By LEKE ADESERI, South West Regional Editor & DAUD OLATUNJI, ABEOKUTA
The Ogun State Government, last week, announced the scrapping of the Tai Solarin University of Education, TASUED, Ijebu-Ode and merged the four state-owned polytechnics in the state into one Institute of Technology.

However, the decision has attracted wide condemnation and triggered a chain  reaction as students and other stakeholders in the state opposed to the move say they are poised to fight the Amosun administration to a standstill.

In fact, for allegedly mismanaging the education sector in the state, the students of Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), Ijagun, are demanding the removal of the Ogun State Commissioner of Education, Science and Technology, Mr. Segun Odubela, a lawyer by profession.

However, government insists the decision is in the best interest of education in the state and the country in general, but students of the scrapped TASUED, last weekend, gave a 48-hour ultimatum for the sack of the Education, Science and Technology commissioner.

Also, another stakeholder in the state’s education sector, who however, pleaded anonymity, told Vanguard last Thursday that; “Today is the saddest day of my life! Amosun scrapped TASUED? I hope and think he knows the implications of this decision. What exactly has Gbenga Daniel done that this administration is hell bent on erasing his legacies?

“I am seriously crying as Iam talking to you but one thing I am sure of is that the struggle has just started!”

The university established by ex-Governor Gbenga Daniel in August 2005 under the University of Education Law 2005 of enrolled House bill No 24/09/ 2005 of the State House of Assembly, has been converted to an Institute of Education under Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, Ago-Iwoye Ijebu with immediate effect without first repealing the law establishing it.

Govt’s decision and rationale

At a joint briefing in the Governor’s office, Abeokuta, last week, the commissioners for Education, Science and Technology and Information, John Odubela and Yusuph Olaniyonu respectively, said the decision was taken in the best interest of the people of the state.

According to Odubela, “the institution is now affiliated to Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, as an Institute of Education and will be moved from its present site to Omu.

He said four polytechnics – Abraham Adesanya Polytechnic, Ijebu-Igbo, D. S. Adegbenro Polytechnic, Itori, Kessington Adebutu, Saapade, Iperu-Remo and Ayodeji Otegbola Polytechnic, Igbesa in Ado-Odo Local Government – have been merged into one institute and renamed Ogun State Institute of Technology.

The Institute, according to Olaniyonu, will have its main campus at Igbesa, in Ado-Odo-Ota Local Government Area of the state while the other three will be campuses of the institute.

Both Olaniyonu and Odubela explained that the decision was based on  the recommendations of a special committee set up by Governor Ibikunle Amosun as a follow up to the report submitted by the fact-finding panels earlier set up to look into the affairs of the state-owned tertiary institutions.

The commissioners said government was worried by the falling standard of education on his assumption of office last year and consequently set up a Visitation and Fact-Finding Panel under the  chairmanship of retired Justice Ademola Bakare to identify problems facing higher education in the state and how to tackle them.

Detailing the resolutions of the government, Odubela said: “The university is to be renamed Institute of Education under the Olabisi Onabanjo University. The Tai Solarin University of Education will immediately relocate to Omu where the Tai Solarin College of Education is presently located.

“The varsity should immediately stop further admission of students into the university, particularly for the year 2012/2013 academic session. However, the current students of the university will be allowed to complete the process of their academics and graduate from the university.”

He, however, said that Tai Solarin College of Education would immediately relocate to Ijagun, Ijebu-Ode, where the University of Education was located.

Explaining the rationale behind the decisions, Odubela said the University had lost its focus, insisting that less than 40 per cent of the courses offered in the institutions were not  education-related courses.

Possible political implication

The student populace in the state has vowed to vote against the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the forthcoming local government elections if the decision is not reversed.

Also ex-Governor of the state, Gbenga Daniel has broken his silence over the development. According to reports, the former governor shortly after inspecting some parts of the area of Abraham Tabernacle, a church he built in honour of his late father at Sagamu, which was demolished by unknown persons, Daniel said he has handed everything over to God, saying: “God is in control.”

Daniel, who was surrounded by his political associates and loyalists as well as some political office holders who served under his administration, urged his people to remain calm, saying, “we don’t know what we did to them, they said they want to cancel our school, God is in control.”

Apart from Daniel, others who have reacted to the development include; the Peoples Party of Nigeria that described   the action as wrong, obnoxious and unreasonable.

The Director of Publicity, of the party, Deji Kalaejaiye in a statement sent to newsmen in Abeokuta, said the ”latest reversal is the most unreasonable, retrogressive and seemingly vindictive. The conversion is hereby condemned and rejected.

Some are even accusing the state Deputy Governor, Prince Segun Adesegun, of complicity in the plan to relocate their institution because he hails from Ago-Iwoye.

Apart, the socio economic status of people in Ijebu Ode and environs would be grossly affected as many businesses and activities have been built round the students’ populace.