Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State (left),his Osun State counterpart,
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (right) and the new Pro-Chancellor and Chairman,
Governing Council of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH),
Prof. Wale Omole (centre) at the formal inauguration of the 8th
Governing Council of the university, in Ogbomoso on Friday.
The governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has
explained the reason why the owner-state governments of Oyo and Osun appointed
the National Leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and former governor
of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu, as Chancelor of the university.
He made this known at the 8th inauguration ceremony
of LAUTECH Governing Council held in the school on Friday.
According to the governor, Senator Tinubu possessed an
international network that would impact positively on the school and lift it to
an international level which was envisaged for it by its founding fathers.
He also commended the Governing Council being inaugurated as
comprising eminent Nigerians who had made their marks in all walks of life.
Governor Ajimobi noted that the ingenuity and the pedigree of
the governors of the two owner states had halted the crises that had hitherto
almost consumed the institution before their advent.
While expressing the commitment of the two owner-states to
making LAUTECH a world class institution, the governor also stressed the need
for the university to take its pride of place in the comity of universities as
a world class institutions.
Governor Ajimobi congratulated the new Governing Council members
on the appointment and charged them to use their intellectual endowment to lift
the institution to greater heights.
The governor told the audience that he was not in conflict
with his predecessor, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala who hailed from the university town,
stating that, in the administration of Oyo State, the people could decipher the
character and quality of both personalities in the administration of the state.
Also speaking, his Osun State counterpart, Ogbeni Rauf
Aregbesola charged the governing council to run the institution in such a way
that it would impact positively on the society.
He particularly charged them to proffer solutions to some of
the problems currently confronting the country such as youth unemployment, soof
shortage, lack of power supply and lack of potable water supply.
This, he said, was the only way the university could justify
its establishment and actualize the dream of its founding fathers.
Governor Aregbesola also charged the council to mobilize
resources for the university as against the past system which saw the
institution depending absolutely on the two owner states as the only source of
revenue.
In his acceptance speech, the Pro-Chancellor of the
university, Professor Wale Omole thanked the visitor-governors of the university
- Ajimobi and Aregbesola - for the appointment and promised that the council
would strive to ensure that the spirit of excellence which was envisaged by the
school would continue.
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