loggerheads with the government over poor funding. The Nation gathered that the government is owing the institution subvention arrears totalling N3.5billion as at August, last year.
At a time, the lecturers engaged in a warning strike and sit-at-home to compel the government to implement the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) it signed with the group in December 2015. The MoU entailed adequate and regular funding of the OOU through payment of subventions
The governor, before the national delegation of ASUU, pledged to pay the OOU N500million quarterly at least, for one year research, teaching and infrastructural development.
The OOU – ASUU Chairman, Dr. Deji Agboola, wondered where a government that kept giving excuse of ‘no money’ would get the fund for the proposed MAUTECH.
Agboola, an Associate Professor and Head of Department, Morbid Anatomy and Histopatology of the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital ( OOUTH), Sagamu, said what the government struggles to release monthly as subvention was N40m against N150million.
He said the government was not developing infrastructure at OOU, adding that the new projects dotting the institution were courtesy of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
He said: “The state government has not set what it wants to do about the university. We do no know the rationale behind the moves to establish a third university. Maybe when that one comes on board, they will begin to fund the existing ones adequately.
“As we speak, Olabisi Onabanjo University is chronically underfunded. Lecturers are overworked and stressed because one person is doing the job of two or three lecturers. The university can’t engage more hands for lack of money to pay.”
He continued: “It is a fact that while the salary profile of OOU staff has been rising in view of critical areas and logic of annual increment the subvention regime has largely remained static. Consequently, what began as 70:30 ratio of contributions by government and the university, respectively, now stands at almost 100 per cent salary burden for OOU at the expense of other obligations.”
The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mrs Modupe Mujota declined comments.
She said Amosun had spoken extensively on the issue at different fora, pointing out that it would be discourteous of her to comment on a matter the governor had already addressed.
“His Excellency has spoken expressively on the issue at different times and fora. I don’t think it will be courteous of me to speak on the MAUTECH after he (Amosun) had made his point clear earlier,” Mujota said.
However, Chairman, Ogun State House of Assembly Committee on Education, Science and Technology, Victor Fasanya, is optimistic that MAUTECH has what it takes to stand as a university and excel.
Fasanya, who was at the proposed institution alongside members of his committee for an oversight function, argued that there was always a room for improvement, adding that the polytechnic had over the years, achieved academic excellence and infrastructural development, which made its upgrading a lot easier.
“No university can have sufficient facilities, because there is always a room for improvement. So far, so good, what we have seen is enough to justify this transformation by government,” he said.
ASUU National President Prof Biodun Ogunyemi lamented that Amosun has chosen to follow the path of some other governorswho established universities simply for political sake.
In a telephone interview with The Nation, Ogunyemi said the union was not in doubt that like others before it, MAUTECH would soon fall into the pit of underfunding.
He said: “ASUU will not want to join issues with Ogun State governor over the new university. The union will not want to make any direct statement on Ogun State government for now.
“Generally, ASUU is kicking against both state and federal governments establishing new universities and turning them into constituency projects. Once they leave office, their successor abandons the project, which will then begin to suffer underfunding, understaffing and dearth of infrastructure.
“Remember (former) President (Goodluck) Jonathan tried it by setting up six public universities one of which is located in his Otuoke hometown. In Ondo State (former) Governor (Olusegun) Mimiko also established the third university in his hometown before leaving office. Now, I learn workers in those three universities have not been paid for about five months now.
“Truth is, governments do not set up these universities out of patriotism, but for election patronage. This is why ASUU is maintaining that before setting up a new university, governments must conduct feasibility studies and have development plans. Most of the times, governments have no plans (for new universities), especially in the area of funding; that is why those institutions later suffer.”
A don, Angelicus Onasanya, describes MAUTECH as “a welcome development.”
Onasanya, a professor of International Business Management at Hesser College, Manchester, United States (US), however, decried the politics behind government’s move as well as the choice of location.
“Three universities are not even enough,” Onasanya said.
“Every year, there are about 100,000 qualified Ogun indigenes seeking admission into universities and how many of them get admitted? About 25,000 of them yearly. So, what happens to the rest?” Onasanya asked.
He continued: “I spent 33 years in the United States and in the State of Massachusetts alone, there are about 300 universities and in a street, you could get as much as 12 universities operating there.
“I don’t think additional state university now in Ogun is too much. What I don’t like is the politics behind the establishment and the location.
“The Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, and the Federal College of Education, Osiele, were influenced to be sited in Ogun Central (Egba), and the Federal Polytechnic Ilaro, was also influenced to be sited in Ogun West (Yewa -Awori).
“So, when the governors began to establish universities – first Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago – Iwoye, and then Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, the two governors, the late Chief Bisi Onabanjo and Gbenga Daniel, sited them in Ogun East not just solely because they came from there, but because the Federal Government’s tertiary institutions were concentrated in Ogun Central.
“So, Governor Amosun in a bid to even the arrangement now wants to establish one in Abeokuta, Ogun Central, and move the polytechnic to Ipokia in Ogun West. But that is not enough, Ogun West should be considered next time while Ogun East should be considered first when next a Federal Government institution is coming to Ogun State.”
But does the government have the resources to fund a third university. Besides OOU and TASUED, there are four Information Communications Technology (ICT) polytechnics, one conventional polytechnic, one health college of technology, one college of education, three nursing schools, a petroleum institute and cooperative college in the state – all scrambling for its lean resources.
