Group lauds Ajimobi, Aregbesola over LAUTECH

A group, the Amalgamation of Citizens Concerned with Development of Education in Yorubaland, has lauded the duo
of Governors Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola of Osun State and Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State for coming together to inaugurate a first class Governing Council for the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State.
A statement jointly signed on behalf of ACCDEY by Aaron Olajiire Adewuni and Muhib Gbolagunte, Chairman and Secretary General respectively, described members of the Council, headed by erudite professor of Animal Science and two times Vice Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Prof. Wale Omole, as eminently qualified for the onerous task of repositioning LAUTECH for the purpose for which it was set up.
ACCDEY noted among others that the individuals that make up the 8th governing council have what it takes, academically and administratively, to govern any university in any part of the world, adding: “We believe strongly that with the choice of these men of high repute, the future of education in Yorubaland and particularly in LAUTECH is bright and purposeful.”
Saying it was bothered by situations where some mischievous moneybags rather than use their money for the development of education in the region are busy castigating leading lights, observed that attacks on the person of the newly inaugurated Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Council, Prof. Wale Omole, by people it described as enemies of progress, is most unfortunate.
It stated that a petition sent to the governors, who are co-visitors to the university, insinuating that Omole was not fit to govern the citadel of learning is to say the least misguided, laughable and ridiculous.
Explaining that the petitioners and their sponsors are lacking in information concerning the events of July 1999, the group noted that their plan was aimed at further destroying education in Yorubaland, thereby bringing to naught the vision of the founding fathers of the region, particularly as it has to do with making the race a model for others.
While describing as unfortunate and regrettable the death of five students of the OAU at the tail end of Omole’s tenure as Vice Chancellor in 1999, after serving for eight years, ACCDEY said it believes the erudite professor of Animal Science had nothing to gain in planning the death of his students when he had already given notice of his intention to retire and travelled abroad to inform people with whom he had international obligations in the field of education about his plans.
The statement said: “We are aware that Omole at the June 1999 meeting of the governing council of the OAU had given notice of his retirement and had travelled out of the country in July to tell his colleagues on international educational bodies of his intention to retire, and that all the killings and conspiracy to give him a bad name occurred in his absence, because his detractors were bent on stopping the successor named by council, Prof. Femi Ajibola, a first class alumnus of the same institution, and one of Omole’s students from taking over from him. Ajibola’s life was actually attempted and he only escaped by the whiskers.”
The statement said the retired Vice Chancellor also waited for the Judicial Commission of Enquiry put in place by the Federal Government to investigate the killings, headed by Hon. Justice Okon Etam (rtd), to finish its job and declare him as having no hands in the incidence, as well the visitation panel institutionalized to look into the finances of the University for the eight years that he was in charge, which audited the accounts three different times, using three
different audit firms, to give him clearance, before submitting his letter of retirement.
The statement added: “It was after the conspiracies and wrongly targeted attacks on him had settled down that the then Pro-Chancellor, and Chairman of the Governing Council of the university, Justice Anthony N. Aniagolu, JSC (rtd), in a letter to the then Registrar, dated September 27, 1999, accepting on behalf of council that Omole should retire voluntarily as Vice Chancellor on November 30, 1999, commended his academic and administrative prowess to high heavens. While conveying the acceptance, Justice Aniagolu had said ‘I wish to place on record, for myself and for and on behalf of council, my appreciation of Professor Omole’s hard work and unstinted devotion to this University. I have found Professor Omole to be a dynamic Vice Chancellor with original and progressive ideas for which the University is greatly indebted. Hardly ever resting, Professor Omole is every minute of the day, thinking and working on the affairs of the University, approaching them with his prodigious mind. He deserves accolades for his vast knowledge of the affairs of Obafemi Awolowo University and for his unreserved application of all his energies in solving the problems of the University.'”
The body noted that the same Omole that was in commemorating the 50 years of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, got nominated, independently by the 32 chapters of the Alumni Association in the country and 10 other chapters in the diaspora to chair the Board of Trustees of the university’s alumni worldwide, cannot be the same man that detractors have tagged as unfit to lead.
ACCDEY added: “Having preached the need to reposition ‘Great Ife’, as the university is hailed across the world, for the future, the Board of Trustees of five eminent persons, headed by this renowned Professor was inaugurated in 2012, and he is already working so hard in his characteristic manner to lead the board of trustees among other engagements in education to consolidate on the leading position of Ife. We want to place on record that this same man has earlier been named as the Chairman of Strategy and Implementation committee of the Yoruba Education Trust Fund.”
The group insisted that the decision of Aregbesola and Ajimobi in appointing Omole as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the forward looking citadel of learning couldn’t have come at a more auspicious time.
The visitors to the university, the group said, have shown clearly that they have seen in Omole the capacity to take LAUTECH to the Promised Land in no distant future.
ACCDEY said: “We believe it is his intimidating credentials and the fact that he would thrive where they have failed that is sending shivers to the sponsors of this spurious attacks on this man. We see in his appointment, a clear situation where education in this region picks up again. We are therefore commending our amiable governors for putting a round peg in a round hole, thereby ensuring that the good music that is already blaring at LAUTECH continues.”