PLATFORM TIMES /
03 OCTOBER 2017 / HITS: 602
EDUCATION
NEXT ARTICLEBREAKING: Amosun
Sodiq Ojuroungbe
Emotion ran high ysterday, as lecturers ,Students and non-teaching Staff of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic,Abeokuta betrayed their emotion when the news of the removal of the Rector, Prof. Oludele Itiola by Ogun State governor ,Senator Ibikunle Amosun filtered into the campus PLATFORM TIMES gathered that the governor became angry over the protest by the students against his educational policy and ordered that the Rector should be relieved of his post.
When the news which was broadcast by the state-owned Television filtered into the campus ,many workers who include lecturers and other staff matched from their various departments to the administrative building which houses the Rector's office .While assembling themselves at the frontage of the building expecting the Rector to address them , many of them bursted to tears as the Rector came out and confirmed the news of his exit .
The embattled Rector in his short address thanked the staff for their support for his government almost four years ago.The Rector however denied being sacked , saying he had offered to proceed on leave by writing the state government in May this year to allow him go .Prof. Itiola also explained that he had missed his academic colleagues at the University of Ibadan since he became Rector .
According to him, the government statement has shown that his prayers have been answered to be allowed to proceed on his leave .
Some lecturers who spoke one after the other eulogised the former Rector on his giant strides .
According to them , they regret their protest against his emergence at the first instance ,saying ,they never knew he was their messiah .
One of the lecturers said "He (prof. Itiola) sure must be celebrated. Without mincing words, Prof. Itiola is the best rector the institution ever had.
" I wept today when I imagined the reward for sincere and honest stewardship. But I found solace in his words " please, be happy for me; I thank God for bringing me here to do my bit. If I have offended anyone, it was never personal or deliberate, but in my quest to ensure things are done properly". That man is my Hero. May God bless Prof Itiola and continue to uplift him",he said .
Meanwhile ,the government has ordered that the Rector should proceed on leave with immediate effect and was, however, replaced by Mr. Ayodeji Salimon Tella, as the Acting Rector.
The removal of the Rector came few minutes after Scores of students, under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Ogun State axis, stormed the Governor’s Office, Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, to protest what they termed “parlous state of education in Ogun”.The protesting students, who had earlier driven around major streets in the state capital city in several buses and tagged their protest “Rescue Ogun State Education Campaign (ROSEC)”, also carried placard with inscriptions such as “Save Ogun State education “, ” Education must survive” and “MAPOLY must survive”.
Announcing the removal of the Rector ,the Secretary to the State Government, Taiwo Adeoluwa, said in a statement that the decision was part of the general transition programme involving MAPOLY and the new Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology (MAUSTECH).Itiola, who was appointed on November 10, 2013, gathered, was fallout of the furore over the upgrade of the polytechnic to a university by Governor Ibikunle Amosun.In a press release signed by the SSG, a copy obtained by our correspondent, the state government stated that the appointment of new Rector was “with immediate effect.”It was gathered that, the state government, on Tuesday, summoned the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) into an emergency meeting.The outcome of the meeting was still being awaited as at the time of filing this report. Speaking on behalf of the students, the Chairman of NANS in Ogun State, Olawale Balogun, declared that the students were not happy with the state of education in the Ogun, urging the government to address the issue as a matter of urgency.He specifically mentioned the delay in the commencement of the examination at MAPOLY, saying the action would affect the future of the students.Balogun said the association was not happy with the cancellation of the payment of West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) and the hike in the acceptance fee of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye.While addressing the protesters, Governor Amosun accused the lecturers of deliberately delaying conduct of exams and said the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) of the school would be invited immediately to address the issue.
The governor said the state government was working hard to improve the standard of education in the State.
“I am not happy because this my school. What is happening today is because those that have been given the privilege to serve us are not serving well.
” Everybody here (current MAPOLY students) will finish their courses, it will take four years before MAPOLY will go into extinction, You are not going to Ipokia. If the lecturers don’t want
that, we will sort them out”, Amosun stated.
On the delay of exams, the governor fumed: “They cannot hold us to ransom, they will explain to us why there is delay but it cannot be because we are creating new schools”.
“We are only admitting ND 1 students, but if you have carry-over you are going to Ipokia. We are not admitting any student to MAPOLY. We are not sacking anybody, we are not taking them