The recent increase in temperature and tempers over the proposal by the Governor of Oyo State, Engr Seyi Makinde, to make LAUTECH a multi campus University requires some objective conversations.
I am coming into this debate on multiple grounds as an indigene of Oyo State, as an Alumnus of LAUTECH, as an Urban & Regional Planner and as a Sustainable Development advocate.
I recall vividly that 9 years ago, precisely in 2011, at the inception of the Senator Ajimobi administration, I sent a proposal to the Governor on the need to explore and adopt the Multi Campus model for LAUTECH. This was before the Tech-U and the unbundling of The Polytechnic, Ibadan.
My position on this multi campus model was premised on the need to expand the education horizon by using LAUTECH (formerly Oyo State University of Technology) as a development pivot for other axis of the State. I made reference to the UNIOSUN model. This LAUTECH proposal was however subject to the success of the bid for sole ownership.
The Faculty of Pure & Applied Sciences, College of Medicine Environmental Sciences and Management Science, the Pre-degree Science Programme and Post Graduate School can remain at Ogbomoso while the Faculties of Agriculture & Forestry; new Faculty of Transportation, new Faculty of Law and new Faculty of Mining & Solid Minerals can be sited in suitable communities across the State that can accommodate them.
For instance, the Faculty of Agriculture & Forestry requires about 500 Hectares. This faculty is not operating optimally at the present location. Research & Commercial Fisheries, Livestock Ranching and several agroecological practices are potentials the University needs to explore.
The Faculty of Transportation which will house the Department of Aeronautics and College of Aviation needs to be sited where there can be space for development and expansion.
We need not be too emotional or sentimental about this multi campus issue.
When the University was closed for almost 22 months, many of those who are now jittery did nothing to get it back on even with their proximity to the Governor and government of the day. The argument about Ogbomoso economy is lame. Increased enrollment and the quality of output from the University will fix that fear.
Other communities are equal stakeholders in the LAUTECH project. Many are not aware that Oyo and Oke-Ogun where the initial proposed site of the then Oyo State University of Technology (OSUTECH). Citing the University in Ogbomoso was a product of intense lobby.
Apart from the fact that making LAUTECH a multi-campus institution has several advantages, many are not even aware that the University have always been a multi campus University.
The University operates two Statutory Campuses and about 3 Satellite Campuses in Ibadan, Lagos and Ilorin for the MBA Programme under the Department of Management Sciences.
The College of Medicine at Osogbo has always been know as LAUTECH’s second campus.
The Governor at this time will require the input of the founding fathers of LAUTECH especially the likes of Prof. Bayo Lasebikan and a few others who are still very much alive and where instrumental to the establishment of the University in 1990. These men and women had good plans for Nigeria.
For me, and I have no apology for this, the Governor does not need to rescind his decision on the multi campus university structure. It is an idea that will eventually come, either now or in the not too distant future.
The DLS and virtual learning technology is enough reason to tell us that there will be more disruptions in the future if our only argument against the multi campus concept is the economy of a community.
Sola Kolawole, is a former President of the Student Union LAUTECH
