As the nation awaits an end to the five- month-old strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, the Ooni of Ife, Okunade Sijuwade, has advised parents to opt for private universities for their
children’s education.
The monarch gave the advice at Lead City
University, an Ibadan-based private University, on Friday, where he was awarded a honourary doctorate degree in Public Administration.
Though not specifically referring to the many crisis bedeviling the administration of public universities in Nigeria, the Ife monarch told his audience in Ibadan that it was better to get educated in private
universities than the ones owned by the
government.
“This is my first time at the Lead City and with what I saw here today it is better for our children to attend private university than government owned university,” the Ooni said.
“I can say with all emphasis that Lead City University is better than many of the government owned universities around. I am very proud of the university.”
The monarch also spoke on the controversy over the supremacy of some Yoruba towns. Warning against distortion of history, Mr. Sijuwade said Ile-Ife had existed many centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ.
“Ile- ife was created 10,000 years before the birth of Christ. Epeland was created in 1832, Agodoyo where Alaafin is, was created in 1837.
Then how can anyone say it has existed before Ile-Ife.
“This is distortion of history and it should be
stopped. We all belong to Ile-Ife and it will remain forever until God decides otherwise and by that time, none of us here will be around,” he said.
Other awardees were Falil Abina, a banker who received honourary doctorate in Banking and Finance; Thompson Osin, a physiotherapist, who received an Honourary
Doctor of Science; and Bayo Jimoh, Group Managing Director (GMD) of Odu’a Investments Company, who was awarded a Honourary Doctor of Science in Business
Administration.
