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The Fate Of LAUTECH: Possible Solutions Through The Eyes Of Citizen Stakeholders

The Oasis Reporters

September 10, 2019

Gov. Makinde of Oyo State (left), Gov. Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State.

Governor Seyi Makinde has spoken on the LAUTECH situation. Rather than for the conduits who are bereft of the real happenings in the Government of Osun State that are embarrassingly talking about a phantom subvention released by the Governor of Osun State, I believe that the real deal is for Isiaka Gboyega Oyetola himself to come out and defend the weaknesses of his administration as enunciated by His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State vide a series of tweets.

By virtue of the enormity of the office that the Governor of Oyo State occupies, he will not talk without all the facts. There is a gulf of difference between shouting for the release of money on radio without credit transfers and actual disbursement. I therefore invite the Governor of Osun State to speak up himself if he has any defense, until that is done, Nigerians and indeed the global community will see Osun State as a joke. And before too long, we will be banished from having right of claims on the joint ownership of LAUTECH.

Unfortunately for Oyetola, there is no one to speak or talk for him that can measure to the personality of Seyi Makinde, especially when there is no cabinet in Osun State, one year after his emergence as Osun State Chief Executive. When shall Osun State start to get simple governance and administrative procedures right? Concluding a remark by Social media analyst, Akintunde Bello Sheriff.

Idowu Isamotu writes further on LAUTECH’s “unnecessary brouhaha”.

“Having patiently watched how the two owners of a technology-based tertiary institution, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso have been throwing tantrums at each other on who has been funding or who funds the institution, I found out that some people are hell-bent in destroying any legacy named after or owned by Akintola.

The main reason they have decided to do so is best known to them.
You say which of the legacies have they destroyed before? Go and find out how they destroyed Sketch Newspapers and many other legacies named after the political icon. That is a discussion for another day.

I will not react to the banters of both Oyetola and his Oyo State counterpart, Makinde but I will reiterate my proposed solution to this age-long unnecessary bickering. This proposal of mine was tendered to former governor Aregbesola when he was in government but he threw it into the dustbin due to his sinister motive to ruin the lives of well-meaning students of the institution.

The proposal goes thus:

For those who don’t know, LAUTECH is owned by both States and it is being jointly funded. Oyo State has no single State University (don’t mention the recent one) but Osun State has, with 6 campuses in six towns. Its acronym is UNIOSUN. I want to believe we all know that all 36 States including FCT have Federal Universities. While Osun hosts Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife (OAU), Oyo host University of Ibadan (UI).

When UNIOSUN was created in 2007, it had a Medical School but when the governor that established the institution left government house, his successor ‘scrapped’ College of Health Sciences hosting the medical school because of political differences.

It is known to academics and some people what NUC requires to have College of Health Sciences in a university – which is Teaching hospital and some other little logistics. However, I proposed to Aregbesola then, that he should embark on what NUC required for UNIOSUN and relieve Osun State of LAUTECH’s burden. We couldn’t cope with two state varsities! But ego and ‘too-know’ attitude made him dismiss my proposal.

LAUTECH has seven faculties with its main campus in Ogbomoso, Oyo State; six faculties are located there while only one is located in Osun State capital, Osogbo – which is its teaching hospital.

Aregbesola as a Lagos returnee, who was not familiar with Osun State terrain, was advised that one of Makinde’s predecessors, Otunba Adebayo Alao Akala had initiated sharing of the property legally by building another gigantic and well-equipped Teaching Hospital in Ogbomoso. The aim, according to reports, was to completely take over the institution.

So, Aregbesola was advised to back the process, which would have afforded UNIOSUN to also take over the Teaching Hospital and use it to retain the College of Health Sciences instead of wasting the money he spent in Ukraine on admitted students. But because of politics, he didn’t listen.

Succinctly, the only solution to this unnecessary brouhaha is by leaving LAUTECH for Oyo State as proposed by Makinde since it has no State University before, return College of Health Sciences to UNIOSUN by turning LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo to UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital.

Contributors:

Akintunde Bello and Idowu Isamotu

Greg Abolo

Blogger at The Oasis Reporters.

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