Oyetola bestowed sure-footed Unilesa to Ijesa - Media Clusters• Says Adeleke spent just N60m on varsity this year

The attention of the APC Media Clusters has been drawn to a deliberate falsehood credited to the Osun state governor, Mr Ademola Adeleke, that he inherited an "audio" University of Ilesa on assumption of office in November 2022.

The governor was said to have made the snide remark while on commiserative visit to the palace of Owa Obokun Adimula over the transition of Oba Gabriel Adekunle Aromolaran, the paramount ruler of Ijesaland.

The governor, rather than devoting his energy to the assignment that took him to the palace, elected to play bitter politics and peculate the achievements recorded in the university by the defunct government.

While Mr Adeleke can be pardoned for his indiscretionary comment, given his poor and clumsy education, it is disheartening that the real graduates among the PDP chieftains in attendance could not caution the loquacious speaker who, for self-glorification, chose the solemn moment of the exit of the highly educated Kabiyesi to manipulate the immediate history of the profoundly sophisticated Ijesa people.

There is no doubting the fact that ex-Governor Adegboyega Oyetola bestowed to the Ijesa people a carefully planned university and an ambitious project-in-progress. The history of the university is not complex, safe for the history revisionists who are bent on undermining the pivotal role played by the ex-Governor. 

According to Section 19 of the National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions (Amendment Decree No 9 of 1993), approval for establishing a university shall only be granted after the federal government or its accredited agency has been satisfied that funds, moveable and unmovable assets are appropriate for establishing the institution. Specifically, the promoters of the university must have supplied a concrete and guaranteed source of financial support for the University to the tune of N200 million. A proposed institution shall also have clearly spelt out masterplan for infrastructural and programme development for at least 20 to 25 years.

All these were criteria met by the Oyetola administration before the University of Ilesa came into being in 2022, so contrary claims designed to vitiate the big contribution of the last government in the state, negate facts and commonsense. If the old college of education had been poorly funded, as it is the case now, the process of its upgrade under Oyetola should not have been smart and in record time.

Oyetola was deliberate about installing a world class university in Ilesa as it reflected in the methodical approach he gave to it when his government employed the services of a notable consulting firm, KPMG, to offer advisory services on the smooth take-off of the university. The quality of minds enlisted in the inaugural governing council of the institution also pointed to the noble direction Oyetola envisioned for the university. Led by a world class obstetrician and former vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Isaac Adewole, as the chairman, the university started on a sound footing. A renowned scholar and accomplished physician, Professor Kayode Thadius Ijadunola, was named the vice chancellor. Ijadunola, before the appointment, had served as Provost, College of Health Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He was a winner of fellowships and research grants from around the world including Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University and Bills and Belinda Gate Foundation. The governing council also included two former vice chancellors of high flying public universities. 

It was this team that completed the process of onboarding the institution on the portal/database of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board ( JAMB) in readiness for the 2023 UTME enrolment, before the bumbling Governor Adeleke, like a bull in a china shop, ruptured the Ivory tower, dissolved the council and left the university with some obscure scholars and local champions to tender.

The university, initially planned to become an institution of first choice, is now becoming unattractive to both students and academics. The recruitment process of faculty members, for instance, is so clannish that mediocre master's degree holders can now gain teaching employment in the institution provided they are supporters of the PDP and are, most especially, from Ede, the hometown of the parochial governor. Many qualified Ijesa natives, even with doctorates, have been turned down because they do not belong to the ruling party in the state.

A university, hitherto bubbling with funding prospects from Ijesa entrepreneurs and professionals, is now a shadow of itself as the key stakeholders who pledged financial supports have distanced themselves from the dream project following the haphazard dissolution by Governor Adeleke of the maiden management team.

The university today relies heavily on exorbitant school fees for its funding. Students pay as much as N825, 000 as school fees in a session. Against the claim of the state governor at the Owa Adimula Palace that the university is adequately funded by the government, only N60million was added to revenue generated from the university in the first half of the year. Of the N1.31bn appropriated to the school in the Q1-Q2 of 2024, whooping N1.25bn, representing almost 100% of the expenditure, came from the university. So where comes the boast of the governor?  

We challenge the current government in Osun to disclose to the public one capital project added to the project profile inherited from the Oyetola administration. We make bold to say that except projects fully funded by the APC federal government through TETFUND, the government of Adeleke has not added any ambitious infrastructure in Ilesa varsity that should warrant elephantine boast of the governor.