OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR DAPO ABIODUN OF OGUN STATE

His Excellency,

Prince Dapo Abiodun, CON,

Executive Governor of Ogun State,

Governor’s Office,

Oke Mosan, Abeokuta,

Ogun State.

Your Excellency,

Re: FG Takeover of Tai Solarin University of Education: Matters Arising

Let me once again congratulate you on the Federal Government of Nigeria’s initiative to take over the very first University of Education in Nigeria, which incidentally was also the second in the whole of Africa and the eighth in the world as the time of conception and founding by our administration.

This singular Federal Government initiative of our President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a resilient visioner and creative leadership underscores the importance of the University in the overall development of the education system in Nigeria, as it also confirms that the vision of our Administration was well founded with the establishment of the Institution twenty years ago.

However, let it be said that, as robust as this initiative is for that institution and the thousands of workers and students of that great institution which many did not give any chance of survival when we conceptualized it, we also need to call the attention of your esteem Office to a slight downside in this acquisition and the overall effects on our dear State.

One, it appears this unilateral takeover is an indictment on our State and the inability of the government to maintain the Institution which has attained global rating, especially when the budget of the State has now hit the one trillion naira mark. Our people will ask, what is the percentage of our budget that is being allocated to the development of education from such humongous budget appropriation.

It also needs to be emphasized that part of our vision for establishing the Tai Solarin University of Education was to provide employment to Ogun State citizens as well as increase the carrying capacities, admission quotas and thereby creating placement opportunities for citizens of Ogun State. I wish our people will not come to such hurried conclusion about government ineptitude as the reasons for this necessary acquisition when the State Government has abdicated its own responsibilities to this institution.

Before our administration took over in 2003, there were only two major State owned institutions of higher learning in the State, vis a vis, the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye and the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta. Of course there are others like the Tai Solarin College of Education, Ijagun and the School of Health Technology, Ilese, supported by various Technical Colleges. But as an Educational Advantage State   so to speak, Ogun State has a huge population of Admission seekers and the National University Commission (NUC) has a cap on the number of students who can be admitted in every admission cycle. The Olabisi Onabanjo University had as at them about 3,500 carrying capacity. But with the establishment of the TASUED, we were able to double the quotas of admission seeking students of the State origin, just as the state also has the capacity to create employment both in the appointment of Vice Chancellors as well as administrative and academic staff.

With this acquisition, Mr. Governor, those quota advantages might have gone, as the Federal government is now empowered to appoint the leadership of the Institution which may also come from anywhere in the country in line with the nature of our federal character system. Our students admission quota, no doubt would have been abridged, they might benefit from the Catchment Areas system at best.

We need to express our profound appreciation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for coming to the rescue of TASUED, without which we are afraid the institution is wired for confinement to the dustbin of history due to the noticebale neglect and seeming abandonment.

It is also our fervent hope that your administration might pick up from the President’s magnanimous takeover to start looking in the direction of the remaining institutions of higher learning. Whatever might have been freed from the running of TASUED from the State’s budgetary allocation to education could as well be channelled to the effective running of other institutions like the four other ICT Polytechnics in Igbesa, Ado-Odo/Ota; Abraham Adesanya, in Ijebu Igbo; Gateway ICT in Sapade, the Dauda Adegbenro in Itori as well as the Gateway Industrial and Petro-Gas Institute in Oni, Ogun Waterside. All these Institutions have equally suffered neglect and abandonment. With the State Government’s clear initiative to run these institutions to their optimum capacity, we would have compensated for what we might have lost to the federal government with the acquisition of TASUED. Better still, in the event that the State government is unable or unwilling to fund these institutions, we might as well pray for the same “good fortune” that befell TASUED to visit them, to save them from the clutches of shame of abandonment.

As a Governor who is from the Ogun East Senatorial District, lest it be said that under your stewardship that  such specialized Institutions like the GIPI and Abraham Adesanya Polytechnic went into extinction; you owe our people in Ogun East this minimum of attention.

I wish and pray that God should direct your steps towards posterity in public service, an Oath that we all swore to upheld for the maximum benefits and comforts of our people.

Kindly accept, as always, assurances of my highest esteem.

Yours in Service of Ogun East,

His Excellency, The Senator Otunba Engr Gbenga Daniel, FNSE, FAEng.

Senator, Ogun East Senatorial District.