A book launch held to celebrate years of leadership is now becoming an opportunity for students who may struggle to stay in school.
Former President/Vice-Chancellor of Babcock University and current President of the Adventist University of Africa, Ademola S. Tayo, has pledged proceeds from a book launched in his honour to an educational support initiative for indigent students.
The initiative, announced barely six months after the book launch, will provide annual sponsorship for 10 students from Oke-Ila Orangun and five students from Inisha, both in Osun State.
It will also fund a yearly prize for Babcock University’s overall best graduating student.
“Education restores dignity, unlocks potential, and builds nations. This project will continue to open doors for deserving students long after we are gone,” Tayo said.
“This initiative is our way of ensuring that the kindness represented by this book continues to multiply itself through transformed lives and future leaders,” he added.
According to Tayo, the scholarship support will not be limited to students in public institutions but will extend to deserving candidates across different educational settings.
He said the funds would be strategically invested to ensure sustainability, with yearly dividends used to provide partial scholarships.
To ensure continuity and accountability, the Education Foundation will be managed by a board and designed to outlive its founders.
“Books are powerful instruments. Buildings may age, policies may change, and administrations may pass, but books preserve ideas, values, struggles, lessons, and legacies,” he said.
“Through books, experiences become teachers to people we may never meet. Through books, history speaks to the future. Through books, leadership becomes accountable to posterity. Therefore I do not take this gesture lightly.”
Tayo also said whatever achievements recorded during his time at Babcock reflected God’s grace and the support of colleagues, parents, staff, students, alumni, church members and institutional partners.
The professor, who led Babcock University for a decade, now serves as President of Adventist University of Africa in Nairobi, Kenya.
He and his wife, Grace Tayo, assumed their new roles in January 2026 after completing their tenure at Babcock, where Grace Tayo served as Director of Research, Innovation and International Collaboration.
Together, the couple spent 27 years serving Babcock University in different leadership positions and contributing to its growth and international reputation.
The book, Ademola S. Tayo: The Unlikely and Creditable Vice-Chancellor, edited by Michael Oni, Ngozi Nwogwugwu and Emmanuel Eregare, is a 400-page biography documenting his decade-long leadership at Babcock University, highlighting values such as accountability, fairness, prudence and service.
EduTimes Africa, a product of Education Times Africa, is a magazine publication that aims to lend its support to close the yawning gap in Africa's educational development.