Eche Munonye
Engr. Wole Ogunsanya, a worthy Alumnus of the faculty of engineering, UNILAG and Founder of Geoplex Drillteq Ltd, a foremost Engineering firm, has built and donated a Vertical Extension Office Floors to the school as a social responsibility initiative to the institution that groomed him into the international business mogul he has become today.
The project was jointly unveiled by the donor, Engr. Wole Ogunsanya, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Professor Folasade Ogunshola; and The Chairman, University of Lagos, Faculty of Engineering Alumni Association (UNILAGFEAA), Engr. Dideolu Falobi.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony in Lagos, the donor, Engr. Wole Ogunsanya went back memory lane as he told the audience what prompted the donation ‘I spent the most important years of my academic life in this Institution, the Great University of Lagos, at this very Faculty at the young age of 17 years, from 1982 to 1987, graduating with honors in Mechanical Engineering. The level of preparedness, and quality of education this Faculty gave us was the reason why many of us were able to take advantage of the opportunity the outside world had waiting for us. The company that came recruiting was looking for the best Engineers’ not just from Nigeria but across the world, including from Europe and North America. I was one of the four Nigerian Engineers that got recruited after our NYSC year in 1988’.
On how he was able to deliver the project in record time, he said, ‘The decision to take on this project and delivering it within time came quite easy for me and my organization because the great passion and respect I have for this institution. I was invited in 2021 as the Keynote Speaker of the 5th Annual Lecture program of the Faculty of Engineering Alumni Association. The topic of this Lecture was “Nigeria Gas Potentials Existing and Emerging Opportunities for Engineers and Investors”. Having worked in the Oil and Gas Upstream Sector for 35 years, and counting, I was very personate about the topic and quite motivated to deliver a practically focused speech that covers wide spectrum of Opportunities for Engineers and investors of varying funding capacity. There was opportunity after the lecture to meet up with the officials of this faculty and worked around the premises. It was obvious that that there are many opportunities to support, give back and contribute to the institution that afforded many of us to be where we are today’.
He further spoke on why they considered the project a high priority at this time. ‘The choice of the Vertical Extension of the Department of Mechanical Engineering was quite glaring from conversation with the Dean, Prof Sodiq, on the need of additional office spaces for the Lecturers. With Student population in the faculty of more than three times what it was 36 years ago without major addition to the capacity of the available infrastructures, it’s difficult not to imagine the impact on the quality of education delivered to these many students of the faculty. Without adequate office facilities and resources available to the Lecturers, the impact on the quality of education and knowledge for these teeming students of the faculty is even more affected. After my Inaugural Lecture in 2021, I was able to have good audience with the Dean, Prof. Sodiq and our fantastic Faculty Alumni Chairman Engr. Dideolu Falobi, who has broken all records with his purposeful leadership that has resulted in the highest give back to the Faculty in a generation by many of our Great Alumni’.
The amiable Engineer and philanthropist ended his speech by making a promise to further help develop the faculty. In his words, as an Engineer with huge interest in Applied Engineering that has made our company Geoplex, the Leader in Applied Engineering Oil and Gas Services, not only in Nigeria, but the rest of Sub Sahara Africa, we will commit to work and invest with the Faculty for the next 3 years to sponsor specific research with high potential to create economically viable products and services.
