Gov Oyetola gets NUC nod for take-off of new Osun University

Governor Oyetola

THE National Universities Commission (NUC) on Thursday issued a letter of recognition for the take-off of the newly approved University of Ilesa in Osun State.

Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed presented the letter of recognition to the Executive Governor of Osun state, Adegboyega Oyetola, at brief ceremony in Abuja.

The Governor was accompanied to NUC by the former Governor of Osun State and first interim chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, former Minister of Heath, Professor Isaac Adewole, Speaker, Osun House of Assembly, Rt. Honourable Timothy Owoeye among others.

The letter of recognition was handed over to Oyetola after the Law establishing the University, Academic Brief and the Physical Master Plan of the institution were presented to Executive Secretary of NUC.

Rasheed in his remark, establishment of University was a best legacy anyone could leave anywhere in the world, adding that the Governor has compensated Osun people with a full-fledged University the ownership of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) was ceded to Oyo State following the unending ownership tussle between the two states.

He noted that the upgrade of the College of Education Ilesa to University status has brought number of universities in Nigeria to 2020 with 111 of them that are private universities.

The NUC boss noted in spite of this high number of private universities, they only accounted for 5 to 6 per cent of the over two million students enrolled in Universities while the remaining 95 per cent of students are in public varsities.

The Governor while thanking the Commission for the recognition, disclosed that new University of Ilesa shall focus on Agriculture and Agri-business to address food insecurity, mining technology building on the abundant gold deposit in Ijesaland and Medical Sciences to enhance the human resource need in the health sector.

“We are very deliberate in our approach as we seek to contribute to the diversification of our economy and wean it away from over reliance on oil”.

“In anticipation of the license issuance, we have identified credible candidates for the Governing Council and Principal Officers, ready to be appointed and hit the ground running, he said.

It would be recalled that Oyetola recently assented to the law seeking to upgrade the Osun State College of Education, Ilesa to a full-fledged University.

The Governor’s assent followed the successful passage of the Executive Bill into Law by the Osun State House of Assembly in August.

According to him, the proposed university has been carefully conceived as a thoroughly entrepreneurial and innovative institution that would be funded through a mix of sources, such as the government, community, industry, and other stakeholders without exerting unnecessary pressure on the finances of the State.

Governor Oyetola said: “The establishment of the University of Ilesa is necessitated by the massive gap between qualified candidates and available space in existing higher institutions within the state, as education remains the primary industry in Osun. The yearning is considerably insatiable, and as responsible leaders, we cannot ignore these needs.

“Our commitment is to contribute to developing the human resources needed to drive growth in Osun and Nigeria. Higher education worldwide is a veritable driver of human development, innovation, technological advancement, and resource exploration.

‘Higher education is central to the creation of future wealth, better socio-economic attainment, efficient agro-economy and mining technology in the current dispensation of the knowledge economy. Better and efficient managers of resources and upward mobile professionals are all products of a well-designed curriculum and focused advanced training. Every aspect of human endeavour depends on higher education to attain an efficient level of production and performance.

“Thus, the increase in the quest for knowledge further strengthens the importance of higher education in this twenty-first century. Higher education institutions are also critical and central to the development of well-rounded leaders and skilled personnel in all areas of human activities.

“Hence, the need to develop our current college of education into a full-fledged university to train and equip a diverse group of youths with professional skills, entrepreneurial ability, and innovative insights especially in agri-business, mining and health,”.

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