Barely 9 days to leave office, Oyo state government led by Governor Abiola Ajimobi has restored 100% monthly subventions to all the state-owned tertiary institutions.
Although Prof Adeniyi Olowofela, the state Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, stated that the subvention was restored in April 2019 but the announcement came as shock to many people on Sunday, InsideOyo.com gathered.
In an exclusive report by Mega Icon, Olowofela made this known on Sunday while featuring on a live radio programme in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
“He said that the government has restored 100% subvention to the institutions and it is aimed at assisting them to put an end to their financial constraints,” the online medium reported.
The ex-council gaffer, Olowofela hinted that the subvention has been restored since April, 2019, adding that the reduction in allocation and grants necessitated the need for the state government to cut measures which also affected the tertiary institutions in the state.
According to him, ” prior to the 2019 general elections, Governor Abiola Ajimobi had also met with the management of various institutions and they both agreed on how to offset their backlogs which the government has started implementing “.
The commissioner, however urged the management of all the state-owned institutions to be more innovative, resourceful and also look inward on how to be self sustaining.
The flip side of subvention to state’s institutions
In 2016, outgoing governor Ajimobi had explained that the rationale behind his administration’s decision to slash subvention to the state-owned tertiary institutions to 25%.
He said the decision was due to the dwindling financial resources of the state, asking the authorities of the institutions to be more creative.
But the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, University of Ibadan Branch, Dr. Deji Omole, described the decision of the Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, to reduce subvention to tertiary institutions in the state to 25 per cent as unacceptable.
The decision led to shutting down of schools across Oyo state including the joint owned institution – LAUTECH. Uptodate, students of LAUTECH are yet to recover from the damaging strike as a result.
Similarly to the governor’s statement, Prof. Adeniyi Olowofela at a meeting with heads of the institutions, said the amount given to each school was based on what the government could afford at the moment.
InsideOyo.com has observed within the last minute on how the state government is returning some certain activities to status quo despite dwindling state resources to tackle such. If state’s revenue was dwindling in 2016, why is the government returning it to 100% at this time.
Incoming government of Seyi Makinde had earlier promised to increase subvention to higher institutions in the state.
The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora, and the Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo, are the tertiary institutions owned by the state.
