By Gbenga Ariyibi
Indeed, education is the most viable industry of the people of Ekiti State, hence the people are in the fore front of its development. There are 541 public primary schools and 74 registered private primary schools. Also, the State has 141 public secondary schools and 18 registered private secondary schools while there are four  secondary technical schools in the state.

Segun Oni...claims credit for lowering of fees and Ekiti State Governor, Fayemi...reduced fees

The issue of  playing politics with  education of Ekiti people was first noticed during the Second Republic, even before Ekiti State was  created in 1996. It, however, took a new dimension during the three and half year regime of the ousted governor, Engr Segun Oni, who ended  up creating more enemies to himself than friends

THE issue of  playing politics with education of Ekiti people was first noticed during the Second Republic, even before the present Ekiti State was created in1996, when the regime of Alhaji Shehu Shagari of the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN, at the federal level was trying to woo the people of Ekiti to its side and decided to establish the Federal  Polytechnic within Ekiti land. The federal institution which was initially moved from Jos, Plateau State to Akure, Ondo State capital, was immediately relocated to Ekiti in 1982 and sited in Ado Ekiti.

However, the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, which was in control of the old Ondo State where the present Ekiti State was carved out during  the regime of late Chief Adekunle Ajasin decided to take the glory of providing for the education need of this people, when he decided to establish a university in Ekiti land, named Obafemi Awolowo University  sited in Ado Ekiti, the name was later changed by a military regime to Ondo State University, OSUA, Ado Ekiti which metamorphosed to University of Ado Ekiti,  UNAD.

Opinion leaders  in the state

However, the issue of playing politics with the education of the people of the state took a new dimension during the three and half regime of the ousted governor, Engr Segun Oni, who ended  up creating more enemies for himself than friends.  But some opinion leaders in the state have accused the former governor of mishandling the issue because of personal interest.

They accused Oni of not putting the general interest of the people of the state first before his  personal  interest by establishing two additional universities in the state when actually the finances of the state are comatose.

The two institutions are University of Education, Ikere Ekiti, TUNEDIK, established after a failed bid to relocate the 30 year-old College of Education, Ikere Ekiti to his home  town, Ifaki Ekiti and the University of Science and Technology, USTI, sited through executive fiat in his town, Ifaki Ekiti, a distance of  about 10 to 12  kilometres to Ado Ekiti, under the guise that there was no single higher institution in the North Senatorial District of the state

The people of Ikere Ekiti stood their ground saying they were ready to die than lose the college to any other town even when the issue of the university of education was raised to placate them, they embarked on series of protests to let government know their stand.

Eventually, they  decided to  head for the court. At the end of the day, Oni’s government decided to return the TUNEDIK to Ikere Ekiti after almost a year operation at far away Ifaki Ekiti. The government did not stop at that, as it equally asked every other community that might have interests in the college to be sited in their communities to come up and  bid for it.

The government named the then Deputy Governor, Dr Sikiru Lawal, to head a  kangaroo search party that would finally fish out a town for the sitting of the college.

The committee was said to have recommended Efon Alaye, whereas, the government was at the same time  making a  secret move with the National Universities Commission, NUC, to withdraw the operating license given to the government on TUNEDIK. Naturally, if the operating license of TUNEDIK is withdrawn, the college would still remain in Ikere Ekiti. Oni used this move to deceive them and succeeded in “persuading” members of the state House of Assembly to ratify the establishment of a university in his town.

The former governor who was abreast with the true financial status of Ekiti State, a state with no mineral resources and one with very minimal federal allocation ordered the management of UNAD to jerk up its school fees to almost 400 percent.

The least paying student was asked to pay N100, 000, while others, especially law and medicine students were directed to pay between N150, 000 –N200, 000. All the students admitted at USTI were made to pay N200, 000 from the initial N35,000 –N40,000 depending on the programmes of study. The resentment of the students was evident during the visit of the Chief of Air Staff, now Chief  of Defence Staff, Air Vice- Marshal Oluseyi  Petinrin on August 23, 2010 when Oni went to deliver a lecture.

It was a relief for the students when the new government led by Dr. Kayode Fayemi announced during its inauguration in October 16, 2010 that he would make a downward review of all the school fees paid by the students of higher institutions in the state.

Even, when the students observed that the governor could not immediately announced the reduction, they the students had been threatening the government of a staging a protest. It then became a thing of joy for the students when the new government through the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Dr. Ganiyu Owolabi announced the decision of the state government for the reduction of the fee. Government, according to him, directed that no students in any higher institution in the state would pay more that N50, 000.

Oni, who was quick to puncture Fayemi’s claim that his regime was first to introduced free education to both  public primary and secondary schools in the state, added that he  did not stop at free education at that level but provided text-books in some core subjects like mathematics, English and science. He said he gave lap-tops to the students in SSS classes.

Siting of proposed varsity

But a credit must be given to the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, government in the state over the siting of the  new proposed Federal university. Fayemi, apparently departing from the past regime did not allow the issue of siting the university to generate unnecessary controversies, decided in conjunction with the federal government to site the university in Ikole Ekiti, a town that is ranked second or third in terms of  size to Ado Ekiti. But the governor at a forum had publicly declared that the people of his community at Isan Ekiti have taken offence for not using his influence to site the university in his town.

Right from the regime of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the First Republic, Ekiti people had embraced western type of  education. This legacy, no doubt may have radically transformed the people in terms of self development, the result being that today, there is hardly any home in the state where one or two  university graduates would not be found. And this, no doubt gave the state the nickname of  “Fountain of Knowledge.”

This attribute was later buttressed by the former Premier of the Western Region, late Chief  Ladoke Akintola who in his characteristic manner of mesmerizing things and events,  was said to have  described the high trait of intellectualism of Ekiti people as equal to none.

The late politician was quoted as saying: Awi tan won ni awon ni ‘kiwe, bi o ba d’ iwe, Ekiti o ka o, mebi, odo ti han ni ati ri professor Aluko ati professor Atioro meaning, they are saying they bears kwes, if  their names translate to books, good luck to them, but Ekiti people are ready to read them like books, it is not uncommon to see the Ekiti people though, professors who have their names in resemblance to birds of  wide creature in the forest.

Dialectical background

Perhaps, it is interesting to note that all the civilian regimes that have ruled the people of this unique state and dialectical background may have studied properly their psyche in respect to their peculiar interest in education with a conclusion that if you want to offend Ekiti people don’t toy with their pet hobby-education.

This assertion may not be unconnected with what one can describe as playing politics with education of the people of the state. Ekiti State was created on October 1, 1996 along side five others by the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, GCON.

The State, carved out of Ondo State, covers the former twelve local government areas that made up the Ekiti zone of old Ondo State. However, Ekiti State, on creation took off with 16 local government areas, having had additional four carved out of the old ones.

Ekiti is a sub-group of the Yoruba, and indeed their ancestors migrated from Ile-Ife, the spiritual home of all Yoruba. The local dialect is spoken with slight variations in the different communities, but this does not prevent Ekiti indigenes from understanding each other. Christianity, Islam and traditional religions are all practiced.