Prof. Adelani Tijani may appear quite humble outwardly, but he has an intimidating Curriculum Vitae with admirable professional achievements. The newly appointed Director, FUOYE Institute of Part Time Studies, Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), equally has intimidating laurels which include
RN, RPHN, RNE, BNSc, MSc, Ph.D, FWAPCNM, FAIPHP .
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Prof Adelani Tijani
RN, RPHN, RNE, BNSc, MSc, Ph.D, FWAPCNM, FAIPHP
Director, FUOYE Institute of Part Time Studies
In this chat with Dr. Wole Balogun, Special Adviser on Media Matters to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina, the astute academic pledged to take FUOYE’s newly approved Nursing Part-Time Programme, and the Institute, into an enviable height, much higher that its predecessors in Nigeria. Prof. Tijani also fielded some other questions that may be bothering the minds of the public. Excerpts:
Congratulations on the new approval for the program sir, please what basically are the criteria for this programme which awards a Bnsc in Nursing ?
Prof. Tijani: Thank you very much. The main reason for the establishment of the institute of Nursing Science is to provide avenue for practising Nurses that are yet get BNSc degree to get one. There are many Nurses out there that are looking for this opportunity.
On the choice of Ilupeju-Ekiti, It is the community that specifically requested for the siting of FUOYE Nursing Part-Time degree program in their town. And since it has been among the plans of the Vice- Chancellor, Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina, to add some extra achievements to his five-year developmental plans and programmes, he readily granted the town the Institute of Nursing Science. He then appointed me to kickstart the commencement of the institute and manage it together with the institute of Part-Time Studies for the next two years.
Can a first degree holder in other related medical fields like Anatomy, Radiology, MLS etc, be considered for admission into the programme?.
Prof Tijani: The institute will run BNSc degree program for two types of Nurses. First, Nurses that have gone to acquire RN qualification in the NMCN approved school of Nursing. The candidate may also possess RM or other registered certificates of the NMCN. This category will spend three years to run the program.
The second category are Nurses that are graduating recently from the Colleges of Nursing. This category must possess RN, RM/RPHN and HND Nursing. This category are yet to be in Nigeria, but Colleges of Nursing will start graduating this category of Nurses from 2026. We included their one year conversion program as a proactive measure. It’s when they start to graduate next year that some universities will be thinking of running a conversion program because of them. But in FUOYE, we are proactive and always think outside the box; hence, we have gotten a structure to accommodate them immediately they graduate from the Colleges of Nursing.
Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina, VC, FUOYE.
Actually, the federal government, through the NMCN, passed a circular to all Schools of Nursing in 2019 to stop the old program of running several schools of Nursing as separate institutions, and combine the schools together to award HND. The Schools of Nursing were given the option of merging with a nearby University for the purpose of awarding a BNSc degree. Virtually all Schools of Nursing chose the first option; only three Schools of Nursing agreed to merge with the nearby University. They are Ondo State School of Nursing, Akure, that merged with the University of Medical Sciences, Ilaje; Benue State School of Nursing, Makurdi, also merged with the Benue State University. And the Federal Teaching Hospital’s School of Nursing, Ido-Ekiti merged with FUOYE.
Definitely, it is not a program for fresh school certificate holders; their place is in the regular BNSc program through jamb examination.
To the question whether candidates with degree in other fields can be admitted to the program, the answer is no.
The reason being that our University, FUOYE, has fixed admission quota annually.
So, if we take non-Nurses into the program, there’s no way for them to do the professional nursing examination of the NMCN.
What are the fortunes a degree in Nursing attract to the career of a Registered Nurse?
Prof. Tijani: We all know that it is mandatory for civil servants to obtain a degree in his field before he could rise beyond salary GL14 in the civil service. Everyone wants to reach the pinnacle of his or her career. Besides this, there is very limited work for Nurses without a degree overseas. Developed countries don’t employ Nurses without a degree as real Nurses in their countries. They employed them as Assistant Nurses.
What advice do you have for a prospective candidate who only has relevant O-level qualification now but wish to one day come and register for this programme?
Prof. Tijani: My advice for fresh secondary school leavers who want to study Nursing Is to study well to pass jamb exams and gain admission through the regular program. They should aim at scoring 300+ In jamb and aim at scoring 80% + in post utme. Nursing has been the most subscribed course in Nigerian universities now. In FUOYE, for example, our annual subscription from jamb admission seekers for Nursing ranges from 8000 to 10,000 on yearly basis.
So, any candidate that wants to study Nursing has to be very brilliant and study really hard. But the joy there is that a Nurse can never be jobless. There is always jobs for Nurses within the country and abroad.
What else do you wish to say about this program and the advantages of running it in FUOYE?.
Prof. Tijani: Advantages of running the Nursing Part-Time program in FUOYE is that within the Ondo-Ekiti axis, FUOYE is the only Federal University and the second to ABUAD, to start the program in this axis.
In actual fact, very few Universities are running the Nursing Part Time program in the South-West and North-Central zones of the country. They are OAU, Ife, University of ibadan, U.I, and recently Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD)
It is because of the dearth of Schools for Part Time Nursing that made ABU Zaria got large number of students in these two zones.
So, there is a very big market for us. FUOYE will develop its own Part Time Nursing programme to be of higher standard than those met on ground.
Thank you.
