Asiwaju of Ijesaland, Chief Yinka Fasuyi, talks to BOLA BAMIGBOLA about the controversies surrounding the delay in the commencement of academic and administrative activities at the University of Ilesa, Osun State
By the virtue of your position as a prominent leader in Ijesaland, how will you assess the level of work at the newly approved University of Ilesa?
That question is better directed to the state government, that is, the administration of Senator Ademola Adeleke, the reason being that the former administration of Gboyega Oyetola had concluded all the processes that were required for a university to function.
What are the processes that were completed by the previous administration on the university project?
The university has been through the legislative arm where an appropriate bill was passed by the Osun State House of Assembly and this was transmitted to the then governor, Oyetola, who also on September 27, 2022, appended his signature to make it a law and after that, an application was made to the National Universities Commission to obtain the operational licence. To the glory of God, the licence was granted on Thursday, November 10, 2022. The former administration of Oyetola also inaugurated the university’s governing council and appointed the principal officers, which means that the university was ready to go but unfortunately, the administration of Senator Ademola Adeleke has decided to put this on hold for reasons unknown to Ijesa (people) and unknown to the world.
Did the governor explain in any way why the university was put on hold?
You are aware that on January 10, 2023, an 11-member committee was inaugurated to review the University of Ilesa, which we consider irrational and unnecessary because all the seven terms of reference given to the ad hoc committee had already been adequately and comprehensively addressed by the previous administration because it prepared documents with which any government or governing council could work. So unfortunately, the present administration I think was not able to avail itself of the documents before inaugurating the review ad hoc committee of the university.
But were the documents made available to the Adeleke administration?
Yes, we have done that. On December 31, 2022, we made efforts to speak with the leadership of the ruling party (the Peoples Democratic Party), and a meeting was held on Monday, January 2, 2023. I, as the Asiwaju of Ijesaland; the chairman of the governing council, (Prof Isaac Adewole); a member of the governing council and an Ijesa leader, Chief Akin Akinola; a member of the University Project Consultative Committee, Prof Rotimi Tayo; Speaker of the Osun House of Assembly, Timothy Owoeye; and another leader in the town, Mr Iyiola Faniyi, met at the residence of a PDP chieftain, Chief Ebenezer Babatope. Also in attendance at that meeting were the chairman of the ruling party, Mr Sunday Bisi, and Dosu Babatunde, who is another leader of the party in Ijesaland.
What was discussed at the meeting?
The meeting was to find out what was delaying the commencement of operations at the University of Ilesa and at the meeting, Mr Sunday Bisi stated that the current administration was unable to proceed with the university because no document was handed over to it in respect of the university. We responded by saying that the current administration should have approached members of Oyetola’s administration and besides, some civil servants served the former administration and are still in office who should have copies of the documents or better still they could have approached Prof Adewole or any of the above-mentioned people to seek the documents if it was the lack of documents that was the reason why the university could not begin operations. We told them to return in two days, which was Wednesday, January 4, 2023, and take the documents that they claimed they did not have, which will guide and assist them in moving forward. On the agreed date, all documents were handed over to Dosu Babatunde for onward delivery to Mr Sunday Bisi, and of course, to the governor.
On Tuesday, January 10, we were surprised when we heard about the inauguration of the review ad hoc committee on TV and radio. The following day, I put a call through to the chairman of the review committee, and the first question I asked him was what document they had to work with. He responded by saying that they did not have any documents to work with. That response surprised me because I thought the documents, which we handed over to the PDP chairman, would have been given to the governor, but the review ad hoc committee chairman said they did not have any documents with them.
Were efforts made to get the relevant documents across to the committee?
On January 11, 2023, around 4pm, I sent and delivered the documents to the review committee chairman, Prof Taiwo Ashaolu, at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and he personally acknowledged that he received the documents relating to the University of Ilesa. As leaders in Ijesaland, we did the needful by making efforts to engage them. It was our initiative. No law says that the initiative should come from Ijesa leaders. The university belongs to the state, while Ijesaland is just a host community. The government could have also initiated the move rather than waiting for the community to initiate it.
Some people are already insinuating that the fight between the Oyetola administration and the incumbent one is the real cause of the delay in making the university functional. Do you think that is correct?
I am not a politician to know whether there is any fight between the present and previous administrations in Osun State, but what is of utmost importance and interest to me is to promote the interest of my community. As you may know, the Oyo State College of Education, Ilesa, as it was then known, was established in March 1978 by the administration of Col David Jemibewon, and ever since its establishment, the Ijesa have been agitating to have a university in the political, geographical, traditional and cultural headquarters of Ijesaland, which is Ilesa.
So, what steps did they take to have the agitation actualised?
After the administration of Col David Jemibewon from 1976 to 1978, we followed up with Col Paul Tarfa’s administration and of course, when our son, (the late) Chief Bola Ige, was also in office, after Paul Tarfa‘s administration between 1979 and 1983, Ijesa people’s major cry was to have a university in their domain, but unfortunately, this was not to be. We also followed up with the administration of Dr Omololu Olunloyo, whose administration was short-lived between 1984 and 1985. Also, we followed up during the administration of Col Adetunji Olurin. This was also discussed during the administration of Sasaeniyan Oresanya between 1988 and 1990. We did the same thing when the administration of Col AbdulKareem Adisa came in 1990. We still worked on it after the creation of Osun State on August 27, 1991. We agitated for it during the administration of Col Leo Ajiborisa. We did the same during (Alhaji) Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke’s administration without any luck. Also in the administrations of Anthony Udofia, and Theophilus Bamigboye, we agitated for it, likewise during Chief Bisi Akande’s administration, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s administration and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s administration, which didn’t yield any luck.
How was the Oyetola administration convinced to establish the university?
In 2018, when the administration of Gboyega Oyetola came in, I met with him on Wednesday, April 10, 2019, which was barely six months after he was sworn in, and I pleaded with him that the most urgent priority and pressing desire of the people of Ijesaland was to have the University in Ilesa and the quickest way to achieve that would be to upgrade the existing College of Education to a university. After our appeal and pleading, he told us to bring the proposal.
While still in the governor’s office, I told the deputy governor, who was also present there, what we had discussed with the governor and he was very delighted to hear it and told us that he would be willing to support the desire of Ijesaland whenever the proposal was brought to the governor. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the proposal to the governor on time. But on Saturday, December 26, 2020, in the course of inaugurating the ultramodern palace of the Owa Obokun of Ijesaland, Oyetola wanted to give us a cheque as his contribution towards the palace project, but I used the opportunity to remind him about the university and told him to hold on to the cheque so that it could be used for our next project, which was the upgrade of the College of Education in Ilesa to a university since we had completed the palace already.
How did stakeholders in Ijesaland react to your proposal?
I asked the crowd to indicate their support for the request being made on their behalf to stand, and everyone in the gathering jumped up. I told the governor to look back since he was sitting in front and he realised that everybody without exception was on their feet. Mr Gboyega Oyetola was surprised because he couldn’t believe the collective agitation of Ijesaland in requesting a university. During Oyetola’s speech at the event, he said he had listened to the request of the people but that his administration had not made up its mind on what to do.
We did our findings to know why they hadn’t made up their mind and realised that it was funding. It was this same funding that led to the dissolution of the partnership between the Osun and Oyo state governments on the ownership of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology. After the ceremony, we waited for three to four months hoping that Gboyega Oyetola’s administration would have commenced activities leading to the realisation of the fulfilment of the desire of the Ijesa people. On February 18, 2021, I initiated, assembled and constituted a 12-man university project consultative committee to work with the state government on the realisation of the upgrading of the college of education to a university. So, the committee worked tirelessly and at the end of the day, came up with a solid proposal and thereafter sought an audience with Oyetola, which he granted.
Is there a sustainability plan for the university?
All the procedures that are known to the constitution were duly followed in establishing the university. Meanwhile, the university implementation committee was loaded with eggheads. They still went ahead to call for the input of the experts when they felt they did not have the expertise to guide their workings. In doing so, they consulted KPMG, the globally renowned management consulting firm, to prepare the sustainability plan of the proposed University of Ilesa for them.
The firm worked with the implementation committee and submitted the sustainability plan of the university to the committee, and with the law and all the relevant documents, the government took all the documents to approach the only regulatory body that issues licences for the establishment of universities in Nigeria today and that is the National Universities Commission. The documents were thoroughly looked at and on Thursday, November 10, 2022, unanimously, the NUC granted the licence as the 60th state university in Nigeria and the 220th university in Nigeria. Oyetola was in Abuja physically, accompanied by a former governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande; the chairman of the implementation committee, Prof Olu Aina, and others to receive the licence granting the University of Ilesa the go-ahead to start operation with effect from November 10, 2023. What else do you need?
What are the sources of funding suggested in the documents?
The funding formula to make this university less dependent on the state government was stated. For the sake of emphasis, that document showed very clearly that the state government of Osun does not need to add a dime to what it has been given to the old College of Education, which comes to an average of N750m per annum. Remember, the Osun State College of Education has a population of less than 3,000. By now, if you have a university, the population on the campus will move from less than 3,000 to 20,000. In that sustainability plan, we have used the student fee in the current Osun State University as a benchmark. Even though it is still among the lowest when compared to what other state universities are charging, that has been used as a benchmark in determining what the students coming to the University of Ilesa will also be paying.
When you multiply that by the number of students expected to come in, that is already settled. Also, in that sustainability plan, we have captured what we will likely get from the private sector through the university endowment. In addition to all of these, the Ijesa community has promised take-off support of N1bn. All these are clearly stated, but unfortunately, the ad hoc committee said it never saw the documents.
At this point, what do Ijesa people want?
Our demand is very simple. In the election of Senator Ademola Adeleke into the Bola Ige House in Osogbo as the executive governor of the State of Osun, the Ijesa played a prominent role in that election. Out of the six local governments we have in Ijesaland, he won in four of the local government areas, which means the Ijesa people invested their political votes in the election of the governor. When you invest, you expect dividends in return. Ijesa people have invested in his election. We can also claim that without the votes of the Ijesa people, he would not have been in office. The votes of the Ijesa people may not necessarily be the only ones, but if the votes of the Ijesa people were subtracted from the votes of Governor Adeleke, he may not be the governor of Osun State today.
What we are saying is that the primary need of Ijesaland is to have a university. In the last letter I wrote to the governor, I stated the projected economic loss from the idle state of the University of Ilesa, which amounts to an average of N30bn per annum and N1.66bn per month. By March 6, Ijesaland would have lost a minimum of N5bn due to the failure to open the University of Ilesa. All the government of Governor Adeleke needs to do is sit down and digest the details of these documents, and I believe he will be so glad to start operating the University of Ilesa without any issues.
What does the state government stand to gain from operating the university or how will it improve Osun’s internally generated revenue?
The government can also stand to gain an average of N2bn from the various taxes arising from the full operation of the university. So, the more the delay in the inauguration of the university, the more Osun State loses and the more the Ijesa speak angrily about it. The governor gave a promise in the course of his campaign visit to the palace of (the Owa Obokun of Ijesaland) Oba Adekunle Aromolaran on April 28, 2022, that the university was his priority.
So, our prayer is for the immediate opening of the University of Ilesa. Allow it to function. If you go to any community in Ijesaland today, there are agitations to open the University of Ilesa. Ijesa people are very enterprising, industrious and hardworking, and when it comes to education, we are one of the first in this country. We know that the University of Ilesa has come to stay. What we are asking for is for the government not to delay its inauguration.
