Re: Come and see Senate Building
The above subject caption was the title
of the weekly treatise from Prof. Niyi Akinnaso in his regular column,
“Thinking with You”, which appeared in The PUNCH of Tuesday,
January 6, 2015. Earlier, an advert announcement with the picture of the
Senate Building of the Ondo State University, Akungba Akoko and the
subsequent reporting of the project inauguration had captured and
directed my attention to the said Senate Building. I must admit that the
picture I saw in that advert was fascinating and good to behold.
Akinnaso’s description of the Senate
Building and its facilities as unquestionably the best in Nigeria, if
not in Africa, will naturally elicit reaction.
In terms of contemporary
architectural design, I will say the picture I saw does not in any way
throw it up as an architectural masterpiece.
However, that does not in
any way diminish the value and purpose of the project. Surely, the
building stands out within the school environment, and also within the
geographical zone in which it is sited.
In comparing the edifice with
others, one cannot lose sight of the present time the project is coming.
If we are to compare the architecture with other Senate buildings built
over 10 to 15 years ago, then we may be falling into the temptation of
comparing orange with apple.
However, this is really not the kernel of
my comments or my “thinking with the Professor”. Far from it.
My view borders on the fact that the
writer did not comment on the ability of the Ondo State Government in
establishing and running three universities. This is even more so in an
environment where education at all levels is still seen largely as a
social amenity and the obligation and responsibilities of government.
I
recall Governor Olusegun Mimiko remarked at the ceremony that the fees
being charged at the Ondo State owned universities are still one of the
cheapest in the country.
That further lends credence to the assertion
that university education is still seen and considered as a social
service, where you can’t really charge fee for full cost recovery.
Ondo State currently runs the Adekunle
Ajasin University at Akungba Akoko , the Ondo State University of
Science and Technology, Okitipupa, and lately the Ondo State University
of Medical Sciences in Ondo.
As a true son of the soil of Ondo town
extraction, the University of Medical Sciences should naturally be a
thing of joy for me. But as someone who always looks at issues from the
strategic imperatives, I cannot but divert attention to the
reasonableness test of the universities.
Looking at universities as
research centres, one cannot but ask how well these universities are
being funded to play this critical role for research, invention and
adaptation of such inventions in solving human problems.
So we must, as a matter of importance,
ask questions about the ability of the Ondo State Government to
adequately fund and sustain three universities, particularly in the face
of dwindling revenues across all the states of the federation.
Akinnaso’s treatise failed to address this question. Running these three
universities under one university would naturally cost less in terms of
administration and other overhead expenditures without taking anything
away from their respective core objectives. It is not unusual to run
multi-campus universities.
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where I
graduated from has for such a long time run and continues to run the
Enugu Campus where most of the professional faculties – Law, Medicine,
Accountancy, Architecture, and such other professional faculties are run
from Enugu. In fact, medical students were actually located within the
precinct of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital which is also
outside the Enugu Campus of the university.
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