Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has described the former governors of Osun and Oyo states, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, and Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, as rascals.
Aregbesola spoke during the inauguration of a new Governing Council for the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, on Friday.
Referring to the ownership tussle over LAUTECH, which boiled over between the two states during the tenure of the two past governors, Aregbesola described the tussle as one fuelled by ego and rascality.
Despite being members of the Peoples Democratic Party, Oyinlola and Alao-Akala were locked in a fierce battle over who would control the university, which was co-funded by both states in the early 1990s.
Alao-Akala had sought to make the university in Ogbomoso the sole property of Oyo State while ceding out its Teaching Hospital and College of Medicine to Osun, a move which Oyinlola rejected.
The battle, which was taken to the law courts, was resolved when both Oyinlola and Alao-Akala lost power to Aregbesola and Governor Abiola Ajimobi of the Action Congress of Nigeria.
Aregbesola, who delivered a speech titled, ‘Towards Excellence,’ said universities across the nation must proffer solutions to the challenges confronting the society, even as he called for their proper funding.
He said, “The Yoruba race is one. LAUTECH was one from the outset until the coming of these people. There was amity between the two states even after the creation of Osun (from Oyo State).
“They (Oyinlola and Alao-Akala) threw the university into a turmoil.
“They wanted to divide us through utter ego and pure rascality. We thank God that they have been swept away and will never come back to desecrate this revered portal anymore.”
He said the greatest challenge before the Nigerian society was the inability to transfer knowledge and effect positive change.
He, therefore, charged universities to evolve solutions to unemployment, food insecurity, lack of electricity and potable water.
The governor, who warned that the administration of the universities must not be left in the hands of politicians, stressed that university education should make graduates job creators and not job seekers.
Speaking at the ceremony, Ajimobi, who said members of the council merited their appointments, added that Aregbesola and himself shunned personal ego and aggrandizement in resolving the ownership crisis between Osun and Oyo.
“A good leader does what the people want but a great leader takes his people to where they ought to be,” Ajimobi said.
He said although the people of Oyo State wanted a university, it was not in the interest of education and the memory of the late Premier of western region, Chief Ladoke Akintola, for the university to be localized and divided.
But the Chairman, Osun State Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Gani Olaoluwa, rose in defence of Oyinlola, saying Aregbesola was not sincere in his assessment of the former governor’s role in the ownership crisis.
Olaoluwa said, “What Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola did to ensure that Oyo did not take the LAUTECH patrimony from Osun is clear for everyone to see.
“Oyinlola went to court and insisted that the joint legacy belongs to both Osun and Oyo. If Oyinlola was rascally as claimed by Aregbesola, he would have allowed Oyo to take LAUTECH.”
