The bright afternoon in Ibadan when it all looks good and glamour, the brown roofs staring at the sky, the sounds of hooting cars filled the air, the people are doing their businesses to make ends meet like the worm spinning silk.
Some where in Popo Ye Mo ja there is the usual drums and merriment that surrounds a palace, on this special day the imperial ruler of the military garrison is installing new warlords in Mogajis and Baales, everything was rosy and merry:Until bullets started raining.
The present regime in Oyo State under the leadership of Gov. Abiola Ajimobi has made numerous giant strides in the state, and no matter what reservations you have for his administration, those who are conversant with the security status of Oyo State in the Pre-Ajimobi era would agree with me that in the area of Security the state has scored a distinction.
This stance was achieved through many intelligent initiative of the government like the creation of the security task force Operation Burst, Funding and supports for vigilante groups, e.t.c.
There is a saying in the divine language "YORUBA" which is best translated literarily as " Only a thief supported by the lords of the land can raid the king's backyard".
What is your perception of the sporadic shooting at the Olubadan's palace on 25/9/2017 by unknown gunmen while he was installing new Mogajis and Baales.
In a state that has enjoyed so much peace in the last 6 years of this administration, why is this blasphemy happening at this time that the Olubadan and the Governor are at logger heads over the elevation and subsequent installation of some of Chiefs and Baales as Kings.
Who dares attack a palace in broad daylight, if not the thieves backed by the lords of the land.
Who would believe the puppeteer is innocent about the puppet's dance?
In my article 32 Beaded Kings, 32 Questions, I punctuated by bringing to notice the seed of discord that has been planted in Ibadan and the fruits of hostility it would bear if it finally germinate.
It appears it has germinated and we are seeing the results.
The Olubadan and some other people did something applaudable when they approached the court, but to see an action of this magnitude: Shooting sporadically at the palace with the intent to disrupt a function at the scared abode of our king who is next to the Gods in authority.
A taboo! But am not too surprised though, we've seen power mongers fight each other at the Eid Praying ground on Eid Kabir day (the most sacred festival of the Islamic faith) day before in this state.
The British disrupted our traditional institutions putting the king's authority under the government.... And we have seen what Governors do with such powers.
It's only for historical reference that I mention the British, "the banana was hard ripe before it becomes rotten" we have created more rot in the system than what the colonial masters brought in.
I urge the police to wake up to the governor's call and fish out the culprits, and make them face the music of the law, also revealing those lords who backed them in executing the dastardly act.
Ibadan is a land of warriors, where warlords get high at any chance to display their might. I hope the warlords loyal to the garrison commander would not be planning to execute a reprisal attack to show their might and loyalty to the commander.
For the sustenance of the existing peace in the land, I hope all parties involved in the present elevation and installation tussle of the Olubadan chieftaincy title would patiently wait for the outcome of the litigation.
To Gov. Abiola Ajimobi, I would let him know that the citizens are grateful for the ground standing peace we've enjoyed in the last six years, we hope to enjoy more and hope he would not be distracted by the current crisis and would continue to ensure security of lives and property.
Long Live Ibadan!!!
Long Live Olubadan!!!
Long Live Oyo State!!!
Arasi Senior Kolapo
Tuesday 26 September 2017
Monday 18 September 2017
Breaking: ASUU Conditional Suspend Strike
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has announced a conditional suspension of it nationwide industrial action.
ASUU’s decision followed a reconciliation meeting with a Federal Government team which held today (Monday) in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
The talks with the Federal Government team came after about two weeks following the union’s consultations with its various chapters on the terms of agreement earlier reached by both parties.
More details coming soon.
WHO BEATS THE DRUM FOR THE DANCING PYTHON By Arasi Kolapo
In the animal kingdom python is a one of the giants in the reptile caste, bold, strong and intelligent. Hunters who dares to kill python are A class hunters, because putting the venom aside the swiftness with which the python strangulate it's prey is another thing to fear.
If we see a drummer that would beat the drum for a gathering of python holding a feast. Who dares to watch their dance?
The Nigerian state in her beauty has got people of diverse ethnicity, language, culture and beliefs. Like many people I have argued that our marriage was forced in 1914 but the forced matrimony gave birth to glorified diversity but lacking a concretely reinforced unity.
The south Eastern part of Nigeria is one our pivotal unit even with our failing economy system, Our Abba brothers are as important to the Nigerian economy as oxygen is to human.
Ask yourself this sincere question, have you ever gone a day without a contact with a creation of Igbo people in Nigeria.
Nnmadi kanu came with a crusade to revive Biafra nation wrapped with a cessation foil. Self determination is lawful but it becomes unlawful when such group crusading self determination starts having their own security outfits, laying claims to the ownership of weapons of mass destruction, giving sit at home orders and disrupting free movement of citizens who are going about their lawful businesses.
Apart from the Nnmadi kanu having dual citizenship, there are so many unmanned border that could take him out of the country whenever the jig is down.
The United Nations global terrorist index ranked the Fulani herdsmen as the 3rd deadliest terror group after IS and Boko Haram, even though we know statistics like this are furnished with conspiracy, true or not true we all saw the mayhem the Fulani herdsmen unleashed on this nation.
Our Defence Headquarter didn't declare them (Fulani herdsmen) as terrorists, what am I saying, we even witnessed how the accidental servant Gov. Nasir El-Rufai was paying them, no operation Tiger smile, Lion Hunt, or Bull raid in those regions affected by the Fulani herdsmen one of the many nepotism of this country.
It was not wrong to have pronounced IPOB a terrorist group owing to their recent activities, that was how Boko Haram metamorphosed from a parrot propagating an idea to a vampire bat sucking our bloods endlessly.
I hope our south eastern brothers would be guided by history and God forbid avert a repeat of the civil war, and those big wigs within the Ndigbo who are backing Nnmadi kanu should travel north east and ask the kanuri community how they feel now after initially supporting the anti western education campaign of the Boko Haram group.
Dialogue is a strong weapon and am sure the crop of bureaucrat in the present regime led by PMB knows this, OBJ advised it but for his actions in ODI and Biam it looks like OBJ is prophet preaching what he would never practice.
A holistic look into the current situation of the Nigerian state would show to us that a round table dialogue is needed not only with IPOB or south east but with every region of the nation as each part is with her peculiar agitation, even some people would argue not all this agitations are sincere, and that those championing the cause are not doing so in the interest of the masses but for a stable and viable econo-socio-political condition we need dialogue as soon as possible.
"When there is a courageous, alert and experienced drummer ready to beat the goat skin for the python at their feast, the sounds of the goat skin may produce fine tunes but where pythons dance blood flows"
Arasi Senior Kolapo
If we see a drummer that would beat the drum for a gathering of python holding a feast. Who dares to watch their dance?
The Nigerian state in her beauty has got people of diverse ethnicity, language, culture and beliefs. Like many people I have argued that our marriage was forced in 1914 but the forced matrimony gave birth to glorified diversity but lacking a concretely reinforced unity.
The south Eastern part of Nigeria is one our pivotal unit even with our failing economy system, Our Abba brothers are as important to the Nigerian economy as oxygen is to human.
Ask yourself this sincere question, have you ever gone a day without a contact with a creation of Igbo people in Nigeria.
Nnmadi kanu came with a crusade to revive Biafra nation wrapped with a cessation foil. Self determination is lawful but it becomes unlawful when such group crusading self determination starts having their own security outfits, laying claims to the ownership of weapons of mass destruction, giving sit at home orders and disrupting free movement of citizens who are going about their lawful businesses.
Apart from the Nnmadi kanu having dual citizenship, there are so many unmanned border that could take him out of the country whenever the jig is down.
The United Nations global terrorist index ranked the Fulani herdsmen as the 3rd deadliest terror group after IS and Boko Haram, even though we know statistics like this are furnished with conspiracy, true or not true we all saw the mayhem the Fulani herdsmen unleashed on this nation.
Our Defence Headquarter didn't declare them (Fulani herdsmen) as terrorists, what am I saying, we even witnessed how the accidental servant Gov. Nasir El-Rufai was paying them, no operation Tiger smile, Lion Hunt, or Bull raid in those regions affected by the Fulani herdsmen one of the many nepotism of this country.
It was not wrong to have pronounced IPOB a terrorist group owing to their recent activities, that was how Boko Haram metamorphosed from a parrot propagating an idea to a vampire bat sucking our bloods endlessly.
I hope our south eastern brothers would be guided by history and God forbid avert a repeat of the civil war, and those big wigs within the Ndigbo who are backing Nnmadi kanu should travel north east and ask the kanuri community how they feel now after initially supporting the anti western education campaign of the Boko Haram group.
Dialogue is a strong weapon and am sure the crop of bureaucrat in the present regime led by PMB knows this, OBJ advised it but for his actions in ODI and Biam it looks like OBJ is prophet preaching what he would never practice.
A holistic look into the current situation of the Nigerian state would show to us that a round table dialogue is needed not only with IPOB or south east but with every region of the nation as each part is with her peculiar agitation, even some people would argue not all this agitations are sincere, and that those championing the cause are not doing so in the interest of the masses but for a stable and viable econo-socio-political condition we need dialogue as soon as possible.
"When there is a courageous, alert and experienced drummer ready to beat the goat skin for the python at their feast, the sounds of the goat skin may produce fine tunes but where pythons dance blood flows"
Arasi Senior Kolapo
Thursday 14 September 2017
Breaking: Lautech reopens
The Governing Council of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, has fixed the resumption of activities at the university for Friday, September 15, 2017 .
The registrar of the university, Jacob Agboola, said this in a statement made available to our correspondent in Osogbo on Thursday by the Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr. Lekan Fadeyi.
The university urged students to return to their campuses for commencement of academic activities on Monday, September 18.
The statement read, “The Governing Council of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, has approved resumption of activities on the institution’s campuses with effect from Friday, September 15, 2017.
“Students of the university are expected to return to school on Monday, September 25, 2017, while full academic activities, the details of which the senate will announce, shall commence immediately after the Independence anniversary holiday.
“Council thanked the governors of Oyo and Osun states, Senator Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi and Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola respectively, for agreeing to support the university with necessary funds to enable the university to return to its normal work schedule and reinvigorate its latent capacities for accelerated and sustainable growth and development.
“Council also appreciated all stakeholders for their understanding and support.
“Council further appealed to students, staff, parents as well as the general public to demonstrate greater faith and dedication to the well-being of the institution, as better days lie ahead of it.
“Concerted efforts should, therefore, be geared towards ensuring that nothing is allowed to disrupt the normal work of the university again.”
It will be recalled that the university has been embroiled in perennial crisis, while various workers’ unions had embarked on indefinite strikes to press home demands for payment of about 10-month salary arrears.
The registrar of the university, Jacob Agboola, said this in a statement made available to our correspondent in Osogbo on Thursday by the Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr. Lekan Fadeyi.
The university urged students to return to their campuses for commencement of academic activities on Monday, September 18.
The statement read, “The Governing Council of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, has approved resumption of activities on the institution’s campuses with effect from Friday, September 15, 2017.
“Students of the university are expected to return to school on Monday, September 25, 2017, while full academic activities, the details of which the senate will announce, shall commence immediately after the Independence anniversary holiday.
“Council thanked the governors of Oyo and Osun states, Senator Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi and Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola respectively, for agreeing to support the university with necessary funds to enable the university to return to its normal work schedule and reinvigorate its latent capacities for accelerated and sustainable growth and development.
“Council also appreciated all stakeholders for their understanding and support.
“Council further appealed to students, staff, parents as well as the general public to demonstrate greater faith and dedication to the well-being of the institution, as better days lie ahead of it.
“Concerted efforts should, therefore, be geared towards ensuring that nothing is allowed to disrupt the normal work of the university again.”
It will be recalled that the university has been embroiled in perennial crisis, while various workers’ unions had embarked on indefinite strikes to press home demands for payment of about 10-month salary arrears.
Sunday 10 September 2017
DISMISSAL OF DRs OYEWUNMI, SUENU AND 13 OTHER LASU LECTURERS - A BOLD STEP FOR NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES TO EMULATE.
It is widely believed that progress and development are impossible without change. More importantly, these changes are direly needed when a system has been held back by a few mischievous fellows renowned for their illegalities.
For the uninitiated, members of the Lagos State University Community and the world at large, on Friday,8th of September, 2017 woke up to the news of the dismissal of fifteen lecturers from the Lagos State University. Noticeable among these lecturers is Dr Oyewunmi ; "ASUU chair" and Dr Suenu Adebowale ; "ASUU Vice Chair".
The established allegations against these two did not come up overnight. It is a snowball of illegalities, malpractices and grievous offences that draw back to years before now.
For Oyewunmi, his intolerable crime draws back to 2013 when he held students to ransome as a staff in the LASU external system. Oyewunmi was revered for his track records of mindblowing extortion of money from students, all under the guise of helping them to graduate.
Evil can not last forever, if at all it fortunately survives too long. Oyewunmi eventually bit more than he could chew when he told the students involved at the LASU external system that they should each contribute a sum of #50,000 if they want him to "process their results which has been swept away by rain".
This will go on to hunt him later, more shamefully as an ASUU - Chairman.
For Suenu Adebowale Adeyemi, it was a time bomb that was bound to explode. Adeyemi Suenu until his dismissal was the Acting Head of Department, History and International Studies as well as the Vice Chairman of ASUU - LASU. Suenu was established to have altered the results of several students as Head of Department.
Many of these students had already been withdrawn by the university senate. Suenu threw caution and morality to the dogs when he abused his privilege as a H.O.D by using his "window on LASU student results website" to carry out shocking alterations that illegally upgraded students that on normal grounds have no business in the university.
More shockingly, extra year students were turned overnight graduates by this same "ASUU - VICE CHAIR" when he singlehandedly upgraded and cleared the results of these straggling students. One would ask : IS THE DISMISSED ASUU VICE CHAIRMAN running a parallel university senate?
Unsurprisingly, many LASU students have taken to the social media to applaud the university authorities while urging them to prosecute other bad eggs in the system.
Their message shows frustration and relief. Their hardwork must start paying off. "Enough of illegalities, how will we read and one H.O.D because he is the vice chairman of ASUU upgrade other people's results because they paid him to do so?
They should throw out the remaining ones", wrote a student on the social media.
In all of these, ASUU is not culpable. It is just unfortunate for ASUU that serial opportunists, blackmailers, evil geniuses and psedo-comrades led this great union for just too long.
This explains why the now dismissed self glorified warlords tried(albeit in futility) to use the union as a tool to blackmail the university Vice Chancellor - Professor Olanrewaju Adigun Fagbohun towards dropping the heavy charges against them.
In different press statements, ASUU had thrown up several concocted and exaggerated claims against the vice chancellor. In search of anything to use against the VC, they brought up the issue of single term tenure for other principal officers which is obviously beyond the powers of a vice chancellor but Oyewunmi and his ASUU-LASU's desperation to drag the LASU VC to the mud only lightened up their(ASUU-LASU) infamy and ignonimy.
They attempted to wrestle down the VC alongside some other targetted fellows. But as nature would always have it, the truth will always defeat falsehood - even if it suffers blackmail for a while.
ASUU is a great union that has contributed immensely to the growth of education in Nigeria and its sacredness should no longer be raped by desperadoes who use it as a smokescreen to perpetrate various illegalities and evil.
On this note, true and principled comrades should rescue the union from the claws of evil and set it on course for progressive unionism.
Above all, this is a victory for LASU and those who have strived for its progress. Academic staff like Bola Ademeso(another dismissed Lecturer) should be occupied with groundbreaking research and not sexual harassments of female students, extortion of money from male students and ultimately : illegal alterations of student results.
Non-academic staff don't enjoy many of the privileges their academic counterpart enjoy. Yet, many of these PhD holders still get students to bed instead of to the zenith of their career.
To all members of the Lagos State University Alumni body (both old and young), we must realise that to have a university we desire and to return LASU to her glory time, it is not a management affairs alone.
We must join hands with Professor fagbohun led adminstration and other well meaning people to rejuvenate out alma mata and take it to the very top where it belongs.
To the university management led by Professor Fagbohun,let there continue to be fairness and justice in all the operations and dealings of the university.
The peace in the university is enjoyable and it is in the interest of all that it continues this way. The university authorities must remain focused and committed to due process, transparency, inclusion and all members of LASU community will have more reasons to be happy.
For the uninitiated, members of the Lagos State University Community and the world at large, on Friday,8th of September, 2017 woke up to the news of the dismissal of fifteen lecturers from the Lagos State University. Noticeable among these lecturers is Dr Oyewunmi ; "ASUU chair" and Dr Suenu Adebowale ; "ASUU Vice Chair".
The established allegations against these two did not come up overnight. It is a snowball of illegalities, malpractices and grievous offences that draw back to years before now.
For Oyewunmi, his intolerable crime draws back to 2013 when he held students to ransome as a staff in the LASU external system. Oyewunmi was revered for his track records of mindblowing extortion of money from students, all under the guise of helping them to graduate.
Evil can not last forever, if at all it fortunately survives too long. Oyewunmi eventually bit more than he could chew when he told the students involved at the LASU external system that they should each contribute a sum of #50,000 if they want him to "process their results which has been swept away by rain".
This will go on to hunt him later, more shamefully as an ASUU - Chairman.
For Suenu Adebowale Adeyemi, it was a time bomb that was bound to explode. Adeyemi Suenu until his dismissal was the Acting Head of Department, History and International Studies as well as the Vice Chairman of ASUU - LASU. Suenu was established to have altered the results of several students as Head of Department.
Many of these students had already been withdrawn by the university senate. Suenu threw caution and morality to the dogs when he abused his privilege as a H.O.D by using his "window on LASU student results website" to carry out shocking alterations that illegally upgraded students that on normal grounds have no business in the university.
More shockingly, extra year students were turned overnight graduates by this same "ASUU - VICE CHAIR" when he singlehandedly upgraded and cleared the results of these straggling students. One would ask : IS THE DISMISSED ASUU VICE CHAIRMAN running a parallel university senate?
Unsurprisingly, many LASU students have taken to the social media to applaud the university authorities while urging them to prosecute other bad eggs in the system.
Their message shows frustration and relief. Their hardwork must start paying off. "Enough of illegalities, how will we read and one H.O.D because he is the vice chairman of ASUU upgrade other people's results because they paid him to do so?
They should throw out the remaining ones", wrote a student on the social media.
In all of these, ASUU is not culpable. It is just unfortunate for ASUU that serial opportunists, blackmailers, evil geniuses and psedo-comrades led this great union for just too long.
This explains why the now dismissed self glorified warlords tried(albeit in futility) to use the union as a tool to blackmail the university Vice Chancellor - Professor Olanrewaju Adigun Fagbohun towards dropping the heavy charges against them.
In different press statements, ASUU had thrown up several concocted and exaggerated claims against the vice chancellor. In search of anything to use against the VC, they brought up the issue of single term tenure for other principal officers which is obviously beyond the powers of a vice chancellor but Oyewunmi and his ASUU-LASU's desperation to drag the LASU VC to the mud only lightened up their(ASUU-LASU) infamy and ignonimy.
They attempted to wrestle down the VC alongside some other targetted fellows. But as nature would always have it, the truth will always defeat falsehood - even if it suffers blackmail for a while.
ASUU is a great union that has contributed immensely to the growth of education in Nigeria and its sacredness should no longer be raped by desperadoes who use it as a smokescreen to perpetrate various illegalities and evil.
On this note, true and principled comrades should rescue the union from the claws of evil and set it on course for progressive unionism.
Above all, this is a victory for LASU and those who have strived for its progress. Academic staff like Bola Ademeso(another dismissed Lecturer) should be occupied with groundbreaking research and not sexual harassments of female students, extortion of money from male students and ultimately : illegal alterations of student results.
Non-academic staff don't enjoy many of the privileges their academic counterpart enjoy. Yet, many of these PhD holders still get students to bed instead of to the zenith of their career.
To all members of the Lagos State University Alumni body (both old and young), we must realise that to have a university we desire and to return LASU to her glory time, it is not a management affairs alone.
We must join hands with Professor fagbohun led adminstration and other well meaning people to rejuvenate out alma mata and take it to the very top where it belongs.
To the university management led by Professor Fagbohun,let there continue to be fairness and justice in all the operations and dealings of the university.
The peace in the university is enjoyable and it is in the interest of all that it continues this way. The university authorities must remain focused and committed to due process, transparency, inclusion and all members of LASU community will have more reasons to be happy.
Saturday 2 September 2017
The LAUTECH Crisis; Setting the records straight
A Rebuttal by
Prof. Akinbode A. Adedeji
I am shocked that Tribune has become a political trumpet that will allow its platform to be used to support politics that toys with the future of thousands of students and livelihood of thousands of Lautech staff who have been without salary for 11 months now.
I called this the height of wickedness that no one in South Western Nigeria has seen before - not even the ASUU-Abacha 9 months' strike of 1996 degenerates to this level.
Awolowo, who founded Tribune will be turning in his grave that his legacy could accommodate such a poorly written and baseless article that is on weak facts.
Akeem Adebiyi, the author of this piece spent most of the time attacking a nameless politician and then concluded by blaming the past and present management of Lautech for not making the University solvent and self-sustaining.
I think Akeem needs to advise the governors of Oyo and Osun on the issue of self-sustaining before asking the management of a state university that supposed to provide subsidized education to create an opportunity for our wards.
I watched these heartless governors raise their hands in the air on state TV, claiming they could not pay salary in their respective states because Federal subvention had reduced, this was between 2014 - 2016.
The question I asked both governors was that did the people of Oyo and Osun elect them to wait for free money from Abuja, or they elected them to turn Osun and Oyo’s desert into a land flowing with milk and honey without Federal subvention.
If all governors do is to wait for free money, “who cannot spend free money then” – we all can and would contest for offices.
Governors were not elected in 2014, 2015 to spend free money, they were elected to make their states solvent, independent of Federal cake.
At least we know of states in Nigeria who could sustain themselves without a dime from the Federal government.
Aregbe and Ajimobi are asking Lautech management to do what they have not demonstrated with access to billions of naira every month – shame on them.
Akeem, if you know the inner working of Lautech, you will not mention that Lautech management has failed to manage its resources well.
I challenge you to provide Nigerians and the people of Oyo-Osun with evidence that there is a state university in Nigeria that is charging the type of tuition Lautech is charging that has been able to sustain itself without government support – mention one state or federal university.
Osun state university that Aregbe claims is self-sustain operates like a private university, and the size is incomparable to Lautech.
I am so sure Aregbe is not telling all the truth about the support the university gets from the state. If we consider Lautech, with salary and pension wage bill of about N300 million a month.
The money that accrues from student tuition in a year is about N2.1 billion (at N70,000 per student with a population of 30,000).
This can only pay 7 months’ salary, without anything remaining to run the school (purchase office & lab materials, maintain University vehicle, purchase petrol to run the generators – among many re-current expenditures).
Even, if Lautech generates up to N1 billion from university ventures like the bakery, press, guest house, etc. This money is not sufficient to run a university of Lautech’s magnitude.
Is there corruption within Lautech management, maybe yes; of what proportion, maybe minimal, else the university would not self-sustain itself for months when Osun state first failed in its responsibility toward the school.
Nobody said the owners should not curb mismanagement at Lautech, do they have to do it on the life and future of over 30,000 Lautech students? Would we say because bathing water is dirty we will throw the baby away with the water?
Aregbe and Ajimobi have so far thrown away the baby with the dirty water at Lautech, and the retrogression and lives lost as a result of this type of wickedness can never be recovered.
If they truly want to sanitize the financial management at Lautech, they need to ensure the school resumes by paying few months’ salary of the staff who have been living in penury since this problem started, institute a panel that will find a lasting solution to the funding problem at Lautech.
The dual ownership had been a blessing until Ajimobi and Aregbe became the governor of both states. There is no public institution anywhere in the world that can sustain itself on the tuition of students or IGR, except it charges a high fee, which makes it a private enterprise.
Lautech is supposed to subsidize higher education for the people of Oyo and Osun. I work in a public institution in the US, the resources to sustain all public and private institutions come partly from the government.
Private institutions in the US like Harvard, MIT, Yale, etc, all enjoy the support of US Federal government (and state) through competitive research grant money, even more than some public institutions because they are more competitive than public universities in grant application.
Public, as well as private institutions enjoy tremendous support from the private sector and alumni association through scholarships and endowment fund in the West.
That is why #FundLautech effort being championed by Bayo Adeyinka and some other Lautech alumni should be encouraged beyond this current situation.
Curbing corruption and wasteful spending of the public fund should not be restricted to Lautech, it should be extended to every arm of governance especially at the state and local government levels, where we see the most corruption under the current Federal administration.
We all know because of lack of oversight at the state level, the corruption going on is unprecedented. I challenge Aregbe and Ajimobi to open their state account books to independent auditors to help them plug places where the states are being bled by corrupt politicians and government officials.
This will allow the state to spend more money on education, agricultural production, and food processing. The best and most fertile land to invest in is the human mind – our people need qualitative and undiluted education, the type that Lautech has been dishing out for more than 2 decades now.
What these governors refused to acknowledge is that Lautech was once the best university in Nigeria. Its graduates are doing wonders all over the nation and around the world.
The institution that created people like me is being destroyed before our very eyes. A lot of Lautech talented professors have left to other institutions, many will never return because of fear of future instability.
How can any leader justify this type of handling of Lautech issue? Ajimobi was imploring the hungry Lautech staff to return to work on an empty stomach as if they are the reason for the problem of the institution.
Ajimobi and Aregbe ran as progressive policy and ideology, they claim to be on a progressive platform (APC). The question they should ask themselves with a claim of being an Awoite is – “what will Awolowo or Bola Ige do in this type of situation”.
I can boldly say that neither Bola Ige nor Awolowo will watch while thousands of children’s life wastes at home for 11 months.
I heard Lautech has not completed a session since 2015, many of its graduates who wanted to go to postgraduate schools, home and abroad, have not been able to do so because they could not obtain their transcripts, especially the later – many Lautech alumni have lost juicy scholarship opportunity because they could not produce original transcript.
I cannot count how many of my former colleagues at Lautech who have I had to send money to when their plea of “e ma je ki ebi oh pa wa ku” (please do not let us die of hunger) filled my hears. Oba to je l’ana ti won se daadaa, ilu o ni gbagbe won, ati eyi tio se daadaa naa; gbogbo won ni o wa ninu iwe aigbagbe, boya fun rere tabi fun biburu (the king who ruled with empathy and fairness today will not be forgotten nor will posterity forget those who ruled with iron fist).
Aregbe and Ajimobi have by their own hands written their legacy on the issue of Lautech, and we will not forget of the evil they did – generations in Oyo and Osun will not forget this evil era of lack of leadership by these two governors.
Their children go to school in Cuba, UK and America, and the children of Oyo and Osun people that helped them actualize their political career are wasting away.
Akeem Adebiyi, Lautech’s situation transcends this weak write-up you wrote. I wrote a rebuttal as someone with inside knowledge of Lautech’s operation, having worked there for more than 13 years and having graduated as one of Lautech’s first set.
I am a proud Ladokite and I have written this rebuttal to your article from my heart, not for political gain but because the truth must be told and our people must be rightly educated on this subject.
Your article has done dis-service to the current problem at Lautech, and it completely omitted common facts deliberately.
Lautech’s issue can only be solved when the two owner states pay some salary arrears, commit to future support of the institution, reorganize the financial management of the school without transferring the burden to the poor parents who may lose access to the school if tuition is increased beyond what they could afford, fire or prosecute anybody found guilty of financial misappropriation (old or current), embrace the alumni association and corner the private sector for support.
Prof. Akinbode A. Adedeji
I am shocked that Tribune has become a political trumpet that will allow its platform to be used to support politics that toys with the future of thousands of students and livelihood of thousands of Lautech staff who have been without salary for 11 months now.
I called this the height of wickedness that no one in South Western Nigeria has seen before - not even the ASUU-Abacha 9 months' strike of 1996 degenerates to this level.
Awolowo, who founded Tribune will be turning in his grave that his legacy could accommodate such a poorly written and baseless article that is on weak facts.
Akeem Adebiyi, the author of this piece spent most of the time attacking a nameless politician and then concluded by blaming the past and present management of Lautech for not making the University solvent and self-sustaining.
I think Akeem needs to advise the governors of Oyo and Osun on the issue of self-sustaining before asking the management of a state university that supposed to provide subsidized education to create an opportunity for our wards.
I watched these heartless governors raise their hands in the air on state TV, claiming they could not pay salary in their respective states because Federal subvention had reduced, this was between 2014 - 2016.
The question I asked both governors was that did the people of Oyo and Osun elect them to wait for free money from Abuja, or they elected them to turn Osun and Oyo’s desert into a land flowing with milk and honey without Federal subvention.
If all governors do is to wait for free money, “who cannot spend free money then” – we all can and would contest for offices.
Governors were not elected in 2014, 2015 to spend free money, they were elected to make their states solvent, independent of Federal cake.
At least we know of states in Nigeria who could sustain themselves without a dime from the Federal government.
Aregbe and Ajimobi are asking Lautech management to do what they have not demonstrated with access to billions of naira every month – shame on them.
Akeem, if you know the inner working of Lautech, you will not mention that Lautech management has failed to manage its resources well.
I challenge you to provide Nigerians and the people of Oyo-Osun with evidence that there is a state university in Nigeria that is charging the type of tuition Lautech is charging that has been able to sustain itself without government support – mention one state or federal university.
Osun state university that Aregbe claims is self-sustain operates like a private university, and the size is incomparable to Lautech.
I am so sure Aregbe is not telling all the truth about the support the university gets from the state. If we consider Lautech, with salary and pension wage bill of about N300 million a month.
The money that accrues from student tuition in a year is about N2.1 billion (at N70,000 per student with a population of 30,000).
This can only pay 7 months’ salary, without anything remaining to run the school (purchase office & lab materials, maintain University vehicle, purchase petrol to run the generators – among many re-current expenditures).
Even, if Lautech generates up to N1 billion from university ventures like the bakery, press, guest house, etc. This money is not sufficient to run a university of Lautech’s magnitude.
Is there corruption within Lautech management, maybe yes; of what proportion, maybe minimal, else the university would not self-sustain itself for months when Osun state first failed in its responsibility toward the school.
Nobody said the owners should not curb mismanagement at Lautech, do they have to do it on the life and future of over 30,000 Lautech students? Would we say because bathing water is dirty we will throw the baby away with the water?
Aregbe and Ajimobi have so far thrown away the baby with the dirty water at Lautech, and the retrogression and lives lost as a result of this type of wickedness can never be recovered.
If they truly want to sanitize the financial management at Lautech, they need to ensure the school resumes by paying few months’ salary of the staff who have been living in penury since this problem started, institute a panel that will find a lasting solution to the funding problem at Lautech.
The dual ownership had been a blessing until Ajimobi and Aregbe became the governor of both states. There is no public institution anywhere in the world that can sustain itself on the tuition of students or IGR, except it charges a high fee, which makes it a private enterprise.
Lautech is supposed to subsidize higher education for the people of Oyo and Osun. I work in a public institution in the US, the resources to sustain all public and private institutions come partly from the government.
Private institutions in the US like Harvard, MIT, Yale, etc, all enjoy the support of US Federal government (and state) through competitive research grant money, even more than some public institutions because they are more competitive than public universities in grant application.
Public, as well as private institutions enjoy tremendous support from the private sector and alumni association through scholarships and endowment fund in the West.
That is why #FundLautech effort being championed by Bayo Adeyinka and some other Lautech alumni should be encouraged beyond this current situation.
Curbing corruption and wasteful spending of the public fund should not be restricted to Lautech, it should be extended to every arm of governance especially at the state and local government levels, where we see the most corruption under the current Federal administration.
We all know because of lack of oversight at the state level, the corruption going on is unprecedented. I challenge Aregbe and Ajimobi to open their state account books to independent auditors to help them plug places where the states are being bled by corrupt politicians and government officials.
This will allow the state to spend more money on education, agricultural production, and food processing. The best and most fertile land to invest in is the human mind – our people need qualitative and undiluted education, the type that Lautech has been dishing out for more than 2 decades now.
What these governors refused to acknowledge is that Lautech was once the best university in Nigeria. Its graduates are doing wonders all over the nation and around the world.
The institution that created people like me is being destroyed before our very eyes. A lot of Lautech talented professors have left to other institutions, many will never return because of fear of future instability.
How can any leader justify this type of handling of Lautech issue? Ajimobi was imploring the hungry Lautech staff to return to work on an empty stomach as if they are the reason for the problem of the institution.
Ajimobi and Aregbe ran as progressive policy and ideology, they claim to be on a progressive platform (APC). The question they should ask themselves with a claim of being an Awoite is – “what will Awolowo or Bola Ige do in this type of situation”.
I can boldly say that neither Bola Ige nor Awolowo will watch while thousands of children’s life wastes at home for 11 months.
I heard Lautech has not completed a session since 2015, many of its graduates who wanted to go to postgraduate schools, home and abroad, have not been able to do so because they could not obtain their transcripts, especially the later – many Lautech alumni have lost juicy scholarship opportunity because they could not produce original transcript.
I cannot count how many of my former colleagues at Lautech who have I had to send money to when their plea of “e ma je ki ebi oh pa wa ku” (please do not let us die of hunger) filled my hears. Oba to je l’ana ti won se daadaa, ilu o ni gbagbe won, ati eyi tio se daadaa naa; gbogbo won ni o wa ninu iwe aigbagbe, boya fun rere tabi fun biburu (the king who ruled with empathy and fairness today will not be forgotten nor will posterity forget those who ruled with iron fist).
Aregbe and Ajimobi have by their own hands written their legacy on the issue of Lautech, and we will not forget of the evil they did – generations in Oyo and Osun will not forget this evil era of lack of leadership by these two governors.
Their children go to school in Cuba, UK and America, and the children of Oyo and Osun people that helped them actualize their political career are wasting away.
Akeem Adebiyi, Lautech’s situation transcends this weak write-up you wrote. I wrote a rebuttal as someone with inside knowledge of Lautech’s operation, having worked there for more than 13 years and having graduated as one of Lautech’s first set.
I am a proud Ladokite and I have written this rebuttal to your article from my heart, not for political gain but because the truth must be told and our people must be rightly educated on this subject.
Your article has done dis-service to the current problem at Lautech, and it completely omitted common facts deliberately.
Lautech’s issue can only be solved when the two owner states pay some salary arrears, commit to future support of the institution, reorganize the financial management of the school without transferring the burden to the poor parents who may lose access to the school if tuition is increased beyond what they could afford, fire or prosecute anybody found guilty of financial misappropriation (old or current), embrace the alumni association and corner the private sector for support.
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