Lateef Babatunde Ayeleru, a Professor of French, Applied Linguistic and African Literature and a lecturer with the Premier University of Ibadan, became the Director, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the of the Nigeria French Language Village (NVLV), located at the border town of the ancient town of Badagry, in Lagos State. The institution now occupies the site of former Government Teachers’ Training College (GTTC), along the Lagos-Seme Expressway.
His appointment, according to the letter, from the Honourable Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu took effect from January 20, 2020, for a single term of five years.
In April this year, the 56 years old Director/CEO, decided toinvite a couple of media personalities to join him in a tour of the facilities of the Village with a view to briefing them on what he met on ground at resumption and the impact he has made and planning to make on the 30 years old citadel of learning.
It was against this background of the mandate given to him by the Federal Government that he has vowed to do whatever humanly possible within his power to make sure that the school remains a Centre of excellence and a pride to the nation without minding the teething problems that has confronted it and still confronting it.
While congratulating the country on the establishment of the institution, Professor Ayeleru expressed the delights that; despite any challenge, the institution still remains one of the best projects that had emerged on the country’s educational terrain, given the excellent profile of its workforce and the dynamic approach of management under him to initiating development-oriented and self-sustaining programmes and projects that are beneficial to humanity.
Ayeleru, during the inspection tour of the campus, disclosed that, “so far, over 72, 000 students have graduated since the institution’s establishment,” just as he further promised to do his part in realising the “vision of the Government to empower all persons, irrespective of age, culture, creed or sex, with appropriate communication skills in the effective use of the French Language at both professional and inter-personal levels.”
Leading the journalists round, the don led them to inspect some on-going rehabilitation of dilapidated blocks of offices, collapse classrooms and inhabitable hostels in the Village, which the map shows covers not less than 16 hectares of land in the coastal, border and historical town of Badagry.
Briefing his guests on the operations of the Village, Ayelero informed that, “over the years, “the Village had trained over 72,000 students from more than 30 universities, 35 Colleges of Education and thousands of other categories of Nigerian French Language learners,” adding that, in the recent time, increase in students’ population was as a result of the intensive advocacy by the management of the institution under his leadership’s watchful eyes.
The Village, according to him also organises periodic seminars, symposia, debates, workshops as well as refresher courses which it has done for at least over 560 tutors across the federation and without sounding immodest, the vocal Director disclosed that, “students who undergo their Language Immersion course in the French Village exhibit higher levels of competence in French Language after their Immersion programme compared to the few who still travel out of the country for the same programme.”
Summing up the benefit of the Village, the Director/CEO declared that, “the establishment of the Nigeria French Village has saved the country millions of dollar in forex.”
With Ayeleru’s modest achievements just in two out of five years tenure, his media visitors unanimously admitted that, the way the don is operating, he will definitely make great and positive impact on the very important institution and leave an enduring legacy to whoever succeeds him after the expiration of his term.
