The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has cautioned the state Governor Ademola Adeleke to desist from extending his Edenisation agenda to the Osun State College of Technology, Esa-Oke, in Obokun Local Government Council Area of the state.
Information has it that Governor Adeleke hurriedly appointed a non-qualified native of Ede, one Sefiu Adebowale Adewumi, a Deputy Rector, in an attempt to convert him to a substantive Rector, when the incumbent Rector who is currently on his terminal leave officially retires on 20th May, 2025.
It was gathered that the only qualification of Adewumi to the exalted position of the Rector of that state-owned tertiary institution is that he is a nephew of Governor Adeleke, a cousin to the Permanent Secretary, state Ministry of Education and an elder brother to the controversial Chief of Staff to the governor, Mr Kazeem Akinleye.
Fact check disclosed that since about four months to the retirement of the incumbent Rector, Dr Samson Adegoke, the Governing Council had commenced the process of appointing another substantive Rector which led to placing an advert in the Punch Newspaper edition of 3rd of February, 2025.
But strangely, despite the initial communication with the governor and what appeared as his express approval, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr. M A.K. Jimoh, another Ede man, who is a younger cousin to the said Adewumi, later directed the school’s Registrar, Mr Popoola, to stop the recruitment process, to enable the Ede-born Deputy Rector to take over when the incumbent retires in May.
A searchlight into the administration of the school revealed that all other qualified staff of the school like a former Deputy Rector, Deans, directors and former heads of departments who are more qualified than the government-favoured Ede native are threatened not to apply for the rectorship position in order to give room for the undue, strange and infamous Edenisation agenda.
It would be recalled that this was how Governor Adeleke used subterfuge to appoint a less-qualified Ede man the Rector of the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, in a questionable manner that upstaged the substantive Rector, Dr Tajudeen Odetayo, a native of Ode-Omu, sometimes ago.
We want to remind Governor Adeleke that his scheming to install his less-qualified nephew the next Rector of the state College of Technology, Esa-Oke, is against the Edict that established the college which states that: ‘The Governing Council of the institution should recommend three qualified Chief Lecturers to the Governor to enable him choose one of them after a proper screening by the Governing Council’. But surprisingly, the Edict has been jettisoned for impunity to take over.
The claim of the government that the immediate-past deputy rector, one Mrs Kehinde Ijirona, a native of Esa-Oke, was removed from the office because she is a lecturer in the Department of General Studies, which is against the rule of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), is not tenable as it is on record that the Ede-born installed Rector at the State Polytechnic, Iree, was also a General Studies lecturer and such policy was not considered in his appointment.
The only reason for the removal of Mrs Ijitona would be to pave the way for the emergence of the Adeleke nephew as the Rector against the regulation of the NBTE, a plot which has no other name than favouritism and barefaced nepotism.
It is necessary to register this protest as Governor Adeleke had brazenly appointed without due process the Rector, the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, a Masters Degree holder because he hails from Ede and he is a relation of his Chief of Staff, Akinleye, who is from Ede.
Governor Adeleke also appointed one Professor Femi Asaolu, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilesa who is claiming the nativity of Ilesa but information has it that Asaolu was born and raised in Ede while the Bursar of the university also hails from Ede.
We want to impress it on Governor Adeleke that the Osun State College of Technology is a common patrimony of all the indigenes of Osun State which should not be run as part of the estates of the Adelekes but an establishment where there should be equal opportunities for those who have chosen to pursue their career there without fear or favour.
We, as a Party, are not demanding anything less than the Governor Adeleke-led government to lift the ban on the rectorship advertisement and give every qualified individual an unfettered opportunity to apply for the position of the rector to facilitate a level-playing contest in the purview of justice and fairness.
e-SIGNED:
Mogaji KOLA OLABISI, Osun State APC Director of Media and Information.
