Amosun appoints Okebukola, Oloyede, others to widwife Moshood Abiola University in Abeokuta

Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun state on Monday appointed members and inaugurated an 11-member technical committee to midwife the establishment of Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology (MAUSTECH) located in Abeokuta, Ogun state capital.

 

Governor Amosun inaugurated the committee headed by a former Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Peter Okebukola following approval for the upgrade of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY) to Moshood Abiola Science and Technology (MAUSTECH), saying the panel shall cease to function upon the constitution of the Governing Council of the new university.

 

BusinessDay reports that members of the technical committee appointed are the Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Ishaq Oloyede; Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, Prof Rahmon Bello; former Acting Vice Chancellor of Osun State University, Prof Ganiyu Olatunde; and former Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan, Prof Femi Bamiro.

 

Others include Ronke Folarin, Dr Sabur Raji, Bola Bankole, Dr Ebenezer Nkom, and Rahim Jimoh, but Prof Oludele Itiola, the current Rector of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta will serve as secretary to the committee.

 

While inaugurating the members of the committee at the Governor’s Office at Oke-Mosan in Abeokuta, the governor tasked the committee on seven-point terms of reference, declaring that the committee “is to facilitate and obtain all necessary approvals for the official take-off of the new university”, just as he asked them “to take inventory and ascertain all landed property, rights and obligations for the transfer from MAPOLY to MAUTECH.”

 

He implored the committee to reassign the principal officers of the polytechnic into the appropriate offices of the university in line with the requirements of National Universities Comission, just as the governor requested the committee “to absorb, redistribute and integrate as the case may be the existing academic and non-academic staff of the polytechnic into the university.”

 

Responding, Okebukola pledged that the committee would select one or two globally-ranked universities of science and technology as benchmark for resource development and deployment of human-capital in accordance with the international standard.

 

“In the nearest future, we envision MAUTECH to be the pacesetter for all universities of science and technology in Nigeria, a nursery for spawning high-value research that will catalyse socio-economic development of Ogun State and Nigeria and an institution that will be free from social vices such as cultism, examination malpractice and various forms of corruption that are often recorded in a number of Nigerian universities.

 

“In our recommendations, we will apply global best practices in the set up of the university. We shall pay particular attention to recommendations on sustainability of funding, recognising the capital intensive nature of a university of science and technology.

 

“We shall pay attention to recommending a crop of foundation staff that are of five-star quality. We will make recommendations and take actions that adhere strictly to the standards laid down by the regulatory agencies”, he said.