One of the founding fathers of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, Professor Olu Aina has admonished the two owner states to revisit the reports of the visitation panel which recommended that Osun should relinquish her ownership to Oyo State for permanent peace to return to the institution.
Aina who dropped the hint while speaking with journalists in Osogbo on the build up to his 80th birthday anniversary said that the report of the visitation panel if implemented will restore normalcy and put permanent end to the ownership crisis while compensation be worked out for Osun.
He said the panel which he headed was set up by the Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Chief Adebayo Alao Akala led administrations and arrived at the option as the best solution to the crisis which had bedeviled the university for some years back.
Aina who noted that he wrote the academic brief of the LAUTECH stressed that the sooner the report is revisited and implemented, the sooner permanent peace return to the university.
Aina who stressed that as one of the founding fathers, they did not envisage the current crisis rocking the university blamed the owner states for the persistent problems facing the university.
He attributed the problem to political miscalculation of the leadership of the two states who rather than concentrate on the development were struggling for power and fame.
According to him, the committee arrived at the solution having realized that apart from the fact that LAUTECH was located on Oyo State land, Osun was already working on its own university as at then.
His words: “I was one of the people that worked for the establishment of LAUTECH, as a matter of fact, I was at ABU, Zaria and I had to frequent Ibadan to work for the creation of the institution”.
“LAUTECH started extremely well, so well that it became the highest ranking state University in the country, At some point, they lost this honour, again as a result of political miscalculation by the leadership of Oyo and Osun and instead of concentrating on development, they were struggling for power, for fame”.
“I had returned back home when all that was happening, and I was called upon to serve in finding solutions to the problems, The Oyinlola administration set up a committee which I chaired”.
“The committee which I headed in finding solutions to the problems of LAUTECH recommended very strongly that because LAUTECH was on Oyo state land, because Osun was starting its own university, and also because it will be more efficient to reduce exposure and expenditure, the committee recommended that Osun should give up its ownership of the institution and let Oyo have it”.
“I don’t know what happened to the recommendation, it was jettisoned, I don’t know who was displeased with it. We saw that that was the best solution and before you know it, we started hearing that that was not the vision of the founding fathers of Osun”
“I was one of the founding fathers of Osun and there was no time we said Osun should hang on with it and even at that time up till today, I strongly believe that that is the best solution and it is not yet too late” He concluded.
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