IKOLE VARSITY PALAVER FESTERS AS ROF. WARNS JONATHAN

He does not talk much. But when he feels passionate about an issue, he goes all out to defend his position. The 60-something-year-old Ikole-Ekiti born professor has been talking lately. And vigorously too.

No, he is not talking about his role as a member of the Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reform, or his function as the coordinator of the World Bank study on land governance. He is talking, in fact, protesting vehemently over an arrow shot straight into the heart of his beloved homeland, Ikole, the largest town in Ekiti North Senatorial District. That is: the capitulation of the federal government in the location of the federal university, initially billed to be established in Ikole, but which by some political abracadabra was taken to Oye, another town in Ekiti North Senatorial District.

As the only state in South West without a federal university, the federal government had approved the location of one of the nine federal universities it approved, last November, to Ekiti State. And after a powerful recommendation by major stakeholders in the state, led by its progressive governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Ikole-Ekiti was announced as the site for the new citadel of learning. Labaran Maku, Minister of Information, confirmed the choice of Ikole as the favoured host of the new university during a press briefing at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa at the end of that week's federal executive council (FEC) meeting on December 22, 2010.

There are three major reasons that swung the pendulum in favour of Ikole. First, it is the largest town with many contiguous communities in Ekiti North Senatorial District. Second, despite that preeminent status, it has never had the privilege of hosting a meaningful federal project. Also, unlike some towns in the other senatorial districts, namely Ekiti Central and Ekiti South, it does not have any higher institution. Third, the town has an existing facility, the Ekiti State Agricultural Development Project, that could serve as the launch pad for the new university.

In fact, Chief Kenneth Gbagi, Minister of State for Education, and Professor Julius Okogie, Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, NUC, were said to be so elated during an assessment tour of the facility that they had no problem recommending Ikole for the president's approval. Hence, the announcement by Labaran Maku, which sent indigenes of Ikole at home and in the Diaspora reeling in raptures of joy.

Their joy was, however, amputated when on February 10, this year, the same Maku, after that day's FEC meting, announced the reversal of the federal government's decision to site the university in Ikole, declaring Oye as the new host. The sudden capitulation by the federal government was believed to have been instigated by Ayo Arise, a senator and topnotch of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The dramatic u-turn induced a spontaneous protest by the youths of the aggrieved town, during which at least five people died.

Though they were shattered by the youths' death, the tragedy, however, emboldened major stakeholders in the town to begin a ferocious advocacy for the reversal for the injustice done them. Those at the vanguard of the campaign for the revalidation of the initial approval by the federal government and subsequent irreversible approval of Ikole as the host town are Professor Peter Adeniyi, a former vice chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Emeritus Professor Lanre Filani, former deputy vice chancellor at the University of Ibadan, Emeritus Professor J.F. Ade Ajayi, former VC of the University of Lagos, High Chief Fola Omolayo, chairman, The Kitchen Towers, Lagos, and Dare Oguntuase, a company CEO, and youth leader in Ikole, just to mention a few.

Naturally, Professor Adeniyi is irked by the injustice. He is an angry man. So are his colleagues. In this interview, he bares his mind, and passionately appeals to President Goodluck Jonathan to revisit the contentious issue and redress the injustice by immediately approving the relocation of the new university to Ikole. The town, he says, is too strategic, too important to be shabbily treated in an important matter like human development, which it holds sacred. He adds that the town is peopled by eminent Nigerians, who had served the country in distinguished capacities, both at home and abroad, flying the country's colours with great pride in many international fora.

Here are excerpts from the interview:
You are from Ikole-Ekiti. With all the universities in the Ondo-Ekiti axis, why are the people of Ikole-Ekiti where you come from still clamouring for a university?

Oh, my goodness, I mean there is no tertiary institution in Ikole.

But Ikole is part of Ekiti
Yes, it's part of Ekiti; you ask how many universities do we have in Ekiti? Until last year when Chief Afe Babalola established another university, there was only one university in Ekiti, and that was the one in Ado-Ekiti. Then, the college of education in Ikere was the one that was converted to a university, and it, again, was proscribed. Only God knows because NUC said it should not be there.

Why? Tell us, what actually happened because when the establishment of the nine new universities in states that had no federal universities was announced, that of Ekiti was meant to be sited at Ikole-Ekiti.

Well, I don't know. We got the information in November 23, 2010 edition of Tribune newspaper, listing the states and the locations of the universities. Initially, the federal government said they were opening six, but when they went round and discovered that there were nine states without federal universities, they increased the number. But they had already taken action on the first six, and they listed them there and put the locations. And Ikole happened to be one.

We were happy, in fact, over-joyous, because four to five years before last year, Prof. Ade Ajayi, our mentor and former vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos, called us and said, 'what can we do now? We need a tertiary institution in Ikole.' That is a place where in a single town, we have over 25 professors as I am speaking now. I am not talking in terms of people working in the university, but those who are professors. In fact, three of us have been vice-chancellors before-Akin Oyebode, the lawyer, was a former vice-chancellor, Prof. Ade Ajayi, and myself. In terms of provosts of colleges of medicine, Emeritus Prof. Adeloye of University of Ibadan, Prof. Olatawura was a provost, both are from Ikole.

But apart from that, we have a situation where the third largest town in Ekiti, with the largest land area in Ekiti and a border local government has no single tertiary institution. So, when the governor took them there on his own (in fairness to the governor, he is not from Ikole Local Government Area, he's from Oye Local Government), we were happy that he recognised a university as a developmental infrastructure, and not a political thing. And as the governor, he looked into the state, he was looking for special developmental justice.

He said okay, you have this here, you have this here, there is none there. He didn't talk to anybody there, he didn't talk to anyone of us, we didn't even know when they went there. So, it is not as if one had influenced anybody. So, when we then saw it in the papers, we were overjoyed. In fact, we decided to publish a letter of appreciation to Mr. President in four newspapers consecutively. In fact, we renamed the longest street in Ikole after him, and all kinds of things like that we planned to do.

So, when all of a sudden, they announced again that it is Oye, it was very difficult for people to take because Oye was once under Ikole. It is because of creation of Ekiti State from the old Ondo State, and the subsequent creation of new local governments, that's why Oye was taken away. It was part of Ikole Division. For Ikole people to now see that something that was already announced is now going to Oye, it was very difficult. Even up to this moment, I cannot understand it. I am not in government.

Can't you see the hand of the governor in the whole thing? He is from Oye.

To be fair to the governor, he was the one who told the minister to site the university in Ikole. The Minister of State for Education, Mr. Kenneth Gbagi, went to the governor and said, this is federal university, where are we going to locate it in your state? He took them there. That was why I was emphasising that we had no hand in it. It was God who just answered our prayer because that was what we had been praying for. But you know professors, yea, we have the knowledge, but where is the money?

That was why Prof. Ade Ajayi called us and said we must go and do something. I even discussed the matter previously with Gov. Oni that time, that even if it is a monotechnic that is sited in that place because the land is just there. We were the third largest without anything. Everything is around Ado. Look at Ikere and Ado; if you shout from one you can even hear it from the other. They're almost together. And there is another one in Ifaki, a state university. Again, Oye to Ifaki is just six kilometres. Continued

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