Jelili Gbadamosi
The Quality Authority Unit of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Ojere, Abeokuta, has celebrated a former Director of Academic Planing of the institution, Dr. Yetunde Iyanda as she becomes the new Deputy Rector of the institution.
This was gathered on Thursday, from a statement released by the QAU, commending and congratulating Dr Iyanda on her new post.
According to the statement, which was signed by the coordinator, Olayiwola Sojobi, Dr Iyanda has handled various posts, adding that she deserved the new post as the deputy director of the institution.
The Unit also added, while celebrating her, that her impact and contributions to the development of the polytechnic in her last three offices before her promotion, was an excellent well done job.
The statement read in part, “Over the years, the Quality Assurance Unit (QAU) has been at the vanguard of celebrating men and women of good conscience who are positively impacting the Polytechnic and contributing to its development. Dr. Mrs. Yetunde Lanre-Iyanda falls into this clique of well-meaning staff of the Polytechnic; those who always work towards the building of a MAPOLY where truth and justice will always prevail, and the polytechnic systems work seamlessly.
“As she assumes office as Deputy Rector of this Institution, QAU chronicles on how she fared in the last three offices held by her before this recent elevation.
“1. AS H.O.D, SLT (2009 – 2013); Dr. Mrs. Lanre-Iyanda served as Head, Science Laboratory Technology during the rectorship of Arc. Tokunbo Fowode. Three major credits to her as H.O.D are; (i). Conduct of Practical; Dr. Mrs. Lanre-Iyanda pushed in ensuring that funds were released to the department (by the management) for the conduct of Practicals. Whenever the practical money was released, she never sat on it; she would distribute the money amongst the Coordinators of Unit (C.O.Us) (Physics, Chemistry, and Biology). Not only that, she always monitored the judicious application of the money by the C.O.Us and the actual conduct of the Practicals by the technologists. She wasn’t an “armchair H.O.D”, she always moved round laboratories and classrooms to see things for herself. SLT students of that era will always remember her for good.
“(ii). NBTE Accreditation; She supervised an NBTE Quality Assurance Visitation during her tenure as H.O.D. All programmes presented by the department for Accreditation/Reaccreditation scaled through. (iii). Show of Honesty; In an uncommon show of honesty, Dr. Mrs. Lanre-Iyanda returned to the coffers of the Polytechnic unspent money from the sum released to her for the Accreditation Exercise mentioned in (ii) above. It was a huge sum.
“2. AS DIRECTOR, SIWES (2014 – 2019); The Directorate of SIWES, MAPOLY never had it so good, like in the 5-year period Dr. Mrs. Lanre-Iyanda held sway as the director. She managed the affairs of the Directorate so well that she won for the Polytechnic the Award of “Best Participating Institution in SIWES Activities in 2018 Training Year.”* The Award was given to the Polytechnic by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF).
“3. AS DIRECTOR, ACADEMIC PLANNING (JAN. 2020 – FEB. 2023); Three hallmarks of Dr. Mrs. Lanre-Iyanda’s tenure as DAP are; (i). Staff Encouragement; ne of the very first things, Dr. Mrs. Lanre-Iyanda did on the assumption of duty as DAP was to go through the files of all staff members. She later had a frank private discussion with some concerned staff. The discussion bothered, majorly, on the staff members’ career development. Today, not less than three staff in the Directorate have reaped the benefits of her kindhearted discussion with them, including: her secretary, who was counselled on the appropriate things to do in order to earn promotion (to the glory of God, the secretary was one of the beneficiaries of the last promotion exercise in the Polytechnic); also, a Principal Executive Officer (P.E.O) who appeared to have gotten stuck at that P.E.O post (the officer was encouraged to start an appropriate HND programme which the officer recently completed); and a Chief Clerical Officer who also has been on that post for several years (the officer was encouraged to commence an appropriate higher degree programme. The officer is nearing the completion of the programme). Oh! How will these staff ever forget the positive impacts of Dr. Mrs. Lanre-Iyanda in their lives, never; she has impressed her name in their minds in gold. For all staff of the Directorate pursuing one higher degree or the other, she would joyfully ask them: “How far with your programme? Don’t relent o”. What a caring director she has been! She always wanted the progress of others. She is always happy to see people move up the ladder of success.
“(ii) Spirit of Giving; Staff of the Directorate appreciate the beautiful spirit of giving God blessed Dr. Mrs. Lanre-Iyanda with. For the three December during her tenure as DAP (December 2020, 2021, and 2022), she dished out to ALL STAFF MEMBERS in the Directorate, beautifully packed Christmas gifts. [Information available to us at QAU indicates that the Director, SENVS, Dr. Esv. Samson Agbato did likewise in December 2022]. Those who give bountifully will continue to reap in multifold – that’s one of God’s laws about cheerful giving.
(iii). Show of Appreciation; Dr. Mrs. Lanre-Iyanda is so humble and appreciative. She would give credit (where due) to staff members, even for tasks done by them which, ordinarily, are part of their expected schedule of duties. She would commend/appreciate staff members one-on-one, or via phone call, or text/WhatsApp messages. On a good number of occasions, she would call/send messages like: “Thank you, Mr. Sojobi, I’ve gone through the report you sent; it was well written”. “Well done, Mr. Onifade, I know that assignment must have taken you a lot of time to complete”, etc. Even to one of the cleaners, I’ve heard her say: “Thank you madam, you really cleaned my office well o; see how everywhere is sparkling” and to Gbenga (her driver), the commendation is countless.”
The Quality Authority Unit(QAU) therefore advised her to maintain the post with integrity, adding that there are still more opportunities ahead and urged other staff members to see the writeups as an encouragement, charging them to work harder.
