Upgrading FedPoly Ayede to Federal varsity, one of its contemporaries already achieved the status

Upgrading FedPoly Ayede to Federal varsity, one of its contemporaries already achieved the status

Femi OGUNLANA

Mr. Olugbenga Olalude’s reaction to a story in Ogbomoso Insight on the claim by Professor Josiah Ajiboye that he and not Senator Ayoade Adeseun actually initiated the siting of a Federal Polytechnic in Ayede Ogbomoso in 2022 by the government of (now late) President Muhammadu Buhari, made an impact on me, particularly about his opening a new vista on the future of the institution, which held its first convocation ceremony recently. The Polytechnic under the rectorship of Engr. Dr. Taofeek Adekunle Abdulhameed is making impressive imprint, with its permanent site almost finished. Relocating there is a matter of weeks. I used to think Ayede Polytechnic among the six established by President Buhari in 2021 is ahead. But reading that one of the six, Federal Polytechnic, Kabo, in Kano state, has transformed into a federal university left me stupefied. So, it’s possible, a similar thing has already happened, it clearly brings to the fore, the Yoruba proverb that if someone never went into someone else father’s farm he will think his father’s is unrivalled. The story of the new Kabo University that was a polytechnic until 2025 in contrast with the Ayede’s represents the extent human mind can conceive and reach in reality, this is a big challenge.

Read Olugbenga Olalude hereunder.

Recently, Chief Wole Olanipekun, (SAN) urged south-west political leaders and governors to take urgent advantage of President Bola Tinubu’s tenure to accelerate infrastructure, industrialisation, and economic progress in the region.

In the same vein, I am urging the Management of Ayede Poly to maximise the current political advantage, with a south-west president in power, to accelerate the development of the polytechnic.

The labour of all that contributed to the actualization is acknowledged and highly appreciated. Sincere thanks to individuals and organisations that had contributed and still contributing their resources to the development of the institution. There are still more work to be done and we should not be entangled with arguments that can stall the development of Ogbomosoland.

Please let us use the opportunity of the convocation to secure major intervention projects for the polytechnic in addition to the construction of access road already facilitated by Dr. Zacch Adedeji.

Lastly, let’s engage our political leaders in Ogbomosoland and Baba Oba Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye and other progressive royal fathers towards upgrading the polytechnic to a university. The Federal Polytechnic, Kabo was established at the same time with Ayede but it has now been upgraded to Federal University of Science and Technology, Kabo. Let’s leverage on the position of the convocation lecturer to get this done. He has worked assiduously to improve revenue generation for the country and getting such an upgrade for the poly in his local government should be a minimum reward/recognition if a new federal university cannot be facilitated now. For instance, Ogun State has 4 federal universities (2 in Abeokuta), Osun State has 3 federal universities. The one in Ila-Orangun was on account of political connection of Baba Bisi Akande while Iragbiji, of recent, leverage on its political connection to get one. Now that Dr Zacch Adedeji is in position, let us tell him to push for this and, if achieved, it will transform Ogo- Oluwa LGA to an urban area and generations unborn will not forget him.

On a different but related note, Hon Ojo Sunday Makanjuola sponsored a bill for the establishment of Cashew Research Institute in Elesaade, Ogo-Oluwa Local Government Area but there are no information in the public space about the planned Public Hearing. It will be good if there are updates in order to enable other indigenes who are in strategic positions join force with our Rep towards the actualization of this objective.