on the drainage. So there were no more floods. We cleaned the drainage channels, and we no longer have that challenge,” she said.
She also made the completion of projects inherited from her predecessor a priority.
“I promised myself that every project started by my predecessor, if I could, I would finish,” she said.
She said pressure was put on the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and relevant ministries to ensure that outstanding projects were completed.
Among the projects completed, she mentioned hostel accommodation initiated by her predecessor.
“My predecessor started it, but we ensured that they were completed, despite the fact that there was a skyrocketing increase in the building cost,” she said.
She added that her administration insisted that students should begin using completed hostel facilities as quickly as possible.
The 2024 student protest
Olatunji-Bello described the 2024 student protest over Computer-Based Test (CBT) arrangements as the lowest point of her tenure.
She said the crisis arose after students encountered difficulties involving CBT 18, which she said resulted in a stampede and eventually forced the university to organise a pen-and-paper examination.
According to her, management initially considered a payment arrangement involving students after the university decided to settle the CBT centre.
She said students were subsequently asked to pay N10,000, an arrangement that triggered a major protest.
“When you came out from the Senate building, we had thousands of students. It was a sea of heads, and they insisted that they were not going to pay that N10,000,” she recalled.
The university reduced the proposed payment to N5,000 and then N3,000, but the students rejected the arrangement.
Olatunji-Bello eventually announced that the charge would be withdrawn and that the examination would be conducted with pen and paper.
“So I just said, ‘We are withdrawing that N10,000. Nobody is paying anything, but you are going to write your exam using pen and paper,’” she said.
She described the episode as her most difficult moment at LASU.
“That was the worst because I saw pain in the eyes of the students, and I knew that if I insisted and they turned back, they were going to destroy property. It was going to be something that would be very bad,” she said.
She added that the students eventually left the area celebrating after the decision was announced.
JAMB recognition and admission pressure
In contrast, Olatunji-Bello identified LASU’s emergence as the university with the highest number of UTME applicants in Nigeria as one of the high points of her tenure.
She said the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) declared LASU the most subscribed university in 2025 and that the institution retained the position in 2026.
She said LASU was also awarded N25m for maintaining compliance with JAMB regulations.
However, increased demand for admission created its own challenges.
“The first thing is the pressure on admissions. You need a whole holiday to deal with the pressure,” she said.
Olatunji-Bello said LASU followed JAMB regulations in allocating admission spaces, with the largest component going to merit-based admissions.
She said the university’s admissions structure contributed to the quality of students entering the institution.
“That is the reason why we have a lot of brilliant, excellent students in the system. We have a lot of first-class and second-class (upper) students because the best of the best are taken,” she said.
She said the high scores recorded by prospective LASU students during the university’s screening exercises demonstrated the level of competition for admission.
“This year, you will marvel. We have students for our LASU screening. We have a lot of students scoring 90 per cent, 80 per cent. We have students scoring 92 per cent, 95 per cent,” she said.
85,000 students, 8,000 hostel spaces
The growing student population has also created pressure on accommodation.
Olatunji-Bello put LASU’s total student population at about 85,000, including postgraduate and part-time students. However, she said the number of students physically present on campus at any given time was about 12,000.
She acknowledged that existing accommodation could not house every student.
“The accommodation is not enough for everybody, and it’s not peculiar to only LASU. It is our wish to accommodate all, but we cannot for now,” she said.
She said about 8,000 students were currently accommodated through the university’s own hostels and facilities operated through Public-Private Partnership arrangements involving Lagos State and private partners.
Avoiding major strikes
Olatunji-Bello attributed LASU’s relative industrial stability during her tenure to what she described as an open-door approach and extensive engagement with the university’s four major unions.
She said her understanding of industrial disputes at LASU had begun before she became Vice-Chancellor.
While at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, she said, she conducted a study on industrial actions at LASU.
“My title of my project was ‘Incessant Strikes in the Nigerian University System, LASU, a case study,’” she said.
She said members of the four unions participated in the research, allowing her to identify the issues that contributed to industrial disputes.
“I heard what they wanted, why they were always going on strike and what can be done to avert the strikes. And I implemented my findings to the letter,” she said.
Her administration subsequently held regular roundtable discussions with the unions.
“We meet with them frequently; they tell us their problems, and we were able to avert the problems from escalating to major strikes,” she said.
Research, grants and innovation
Research was another area Olatunji-Bello said received attention during her tenure.
Her administration instituted a N5m competitive internal research grant for academic staff.
She said seven LASU academics secured more than N29m in grants from the Lagos State Research and Innovation Council between 2022 and 2025.
She also cited grants secured by academics in the School of Transport and Logistics and Faculty of Management Sciences, including support from Volvo, as well as grants obtained by Prof. Akintola of Fisheries.
Another major achievement, she said, was LASU’s securing of a N3bn TETFund Centre of Excellence in 2026, which she described as the only such centre in the South-West.
The university also strengthened its intellectual property protection and research ethics processes.
“We have intellectual property protection for all the research done in this university. We also have a research ethics committee that will scrutinise your research and make sure that what you have is genuine and is worth showing off,” she said.
Digital transformation and AI policy
Olatunji-Bello also pointed to the digitalisation of university processes as one of the major changes during her administration.
According to her, processes ranging from admission and screening to certificate collection have been moved online.
“You can go online to get your certificate within 10 minutes,” she said.
She said LASU also introduced an instant certificate verification feature, eliminating the need for certificate holders to physically return to the university for verification.
On artificial intelligence, she said LASU had adopted an AI policy approved by the Senate.
“We have an AI policy approved by the Senate, and every department has a copy,” she said.
She said the policy encourages the use of AI while requiring ethical use and appropriate citation.
“We encourage the use of AI, but it must be ethical and cited when used,” she said.
She also linked the AI policy to the university’s broader framework on plagiarism and research ethics, saying both undergraduate and postgraduate research are subjected to scrutiny.
She said the policy should be reviewed regularly as AI technology evolves.
The unfinished research laboratory
Despite the projects completed under her administration, Olatunji-Bello acknowledged that some of her ambitions remain unfinished.
At the top of that list is a major central research laboratory.
“I wanted a big Central Research Laboratory. I wanted a massive one like that of the University of Illinois, but it is still in the pipeline,” she said.
Although the university has a smaller facility undergoing renovation, she said the larger research complex remained an aspiration for the next administration.
“For the big one on my mind, I’m sure my successor will follow up on that,” she said.
What Lagos State should do next
Olatunji-Bello urged the Lagos State Government to complete several outstanding projects and continue supporting LASU’s infrastructure.
She specifically mentioned the Innovation Hub, which she said should be completed and inaugurated.
“The first is that the state government should help complete the Innovation Hub, which will serve the environment. I want to see it completed and inaugurated,” she said.
She also called for the completion of other major buildings still under construction and continued attention to the environment around the Badagry Gate.
“If they complete it, it will give LASU a better look,” she said.
The West African ambition
Olatunji-Bello said one of the central ambitions of her administration was to establish LASU as a leading university in West Africa.
She pointed to the university’s performance in the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings as evidence of progress towards that goal.
According to her, LASU attained the top position in West Africa in the sustainability ranking in 2022 and 2023 and maintained its position in subsequent years.
She said the university also extended its position within the sub-Saharan African ranking and was later given the vice-chairmanship of the UI GreenMetric World Ranking.
“We even went further to be given the vice-chairmanship on the table of the UI Green Metrics World Ranking,” she said.
As she leaves office, Olatunji-Bello's assessment of her tenure is therefore centred on an institution that she says moved from significant infrastructural and financial constraints towards greater revenue generation, expanded academic offerings, increased digitalisation, stronger research activity and higher demand for admission.
Yet she also acknowledged that the university's growing population, substantial recurrent expenditure, accommodation deficit and unfinished infrastructure mean that the next administration will inherit both the gains and the outstanding challenges of the past five years.