Makinde Wants Oyo State’s Sole Ownership Of Lautech, Visits The Institution To Meet Stakeholders
The Oasis Reporters
November 27, 2019
The governor of Oyo State, Engr. Seyi Makinde led an entourage to visit Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomoso (LAUTECH), yesterday to meet with all stakeholders, in order to resolve the current crisis which resulted in a strike action by staff of the institution jointly owned by Oyo and Osun State governments, November 18, 2019.
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At the interactive meeting, Seyi Makinde assured them that “Oyo State would intervene in the current crisis so studies can resume, if the various staff unions reach an agreement on how to utilise the intervention fund. However, I told them we need their support to implement a lasting solution to the university’s challenges”.
And talking about challenges, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology located in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, has a huge plethora of them. Jointly owned by a two state structure that used to be one people, there has been blame shifting between parties that has often led the institution to remain comatose and this has lingered, ever since Osun State was carved out of Oyo State.
Ogbomoso is located in Oyo State.
At a time, both States were governed by the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC and the then two governors, Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State and Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, as joint visitors to the University, made the de facto APC chieftain in the South West, Ahmed Bola Tinubu the Chancellor of the University. Yet its problems remained more intractable.
Seeking out a sensible solution to the Lautech rotten tooth in Makinde’s mouth that he must manage to smile with, he said:
“We believe our proposal for sole ownership for LAUTECH is the solution the university needs. I reiterated that this was not a rejection of Osun State people as our brothers and sisters but a pragmatic solution, as Oyo State is financially prepared to shoulder the responsibility”.