Students Express Regret over Supporting Aregbesola In 2014

Students of Osun state College of Education, OSCOED Ilesa, have expressed regret for supporting the victory of Governor Rauf Aregbesola in the last governorship election.

The students stated this at a press conference held at the correspondents’ chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, Osogbo, the state capital of Osun.

Speaking, the Students’ Union Government, SUG president of OSCOED, Comrade Lateef Adams, said the students expected good treatment from Aregbesola because of the support they gave him during his electioneering campaign.

“We have paid out political and economic dues, enduring and supporting this government at all time when such are needed.

“We have done this because we believe that Ogbeni Aregbesola will replicate our supports by funding tertiary education, especially because his generation enjoyed better education at all levels, with public schools adequately funded with taxpayers money, and also because he had a rich historical antecedents with the students movement struggle when he’s still an undergraduate.

The students, who also expressed dissatisfaction about the understaffing and deplorable state of the tertiary institutions, demanded the immediate declaration of State of Emergency in the education sector.

"This situation of neglect is targeted at intentionally destroy our institutions as tertiary institutions in Osun State (both state and federal owned) cannot be bold of any infrastructural benefits from this regime.

"Further more, our library is full of obsolete materials, students couldn't make research in our libraries because relevant information couldn't be found there. Osun tertiary students visit neighbouring institutions library for research and project works.

"Students are tired of half baked knowledge, we want serious and sincere intervention of the state government in order to resuscitate the infrastructural level of tertiary education in the State of Osun."

They also maintained that Governor Aregbesola has neither employ new staffs (teaching and non-teaching) to meet up with the serious staff needs of their institutions nor improve the welfare conditions of the remaining few to motivate them for better service delivery.

They thereby charged the Governor to immediately come up with a development plan and embark on infrastructural development action plan that will ensure building of road networks, classrooms, among others.

“We demand that the government embark on immediate recruitment of staffs to meet up with the needs of the four owned-state institutions.

The students also charged Aregbesola to constitute a team statutory governing boards to monitor the institutions and design a long term monitoring plans.

“The government should come up with a public position on lingering issues as they affect LAUTECH and immediately reopen the campus by paying up the salaries of the workers,” they submitted.