Ibiyemi Olatunji Bello’s journey to the top of Lagos State University (LASU), including two unsuccessful attempts to become vice chancellor before eventually securing the position, has been turned into a feature film exploring resilience and women’s leadership.
Madam Vice Chancellor: Against the Odds, a biopic on the former LASU vice chancellor, premiered at EbonyLife Cinema in Lagos on September 15, bringing together members of the university community, cast and others involved in the production.
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The film was produced by the Women & Girls Empowerment Foundation International (WOGEFI), founded by Olawunmi Oni Buraimoh, who said the decision to document Olatunji Bello’s story was driven partly by the lessons in her career.
“As the second woman to occupy the highest office at Lagos State University, I was particularly interested in how Professor Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello eventually became vice chancellor after two previous attempts,” Oni Buraimoh said.
“I felt there had to be lessons in that journey, particularly for women, girls and young people about resilience, persistence and leadership.”
The production team interviewed more than 50 people, including Olatunji Bello’s friends, colleagues, lecturers, staff and students, as it reconstructed her career and the experiences surrounding her rise through the university system.
Bakare Adeoye, the film’s director, said the project was initially conceived as a documentary before the team decided to tell the story as a biopic.
“At the beginning she was thinking of a documentary. I just said, no, let’s do a biography. Something that could bring some drama in it, that people would sit down and want to watch it like a movie, beyond a documentary,” Adeoye said.
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The research lasted about three to four months, with the production team conducting interviews with more than 50 people before putting the accounts together for the film.
Oni Buraimoh said the research also changed the team’s understanding of the story, as interviews with people who had worked with Olatunji Bello revealed more about the obstacles she faced and her approach to leadership.
“Her journey, the obstacles she encountered and the experiences of those who worked with her convinced us that this was a story worth documenting,” she said.
The producer said the film also seeks to challenge the tendency to view women’s achievements through their husbands or family connections rather than their own qualifications and work.
“A woman can be married to a successful or influential man and still have her own dreams, ambitions and accomplishments. One should not cancel out the other,” Oni Buraimoh said.
“A woman’s aspirations should be taken seriously and her achievements should be assessed on their own merit.”
Olatunji Bello, who attended the premiere, thanked the cast and crew, particularly Ireti Osayemi, who played her in the film.
“I looked at her and I said, she looks so much like me, with my glasses. I don’t know how she got those glasses. She did a good job,” she said.
Olatunji Bello rose through academia after studying physiology and later becoming a professor in the field. She served as deputy vice chancellor of LASU before becoming the university’s ninth substantive vice chancellor.
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For Adeoye, turning the story into a film was also an exercise in balancing the personal accounts gathered during the research with the need to create a story that would hold an audience.
“At the beginning, I was scared. We were hoping that people would like it,” he said of the premiere.
The film comes as Olatunji Bello’s tenure as vice chancellor has ended, giving the production an opportunity to preserve an account of her years in academia and university leadership while opening a wider conversation about persistence and women’s advancement into leadership positions.
