THE governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi and his Osun State counterpart, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, have lamented the non-resumption of academic activities at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State, in spite of their spirited efforts to restore normalcy.
The owner-states governors bared their minds during the submission of the report of the Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN)-led visitation panel, set up over the crisis rocking the university, at the Governor’s Office, Ibadan, on Friday.
Also at the event were the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the institution’s Governing Council, Professor Wale Omole; Vice Chancellor, Professor Adeniyi Gbadegesin, and other members of the governing council and the visitation panel.
The panel was set up in October last year, to chart a fresh path for the institution, which had been thrown into crisis for more than eight months due to the industrial action embarked upon by its academic and non-academic staff.
Although, the school was reopened by the management on January 27, following the injection of over half a billion naira by Oyo and Osun States, the institution’s branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had refused to return to classes citing unresolved issues with the management.
Ajimobi had commended the panel for what he called a thorough and in-depth job done, assuring the panel of full implementation of the recommendations.
He, however, harped on the need for the collaboration of corporate bodies and individuals to set up a trust fund for the funding of the institution given the pervading reality of paucity of funds in the country.
Meanwhile, the Chairman, Visitation Panel to the institution, Chief Wole Olanipekun, on Friday, advanced the imperativeness of the owner-state governments to, as a short term measure, provide subventions that will engender the full resumption of academic life at the university.
Olanipekun, who spoke after presenting the report of the visitation panel at the Oyo State Governor’s Office, Ibadan, urged the two owner-state governments to provide more that the recent N500 million.
He emphasised that the institution urgently required funding to stabilise, while other challenges like an archaic finance system, problem of overstaffing, establishment of critical structures would be addressed.
He, however, noted that government alone was incapable and could not sufficiently fund education, while he advanced the need for a trust fund for the running of the school.
“We want to plead that the university needs funds to survive and the owner-states cannot shy away from providing financial assistance. We encourage that for now, the university needs money.
“We are recommending that for now, university must be given subvention for it to reopen, in the short term, and the implementation of the other steps of the recommendation that we are made. But, in the process of binding our report, we noticed that two states have made available N250 million each. We commended the two states but that might not be enough.”