By Oyedeji Ahmed ( LMP )
28th of November, 2017.
Virtually all the tertiary institutions in Oyo state are now on strike except LAUTECH. This is the only institution surviving on a gun powder in Oyo state. The problem of education in oyo state is as a result of underfunding and lack of commitment from government. Or how do you explain a situation whereby zero commitment is giving to education ?
The position of government has always been that tertiary institutions should fund itself. But today, many of the schools taken as reference point are either with one or two problem . A case study is *KWASU* that've been borrowing money from Fidelity bank and having a debt of over 1 billion just to pay salary and to keep the system running. While UNIOSUN just increased her own school fees by 250% to keep running and tipped as the highest paid government institution in southwest.
I ask, for how long will government continue to distance itself from funding education ? For how long will each institution in Southwest keeps increasing their school fees just to stabilize the school ? Will the time to time increment in school fees be enough for sustainability ? A situation whereby private institutions are not even finding it easy despite the crazy bill is an attestation to expect the worst from government owned institutions.
The bottom line is that: government can't distance itself from funding education. Education is the core function of government. According to the Nigeria constitution, section 2 or so, " Education should be free for all". But it's just quite worrisome that the political class are taking this far from the reach of poor masses who are brilliant enough to challenge them or compete with their wards.
The zero commitment or lack of proper funding to education in Oyo state is gradually killing the system. Lot of tertiary institutions in Oyo state are presently under lock except LAUTECH. The Oyo state government is still yet to release her own 1 billion promised fund despite the public and open announcement on air by the Governor to give LAUTECH a maximum of 3 months grant. May be the Oyo state commissioner for information, Mr Arulogun, would have better explanation on this. But as for the commissioner for education, it's a different case.
The Oyo state commissioner for education had explained that; while the strike was on, we were paying 80M into the coffer, when we asked how much was left to make it 500Million, we were told 56Million. Then his Excellency the Governor of the State, though on holiday, directed the Deputy Governor to release 56Million. To make it 500Million. Unless it has developed wings and flew away from the Coffer of LAUTECH or they never reported it.
However, without much alacrity to jaw-jaw the statement, the question now is that, when will the remaining 500 million be paid to show government sincerity ? This shouldn't be taken longer than expected if truly Oyo state government is concern. LAUTECH can't afford to embark on another strike.
While I patiently wait till Oyo state government release her own part of promised fund or the whole 1billion, I make bold to say that Osun state government is not holier than thou. The two governments should be able to offset salaries now that another Paris trench fund has been released by the federal government.
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