The effect was so debilitating that it almost paralysed the entire economy of Europe, and the Americans feared that a collapsed Europe's economy was a big threat to the growth of its own economy.
Trust the Americans, they came up with a plan to assist Europe out of its economic quagmire while in actual fact, they were laying the foundation of a prosperous American economy with the intention of opening new market frontiers for their goods.
The economic blueprint was called "The Marshall Plan of 1947" appropriately named after Retired General George Marshall who was then, President Harry Truman's Secretary of State.
The plan was a programme of financial aids and other initiatives primarily designed to boost the economies of European countries.
It was an economic recovery plan designed and implemented by the US to assist with recovery efforts for Western Europe with a view of making Europe to be post World War II prosperous.
At Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, a similar plan is being implemented to restore the lost glory of the institution, wake it up from its slumber and take it out of its doldrums into the bright, shining sun that is eagerly burning for success with the aim of confronting the challenges of 21st century.
The emergence of Senator Ibikunle Amosun as the visitor to the university and the inauguration of a new governing council led by Dr Segun Oshin, a seasoned international medical consultant, were the beginning of a new dawn for the 30-year-old university.
The arrival of a new governing council did not only bring hope to the 1, 396 staff and 13, 922 students in the university, but their sadness was replaced with joy, trepidation with courage, disharmony with harmony and unmerited praise with constructive criticism.
Hatred and dislike for fellow staff are being replaced with love and affection. Staff and students feel safe to air their views without the fear of being persecuted. The so much cherished culture of academic freedom is being restored into the system.
To propel the implementation of its marshall plan, the council in its wisdom appointed Professor Saburi Adejimi Adesanya, former Deputy Vice-Chancellor from OAU and a distinguished administrator as the Ag. Vice-Chancellor with a charge to reposition the institution to meet the challenges of a modern day university and proffer necessary solutions.
Taking the bull by the horn, the Vice-Chancellor started the onerous task of updating the database of all the students in the university. Students were compelled to see the completion of their on-line registration as a sine-qua -non- die to be a formal member of the university community that could be easily recognised with the production of his identity card.
This singular act of updating the graduands records within the first three months in office leaves nothing to be desired, as the hopes and aspirations of some graduating students' of the university in witnessing their convocation ceremonies in their lifetime which were dashed for a long period of time surprisingly became a reality.
This was evident in the combined convocation ceremonies held in October 2012, where 4, 014 diploma certificates, 34, 200 First degrees, 1, 856 Masters and 51 PhDs were awarded to deserving individuals in different disciplines. Thus, the issue of outstanding results which had become a blight on the image of the university had been resolved by the present management.
According to the VC, the university is aiming to evolve an ICT system that will soon be sending sessional results to parents and wards by the end of this 2012/2013 academic session.
The same dimension is being introduced towards redeeming the image of the university in the areas of students' academic transcripts, as efforts are not only in top gears towards ensuring that parents and guardians of OOU shall be receiving their wards' transcripts annually, but request for transcripts by graduates of the university will sooner than later become an online affair, as transactions in respect of this could be done from any part of the world.
In line with the National Universities Commission (NUC)guidelines, the present management has continued to restructure the university's academic programmes with a view to repositioning them to favourably compete with the best in Nigeria and beyond.
Existing departments had been pruned down from about 75 to 56 across faculties for effective management in order to ensure quality, marketability and relevance to national development.
With the support of the Segun Oshin-led council, the management within the few years of coming on board had been able to convince the senate to introduce new postgraduate programmes in Management, Engineering, Science, Medical and Para-Medical courses.
Therefore, it was not a surprise to keen observers of the unfolding developmental efforts being put in place by the new management that as at the time of last NUC accreditation, the university had 100 per cent accreditation for 56 programmes, while 11 programmes have interim accreditation.
Impressed by this modest quality assurance exhibited by the university, NUC increased the institution's admission quota from 4,000 to 6,000 for the 2012/2013 admission exercise.
To strengthen these, the university has linkage initiatives with some sister institutions locally and internationally among which are Rutgers State University of New Jersey, USA; Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA; University of Winneba, Ghana; University of South Africa (UNISA); National Centre for Remote Sensing, Jos; Higher Education Academy (HEA) York, UK and The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, to mention just a few.
All these have translated to by-products that are highly skilled, marketable and employable. Graduates of OOU are now competing at the highest levels for which they were hitherto known.
Few examples will suffice; two students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Environmental Studies won the 2012 Summer Internship at Boeing Commercial Airplanes Seattle, USA.
Another student in the Department of Mathematical Science, Faculty of Science, qualified for an internship position in Bowen Institute, Washington, USA.
Recently, two medical students from the College of Medicine won the Medical Elective Bursaries, an award tenable in the United Kingdom and offered by the Commonwealth Foundation and Boyle Memorial Trust.
Of interest was the emergence of the College of Medicine as number one at the Professor Akinkugbe Inter-Medical School Quiz Competition in 2011. At the Nigeria Law School Final Bar Examination in 2011, the university produced three First Class Division students.
In an attempt to create an enabling environment that will stimulate learning among its students and encourage staff to focus on teaching and research, the Saburi-led management sought and got the approval of the governing council to reorganise the physical facilities of the university and improve its infrastructural development.
This involved the movement of all regular under graduate and post graduate degree programmes from the mini campus to the main campus. The central administration was moved to give way to Faculty of Science while the Post-graduate School moved to its newly constructed building donated by Dr Sonuga.
All non-regular studies were also relocated from the main campus to the mini-campus. Thus, the latter is now the Centre for Continuing Education housing the Pre-Degree Programmes and the Education/Sandwich Studies. This Centre is also housing the Ogunlewe Centre for Advanced Research, which is currently under construction.
With the financial support of the administration of Governor Ibikunle Amosun and the grant received from the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFUND), the current management was able to complete the Faculty of Engineering Complex. The governor is also so magnanimous that he has almost completed the asphalt laying of all the internal road networks on the main campus.
An ultra modern ICT building had just been completed and handed over to the university by Shell/SNEPCO.
Other laudable changes going on in the area of infrastructural development in the university include provision of standard sports facilities like lawn tennis, volley ball, badminton courts and an Olympic size football field.
The struggle to get to this point has been tortuous and arduous, staff and students have, indeed, been very supportive. Of course, the support given by the council, under the leadership of Dr Segun Oshin, was remarkable.
These modest strides are a demonstration of the stakeholders' collective resolve as a university to move forward irrespective of the institution's past challenges and adversaries. At Olabisi Onabanjo University, the sun is certainly on the rise again.
Niyi Oduwole is of the Corporate Affairs Division, OOU.
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