The atmosphere was calm, arrangements in top gear, as the town and gown awaited the visitor. Will he come, or not, after several postponements? This time around, he indeed came, dressed in a smart blue-checkered short sleeve shirt and jeans, looking radiant and, indeed splendid.
Oyo State governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, had landed in Lanlate, on Friday, 11 February, 2022 and was received by the College’s Governing Council and Management, in what was described as the first if its kind, by any sitting governor to the institution, close to two decades of its return, having been initially closed down during the heady days of military rule.
Makinde, who had been taken round the decrepit state of infrastructure in the College, had at a discussion forum convened after the assessment, which had in attendance, the Lanlate community, Governing Council members, Management, Staff and Students, as well as political functionaries from the governor’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), promised release of the sum of One Hundred Million Naira (N100 Million) split into two tranches of Fifty Million Naira (N50 Million) each, ostensibly to ameliorate the College’s challenges.
To underscore his seriousness, the governor immediately directed the setting up of a committee to propose and utilize the about-to-be released funds. The Committee, comprising Lanlate indigenes, representatives of the Governing Council, Management, Staff Unions and Student Union, was convoked almost immediately.
Unfortunately, more than a year after, and after series of formal and informal requests, the latest of which was an appeal letter in February 2023 by the institution’s Council Chairman, Dr Bisi Ojebola, a retired Air Force Officer, according to inside sources in the Governor’s Office, OYOINSIGHT.COM can exclusively report that not a kobo has been released to the institution from the promised grant.
Checks with the Ministry of Finance indeed revealed that while the governor approved Fifty Million Naira (N50 Million) on 18 January, 2023 almost a year after making the promise, same has not been cash-backed by the Accountant-General’s Office, fuelling speculations as to the health of the state’s purse, or the significance of the College, and the Ibarapa area generally, to which the College is domiciled, in Governor Makinde’s political calculations.
For Femi Aworinde, an indigene of Lanlate, Governor Makinde’s disdain for the Ibarapa region isn’t hidden; the governor according to Aworinde, a medical doctor, does not consider the region rich enough as to harm his re-election bid, hence his apathy towards delivering dividends of democracy to them.
“If Governor Makinde had considered us important, he wouldn’t have promised us N100M more than a year ago without fulfilling, yet given millions to LAUTECH’s Faculty of Agriculture which was relocated to Iseyin just about a year ago. Was it not this same governor who just gave UI N25M? So what is N100M, which he, himself promised the Lanlate College, that he hasn’t fulfilled, a year after?” asked Aworinde.
Enquiries by this newspaper with the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) showed that except something is done urgently, the Commission’s axe might dangle over the College, owing to her inability to get her academic programmes accredited since becoming autonomous in 2016.
An official of the Commission who spoke on condition of anonymity with this newspaper added that the Commission had since written the College that no further extensions will be granted should the College fail to meet the new deadline.
“How on earth do you establish an institution and not fund it, to the extent it is unable to meet its accreditation needs?” asked the official rhetorically.
Another indigene of Lanlate, and a prominent member of the PDP, who spoke on condition of anonymity, expressed concern at the governor’s apathy towards Ibarapaland, exercising fear that it was capable of hurting their party’s chances in the coming March 11 Governorship/State Assembly polls, like it did in the Presidential/National Assembly.
“For the first time, the opposition APC won all 10 wards in Ibarapa East Local Government, defeating our son, an incumbent member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yemi Taiwo, even at home. Don’t you think the governor’s absence in Ibarapa, especially in the Lanlate/Eruwa axis could be one of the reasons for our defeat?” he asked rhetorically.
