Ila-Orangun Professors charge university’s host community on meaningful co-existence

THE Ila-Orangun Council of Professors (ICPs) has called on residents of Ila-Orangun, the host community of the
newly-established Federal University of Health, Nutrition and Medical Sciences, to give the staff and students of the university the needed support and the right atmosphere for meaningful co-existence.

This was contained in a statement signed by Professor Tunde Ajiboye on behalf of Ila-Orangun Council of Professors, a copy of which was made available to Nigerian Tribune, on Tuesday.

The council said it received the news of the Federal Government’s decision to site a Federal University in their community, Ila-Orangun with joy and excitement.

The ICPs said the Federal Ministry of Education had earlier disclosed that the university was one of the two specialized universities recently approved to cater for the health-related needs of people of the country, especially as a response to the nation’s acute medical awareness arising from COVID-19

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According to the ICPs, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Sonny Echoro, was quoted to have said inter alia that: ‘With the recent establishment of the only Federal Government owned University of Health Sciences, Otukpo in Benue State and the huge gap in doctor-patient ratio as well as in medical research and production of pharmaceutical products, government recognises the compelling need to establish two other specialised universities in Health, Nutrition and
Medical Sciences.

“These universities will be located at Azare, Bauchi State and Ila-Orangun, Osun State.”

The ICPs further said that the contents of the reference above are testimonies to the critical role that the university sited in Ila-Orangun is called to play in the health sector not just in Osun State but more centrally in the country as a whole.

While expressing gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari and his government, the various hands that shaped the destiny of the university in the direction of Osun State and Ila-Orangun in particular, the ICPs also said the siting of the university in their community was a renewed call to duty and as an underlying reason to collaborate with the host community in the promotion of learning at all levels and in whatever way considered fit for the ultimate realisation of the laudable goals of the university.

The council also commended the Orangun of Ila, Oba Wahab Oyedotun Bibire I, the Asiwaju of Ila-Orangun, Chief Bisi Akande, Professor Sola Adeyeye and Honourable Olufemi Fakeye for their contributions towards the establishment of the university.