Resolving LAUTECH crisis

The crisis rocking the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State, has become almost endemic. All the efforts so far made to find a lasting solution to it have proved abortive.

There have been accusations and counter accusations regarding the causes of the crisis. But like the late Chief Ayo Ojewumi once asked, where do we go from here?

Lest we forget, there are over 35,000 students in the school and there are many traders who earn their daily living in and around the campus. Commercial drivers and motorcyclists popularly called okada riders earn their living on the axis too.

Deterioration awaits every untreated sore. An untrained child becomes a burden not only to his family but also to the society at large. The trauma of being undergraduates till eternity might force many of the students into heinous crimes and membership of terror groups.

The dreaded Boko Haram group was not formed overnight. Now, if 35,000 criminals are unconsciously sent out into the society, the consequences will be better imagined than experienced.

Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. Besides, Ogbomoso community is the worse for the situation. LAUTECH is the only government-owned higher institution in the town. To be frank, it is the second largest town in Oyo State after Ibadan.

The Yoruba say that an elder cannot be in a market place and allow a child’s head to be improperly positioned.  Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a living legend, is hereby beseeched to wade into the logjam.

To this end, I suggest that the respected voice in Nigerian affairs, nay world affairs, should call the two owner state governors and  the university’s chancellor to a meeting, so that the former best state university in Nigeria does not die.

The students, their parents and guardians and Ogbomoso community are currently trapped in the narrow cell of emotional jail.

Again, if this does not work, we appeal to the Federal Government to take over the institution. Some people may say that no state has two federal universities. But it must be remembered that Oyo State has no federal polytechnic.

Therefore, a federally-owned LAUTECH could be used to compensate for this lack. Also, old Oyo State had two universities, University of Ibadan and University of Ife, before the creation of Osun State on August 27, 1991.

The future comes one day at a time. One day, one or more state(s) will be carved out of the present Oyo State. The centripetal and centrifugal differences would be finally settled.

• Adelani Olawuyi

Ogbomoso, Oyo State