Politicisation of tuition cause of EKSU crisis – Oyebanji
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Ekiti State governor, Biodun Oyebanji, has identified what he described as politicisation of school fees by political leaders as one of the causes of crisis and challenges confronting the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado-Ekiti.
He said a situation where school fees were reduced for political reasons without recourse to or consultation with council and management in order to arrive at realistic fees chargeable would always lead to crisis.
He stressed the need for all the stakeholders of the institution to have a meeting where the development and repositioning of the institution would be discussed and bring an end to all the problems once and for all.
The governor spoke while receiving a delegation of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) led by its vice president, Akinteye Babatunde, in his office who came to seek his intervention in the tuition fee issue in the university.
Oyebanji, an alumnus of the institution, promised that his administration would reposition the university as a centre of academic excellence with a strategic collaboration with the university council, management and unions, students body, parents and other stakeholders.
He said he had to constitute the university council after rigorous but careful consultation and came up with people he believed could add value to the institution and help to solve the myriad of problems bedevilling it.
He assured that his government would do what is administratively possible to return EKSU to its pride of place and save it from total collapse as he would not want to be seen as usurping the power and responsibility of the university council and that of the management.
According to him, “I’m obligated to EKSU, EKSU produced me and I’m proud of it. So, I plead with you to show patience and see what we are going to do, because I have confidence in the ability of the newly appointed council members to bring to bear their wealth of experience in ensuring that we have a university that works, a university that makes you proud and which guarantees a stable educational system.