Small But Mighty Prophecies and Realities in Animal Breeding:- Professor Sylvester Nzebunwa Ibe

PREAMBLE

In his inaugural lecture at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye on September 14, 2000, Professor Emmanuel O. A. Ajayi, Professor of Educational Management, described inaugural lecture as “an academic debt”. Yes, it is a debt, which every Professor owes the universal academic community (the University). In another inaugural lecture at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka on July 25, 2006, Professor Ignatius U. Obi regarded an inaugural lecture as a “very important academic function”. That was why, after I got the chair on May 23, 1996, I wrote to the then Vice-Chancellor on March 10, 1998, indicating my desire and readiness to deliver my inaugural lecture. The theme of today’s lecture, i.e., “Small but mighty” was the same theme conceived in 1998. I did not have the opportunity to “pay the price” for my hard-won professorship, to perform this important academic function and promote this important component of University academic culture, which, unfortunately, witnessed total collapse in the period between 1999 and early 2006. At a point, 1 thought I was not going to have the opportunity to perform this ritual before I retire from the University.