LAUTECH Iseyin campus crisis: ‘Adopt workable model’- Stakeholders to mgt, as lecturers are summoned
Khalid ABRAHAM
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The last has not been heard of the lingering crisis rocking the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso, Iseyin campus, which hosts the College of Agriculture and Renewable Natural Resources. The campus now hosts two hundred level to four hundred level students. Only 100 level and 500 level students are at the main campus in Ogbomoso, where the faculty has existed for about thirty-five years since the inception of the institution.
The relocation of the students to the newly founded Iseyin campus was antagonized in 2023 by various stakeholders including lecturers, students, parents and Ogbomoso people.
The fear was not unfounded: lecturers pointed out many reasons why it cannot work such as availability of facilities, absence of research farms at Iseyin, inconvenience it will pose to them among others all which they insisted would adversely affect academic activities; students justified their opposition on the grounds of uncertain future at the new campus, financial constraints as well as some of those highlighted by their teachers; while Ogbomoso residents hinged their resistance on the belief that the proposal was hatched to shortchange their community.
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It was argued the relocation would jeopardize the smooth running of programmes of the faculty and put everyone at a disadvantage except the “selfish individuals pushing it and hoping to profit from it.”
“The chicken has now come home to roost,” a lecturer in the faculty who craved anonymity claimed while speaking with ogbomosoinsightonline.com.
On Monday, students at the Iseyin campus embarked on an angry protest to tell the world their plight, which revolves around availability of facilities, alleged absence of lecturers to teach them, shortage of housing leading to exorbitant costs of accommodation, high transportation costs, lack of research farms etc. They appealed to the governor, Engr Seyi Makinde, to rescind the decision on the relocation of the faculty.
Meanwhile, the alleged absence of lecturers to teach at the Iseyin campus has been creating rumpus and the latest heard is that the management of the college had summoned the lecturers for a meeting tomorrow. The agenda of the emergency meeting could not however be verified by ogbomosoinsightonline.com as at the time of filing this report.
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Reacting to the development, another lecturer who also spoke on condition of anonymity posited that the plan (relocation) cannot work. He said they pointed this out when it unfolded but that the authorities refused noting it is never done that students would be relocated from a centre where facilities are in existence to where there is none.
The exasperated don argued that there was need to rework the model and adopt the model used when Eruwa and Saki campuses of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, were started which has led to them becoming autonomous institutions. He blamed the pioneer provost of the iseyin campus, Professor Gbenga Adewale, for the current logjam alleging he pursued the agenda for personal interest of seeking to emerge as the Vice Chancellor.
“We had our position, but Prof Adewale, the then provost failed to communicate such to the management. He played politics with our lives because of his ambition to become VC. He and his team misled the government,” it was stated. “No where on earth including the previous governments in Oyo state were existing programmes relocated.”
Continuing , the lecturer explained, “Eruwa and Saki campuses were both satellite campuses of the Ibadan Poly, likewise Lanlate campus was birthed from Alayande College of Education. Same programmes were running concurrently at various campuses both at the main CPUs and satellite campuses and they are now independent campuses.
“The argument is that the population is too large for Iseyin as a town to take at a time. Again, the student population is large for the available teaching facilities. That’s the reason there is a hike in both accommodation and transportation costs.
“Again, agricultural programmes should not be handled that way. LAUTECH inherited most of its farm facilities when it was established. There are more than 12 training units in the teaching and research farms in LAUTECH, Ogbomoso, some of them were established through personal efforts of individual academic staff members.
“You see, the Iseyin campus was originally designed for the new faculty, faculty of renewable and natural resources. The government instructed the management then to call a stakeholders’ meeting on this devilish agenda of certain individuals, but they played that politics and did not allow such to see the light of the day.
“More importantly, all the positions and suggestions from the staff members were kept under the carpet of the then provost, Prof. Adewale.”
It’s further claimed that the land released for the Iseyin campus is acutely inadequate for both research and teaching.
“Do you know that all the available land for LAUTECH, Iseyin campus, is not up to the cashew plantation of LAUTECH in Ogbomoso? The land size of LAUTECH in Ogbomoso is approximately 14 thousand hectares. One thing is so sure, heaven shall judge us accordingly.”
He averred the governor was fed with misinformation on its workability and “that’s why the governor did not stop them. The chicken has now come home to roost, the agenda has backfired. Four hundred level students who are supposed to be deeply immersed in practicals at research farms in Ogbomoso are idling away at Iseyin. How can teaching be taking place somewhere while research farms are located somewhere else? Such should not be happening in a state like Oyo, the acclaimed Pacesetter State. New programmes should have been started at Iseyin from the scratch as originally designed and allow the new campus to grow in tandem with facilities on campus and in the town. You just created a problem, and muddled up everything. It is disastrous.”
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On the meeting scheduled for Wednesday at Iseyin, the lecturer, confirming it, said they would attend and “we will tell them the home truth. However, there are many of us who are scared of going there because the people of the host community are hostile. Our people fear they could be waylaid. They want a school but are not ready to make that sacrifice for its nurturing. They can’t meet up with the required number of houses and the few available ones, they continue to increase their rents. They are not both students- and staff-friendly. It is not possible for us all to relocate to Iseyin, where shall will live? Moreover we have duties we attend to at Ogbomoso too. The model they put together can’t just work, they should retrace their steps and begin the Iseyin campus with new programmes and students get admitted for the programmes commensurate with available facilities. They are just trying to destroy our career progression and jeopardize the students’ professional pursuit.”
