His Excellency,
Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola,
The Executive Governor, State of Osun,
Office of the Governor,
State Government Secretariat, Osogbo,
State of Osun.
Dear Governor,
ILESA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY: LETTER OF INSPIRATION
Sequel to the mutual resolve in November 2020 by the governments of the States of Osun and Oyo that the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso be taken over by Oyo State, I, Busuyi Ayowole, write to inspire Your Excellency to immediately make a historic move to convert the Osun State College of Education (OSCOED), Ilesa to a most necessary state-owned ILESA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY (ILETECH), ILESA, OSUN STATE.
Importantly, I wish you a blissful and fulfilling New Year 2021. May the Good Lord continue to guide you and members of your cabinet towards leading the State in a direction characterized by unprecedented innovations. The positive strides of your administration, including the reconstruction of the Atakumosa Market as well as a recent decision to rehabilitate internal roads within all state-owned tertiary institutions, are acknowledged; may you continue to enjoy divine wisdom to lead us right. Amen.
I am an undiluted son of Ijesaland who has lived in the city of Ilesa for most of the past four decades. Consequent to my personal bureaucracy-dependent experiences with the administrations of your two immediate predecessors, while I was attempting to make some patriotic contributions to the state through conventional means between 2003 and 2013, I am choosing to make this write-up an open letter because I crave a satisfactory and timely result. I am happy that democracy provides us with an option of communicating through open letters. Having been a beneficiary of a better part of the public schools system, I owe my writing skills – which I began to acquire as an SS3 student under the tutelage of Mrs. R. O. Arowolo (our English Teacher at Ogedengbe School of Science, Ilesa in the year 2001) – to the Osun State Ministry of Education. Mr. Governor Sir, Ilesa deserves a better treatment by the state government than has been accorded her within the past 20 years. My sociopolitical organization, The Busuyi Ayowole Grassroots Organisation (BAGO), being headquartered in Ijesaland has conducted an extensive review of the timeline of relative economic development in the city of Ilesa. It has been established that Ilesa has pathetically received inadequate government support to sustain its historic high-ranking economic status. According to Rev. Williams Howards Clark (1854), “the ancient city of Ilesa surpassed any native town in black Africa in cleanliness, regularity in breadth and width, and the straightness of its streets”. The strategic location of world-class edifices including the St. John’s Cathedral and Holy Trinity Cathedral partly testifies to the fact that Ilesa was once in the frontline of civilization with mega cities like Lagos. It is on record that the first ever Local Council in Nigeria (created on June 21, 1900) was Ijesa! As a concerned citizen who is immensely interested in the success of your administration, as well as demographic equity in the State of Osun, I hereby encourage you on behalf of BAGO not to have a second thought about endorsing and throwing your full weight behind the establishment of the ILESA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, as this promises to make your name go down well in history as the principal architect of the restoration of the economic glory of Ijesaland.
Ilesa is a fertile ground for economic growth. The state government should take advantage of this proven fact for the enhancement of the overall growth of the state. Being an engineering graduate – of the prestigious Federal University of Technology, Akure – has necessitated that I carry out personal investigations into how ‘properly established technology-oriented universities’ in developed countries have massively and positively influenced the economic growth and stability of their host communities. Converting the Osun State College of Education, Ilesa to the proposed ILETECH will have unquantifiable economic impacts on the Ilesa metropolis and the State of Osun at large. These resultant impacts include, but not limited to:
• A massive Influx of notable projects funded by private organizations through public-private partnership schemes.
• An exponential growth in gross domestic product, purchasing power and human development index in Ilesa and Osun State.
• A maximization of the university-industry synergy by taking advantage of the presence of establishments like the federal government-owned Prototype Engineering Development Institute (PEDI), Ilesa; the state government-owned Ilesa General Hospital; and the International Breweries PLC, Ilesa among others. The Ilesa General Hospital is the most suitable site for a college of medicine and teaching hospital complex of the proposed ILETECH. The conversion of this General Hospital to a teaching hospital complex will automatically pave way for the establishment of a school of nursing as well as an institute of medical laboratory technology there, thereby creating more direct employment and a massive boost in the state’s internally generated revenue.
• A speedy and visible economic development of the city of Ilesa for the restoration and sustenance of a demographically unbiased state-wide developmental tripod which has had an agelong tendency of centering around the cities of Osogbo, Ile-Ife and Ilesa. Of the three cities mentioned, only Ilesa cannot boast of an intracity ‘dual carriageway’ for reasons that might have deep connections with pathetically low relative economic productivity due to likely unintended but unfortunately undeserved negligence by successive administrations over the past few decades. Of course, who wants to invest where profit making is perceived as difficult? Not even a presiding state government.
• A modern transformation of housing schemes in Ilesa and environs.
• Massive boost in the creation of non-governmental lucrative jobs.
• A form of quasi-automated modernization will erupt in towns like Ibodi, Osu, Ifewara, far away Kajola, and other surrounding towns and villages.
• Paving way for the establishment of strategic university-based research centres capable of enhancing the birthing of a good number of economy-impacting multi-billion dollar tech-related companies round the state. It is an indisputable fact that technology needs to grow. Technology is the future. In the 21st century, life has been made to depend extensively on artificial intelligence. The level of mastery and utilization of artificial intelligence by any social entity is almost directly proportional to the overall wellbeing of humans there. ILETECH can make a difference in a world that depends so much on findings from technology-dependent researches. The need to create more knowledge-expanding avenues is evident in a number of happenings around the world including the recent experiences with the Boko Haram insurgency, the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic, and the mysterious disappearance associated with the March 8, 2014 Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.
Your Excellency, I can confidently assure you of the support of all Ijesas worldwide in making the establishment of ILETECH one of the biggest successes of a governor of our dear state. A recent testimony to the reality of this assurance is the notable success recorded in the building of the new modern palace of the Owa Obokun Adimula of Ijesaland. The project, which was coordinated by a high-powered committee under the chairmanship of Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi (The Asiwaju of ijesaland), was completed within a record nine months owing to the fact that all sons and daughters of Ijesaland are hugely development-oriented. When there is a will, there is a way. Ijesas are exceptionally good at ensuring the wellbeing and successful reign of civic and traditional leaders and rulers; so be assured of massive multidimensional support from us on a larger scale than given at the establishment of the then Oyo State College of Education, Ilesa founded on December 1, 1977. It is recommended that there should be a consolidation of training leading to the award of the National Certificate of Education by the Osun Government by putting mechanisms in motion to enable the Osun State College of Education at Ila-Orogun operate more efficiently. This would provide prospective seekers of teacher training with a golden opportunity of accessing quality education from the Ila-Orangun-sited College of Education. Prior to the establishment of the defunct Oyo State College of Education in Ilesa, institutions where teachers were being produced included the Apostolic Teachers Training College, Oke-Ooye, Ilesa. It would be interesting to note that the tradition of quality teacher training on the Ijesa soil will not die out with the replacement of OSCOED with ILETECH, as the Ipetu-Ijesa campus of the Osun State University houses the university’s college of education.
Africa is the future. Osun State can sow a seed of being a major hub of industrialization in that future by developing a blueprint capable of placing our proposed ILETECH on a par with world-renowned tech-based institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Technical University of Munich, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Important items recommended for consideration in the blueprint are:
• The funding of the university project.
• IGR enhancement capabilities.
• Infrastructural development models for the proposed converted/expanded campus.
• Industrialization potentials for the state through the establishment of the university.
• Creation of direct and indirect employment opportunities.
• Unprecedented tourism enhancement in Ilesa and Osun State.
• Siting of the proposed ILETECH’s college of medicine within the Ilesa General Hospital.
• Particular attention to positioning the university towards catalyzing the minerals exploration agenda of the state.
In conclusion, I wish to express my willingness to be available, if invited, for fruitful discussions on the content of this ‘Letter of Inspiration’. I can be contacted through my organization, Busuyi Ayowole Grassroots Organisation.
As I once again wish you a blissful and prosperous New Year 2021, please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest regard and esteem.
BUSUYI AYOWOLE
B.Eng (Akure), M.Sc (Lagos), MNSE, MNIMechE
J 19, Omi Osun Street, Iperindo Ijesa, Osun State, Nigeria
1st January, 2021
