Sunday, August 01, 2010

LAUTECH: Two Governors and A University

By Dr. Reuben Abati

For more than six months, two state Governors in Nigeria: the Governor of Oyo
state, Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala and the Governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye
Oyinlola and their aides have been at daggers drawn over the ownership of the
Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) in Ogbomoso. The dispute
resulted in name-calling and threats with both states assuming maximum and
seemingly non-negotiable positions. But all of a sudden, yesterday, the newspapers
reported that both Governors held a meeting on Friday for 20 minutes and decided
to resolve their differences “temporarily.” One newspaper used the word “amicably.”
One of the governors was quoted as saying that both of them are brothers.

May I ask: at what point did Akala and Oyinlola realize that they are brothers? I
believe that the two Governors hurriedly arranged a truce when it became clear that
the National Universities Commission (NUC) could carry out its threat that it would
withdraw the licence of the university if the two state governments did not sort out
their differences within two weeks. The threat is of course bound to be ineffectual,
considering the pending case in this matter before the Supreme Court. Although it
has served the purpose of getting the two Governors to meet for 20 minutes, I
believe that in real terms nothing has changed until both state Governments issue
statements repudiating the positions that they have taken. By Friday when the two
Governors met, both state governments had advertorials in the newspapers throwing
mud in each other’s direction. It must have taken at least 24 hours to arrange the
meeting between their Excellencies, enough time to call off the advertorials. But
neither side did.

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This dispute has raised fundamental issues that should be properly dimensioned in
terms of their implications for the university and its future, the relationship between
both state governments, and the ownership of state universities. The first dimension
is that of politics. The politicization of the university system in Nigeria is one of the
major causes of its deterioration, such that today in spite of the University of Ilorin
claiming to have won some international glory recently, the general knowledge is
that the Nigerian university system has almost completely failed; it has become a
system patronized only by the helpless. The problem began when the universities
(the Council and Senate) lost control over the management of the system, and all
kinds of half-educated, miseducated or totally uneducated ones, wielding political
and economic power, the same class that protects its children from the failed
system, became the ones who determined the fate of such a strategic institution.
This privileging of politics over scholarship and intellectualism has also drawn
members of the academic community into its web and hence not a few of our public
universities seem overtaken by issues that are harmful to the idea of the university.

The nature of the harm is well illustrated by this ownership crisis that has overtaken
the Ladoke Akintola University of Tehnology. Established in 1990, LAUTECH was
owned by the old Oyo state which comprised the present Oyo and Osun states, it
was then known as Oyo State University. With the creation of Osun state in 1991,
and the sharing of assets between the two states, it was resolved that the university
should be jointly owned and funded by both states since the people of the two states
are related; the name was then changed to LAUTECH and the university edict was so
amended. The sharing of assets in the event of the creation of a new state from a
new one has always been a problem, but where there is quality inter-governmental
relations and public-spirited leadership, conflicts are easily resolved.

It is instructive that since 1991, there has been no dispute over the ownership of
LAUTECH, even with two Governors rotating the Visitorship of the university, sharing
responsibilities for funding and the indigenes of both states working in the university.
But now, Oyo’s Christopher Alao-Akala and Osun’s Olagunsoye Oyinlola have been
on war path over the ownership of the university. The obvious reason is the
breakdown of inter-governmental relations. The sub-text is a conflict of two big
egos, two egos that have now become more important than the idea and objectives

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of a university. With the 2011 election approaching and Alao-Akala seeking a second
term in office, and Oyinlola looking for a Senatorial seat after two terms in office as
Governor, the time is ripe for extreme grandstanding and search for personal glory!
To drag an educational institution into such politics is crass and irresponsible. The
two Governors should pay more attention to the common good: in this regard, the
interest of the students, their parents and the workers of the university for whom the
political fight over ownership has become counter-productive.

The second point is that the many advertorials that have been published by both
state governments have been totally self-serving and contradictory; using public
funds to wage the war is unconscionable. The Oyo state Government is insisting that
the university has never been jointly owned, because it is established by an Oyo
State Edict which is superior to a Memorandum of Understanding that Osun state
Government can lay claim to. It argues further that since Osun state now has a
University of Osun state, and the health sciences faculty of the university and its
teaching hospital are located in Osun, with the latter now also serving as medical
school for UNIOSUN, Osun state might as well keep what it has, while Oyo state
holds on to the rest of the university in Ogbomoso where a new teaching hospital has
just been built by the Akala administration. Oyo state also claims that it has
contributed more to the development of the university over the years. It says it is
tired of the partnership because “joint ownership (is) intricately problematic,” and
“no authority anywhere can force a union between two parties.” (“LAUTECH- The
Path to Peaceful Settlement”, The Nation, July 30, p.52).

The Osun state Government has an answer for every query that has been raised by
the Oyo state government. It insists that the University in dispute is a creation of
law and that the enabling edict duly recognizes the fact of joint ownership. It says it
has met “till date ALL its financial obligations to LAUTECH”, and accuses Oyo state of
trying to seize a jointly owned asset “on the fact that Osun state unilaterally decided
to establish its own university.” The Osun state government then asks: “so it is now
an offence to own a property of one’s own even when one co-owns another with
someone else?” (“Osun State Government: The Quest by Oyo state to take LAUTECH
by Force, The Punch, July 30, pp. 52-53). The Governors’ aides have also taken up
the fight with one party arguing that each state should hold on to whatever it has on
its land (qui quid plantatur solo solo cedit) – a case of bathroom law in this instance,

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and there has been some talk about one Governor being a former Divisional Police
Officer (DPO) and the other a retired military officer. This is probably where the
problem lies.

In the meantime, the university has been closed down (the two Governors are yet to
reopen the university!) parents and students are distraught, the National
Universities Commission (NUC) is threatening to withdraw the university’s licence,
Osun state has gone to the Supreme Court to enforce its rights (has Osun state
withdrawn the case?), Oyo state insists that not even the Supreme Court can force
it to remain in a union that it considers “problematic” ( has it now changed this
position?). Alao-Akala and Oyinlola do not have their biological children in LAUTECH
of course, so they probably do not realize how much damage they have caused. The
revelation by both parties that appointments in the university are based on state of
origin clearly devalues the quality of degrees awarded by that university. In one of
the advertorials, it is stated for example that the Oyo State Governor personally
appointed a Polytechnic lecturer as the Acting Vice Chancellor of LAUTECH. Was it
also Akala that promoted the man a Professor? Alao-Akala also reportedly ordered
all Oyo state-origin staff of the LAUTECH Teaching Hospital in Osogbo to relocate to a
new hospital his administration has built in Ogbomoso!

The politicization of the university system and its hijack by former DPOs, Sergeant-
Majors, contractors, college drop-outs has resulted in all kinds of strange
experiences in the last few years particularly in the state universities and this is one
of them. Such partisan politicking may not be so graphically identifiable in the
Federal Universities but they are also just as terribly politicized. It is the quality of
scholarship that suffers.

The third point is that those who are opposed to state creation may find ready
ammunition in the LAUTECH case to justify their arguments. The creation of new
states is expected to bring development closer to the grassroots. In most cases, it
has created more division due to the exploitation of emergent circumstances for
selfish ends by politicians. Inter-governmental conflicts may be inevitable but they
assume costly dimensions when personalized; when educational institutions are
dragged into such matters, and there is no attempt to separate partisan politics from
the idea of the university, heavy collateral damage is incurred. Besides, we are

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paying a price for the failure to ensure enough rigour in the state creation process:
states are created along with new problems which the stakeholders are expected to
resolve, whereas such problems should have been anticipated and addressed much
earlier.

The fourth point is that there is a strong case to be made for university autonomy,
the objective of which should be to protect every university from unnecessary
interference by the visitor or his or her agents. There is a repeated reference to
“partnership” in the LAUTECH crisis: for the disputants, this is not necessarily about
an academic institution, for them LAUTECH is simply a business, and what we are
seeing therefore is a boardroom dispute with calls for an interpretation of the articles
of association and the memorandum of understanding. It is sad that this is more
about the profit motive: who gets what position within the university and who owns
what. University autonomy needs not conflict with the state’s responsibility to ensure
qualitative and affordable education for the majority.

Our fifth point is with regard to the claim by the Oyo state government that there is
no academic institution in Nigeria that is jointly owned by two governments “and an
aberration” where it exists. There may be no joint ownership of academic institutions
by governments, but in the case of state universities, we should be thinking of such
joint ownership, and rather than destroy the LAUTECH example, it could easily
become a model if the parties involved are well-meaning. Every state government
struggles to establish a university, many of these universities are no better than
glorified secondary schools because they are poorly funded or they charge such huge
fees as in the case of UNIOSUN that the justification for their establishment becomes
suspect. Two state governments pooling resources together could help in raising
standards and it is perhaps due to this that LAUTECH within ten years became a
university of choice for many parents. But that achievement is now in jeopardy.

This dispute, it must be noted, is not between the people of Oyo and Osun. The
people are happy to co-own a university. In Oyo state a new university is not even
an urgent priority for the people, who are already served by more than five
universities. But Alao-Akala wants a full-fledged university in his home town of
Ogbomoso. Oyinlola will not allow that because it won’t serve his own political
interest to sign away his people’s patrimony. This is the real problem. Both

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Governors should show maturity; the alleged imbalance in the deployment of

resources can be easily resolved by a proper definition of responsibilities. Leaders of
thought in the two states should wade into this matter and bring Alao-Akala and
Oyinlola to the negotiating table; the report that both men after a 20-minute
meeting on Friday, July 30, have “temporarily resolved to sheathe their swords”
notwithstanding. The NUC should also refuse to be fooled by reports that the conflict
has been resolved, it should keep a close watch on developments in this particular
case in which it now seems to wield significant influence.

For comments, send an e-mail to the author at abati1990@yahoo.com

Graphic picture courtesy of Compass newspapers.

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