By: Kayode Odunaro
On Wednesday, 22nd May, 2025, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio. President of the 10th Senate announced gleefully at the start of plenary of the Senate that the bill to upgrade the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro to a Federal University of Technology, passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives of the National Assembly has been assented to by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He thereafter congratulated Senator Solomon Adeola (APC, Ogun West) aka Yayi, the sponsor of the bill, the people of Ogun West and Ogun State for a new federal university in the state.
Indeed, the President of the Senate announcement was unusual in the sense that it was usually the Executive arm of government that makes such announcements, particularly after a signing ceremony by the president of Nigeria. But Senator Akpabio knows the import of the new university for the people of Yewa and Aworiland and indeed, Ogun State. About a year ago, Senator Adeola had invited the President of the Senate and about 60 Senators to Yewa Day celebration and the august visitors had seen the underdevelopment and marginalization of the senatorial district first hand leading Senator Akpabio to pledge to support Senator Adeola in the struggle to uplift the people of the district from marginalization including the unjustifiable fact that in about 48 years since the creation of Ogun State, no indigene of the district has ascended the number one position of Governor in the state.
So, it was an elated Senator Akpabio that saw in the Federal University of Technology, Ilaro, FUTI from Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, FPI, as a liberating force to uplift a people cheated over the years of political and economic marginalization.
The journey of this institutional education liberation is an arduous one that once again showed Senator Adeola as a man who is a focused goal getter of good deeds once he made up his mind on a worthy cause. This writer should know as one in cohort with Senator Adeola in the struggle for the realization of this dream acknowledged as historical landmark. Shortly, after Senator Adeola was elected and inaugurated in June 2015 as a senator representing Lagos West, I was appointed as his Senior Legislative Aide(SLA) and one of his immediate directive to me pursuant of his legislative agenda was the need for upgrade two noted educational institutions, namely Yaba College of Technology, Yaba, Lagos and Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State to full-fledged universities. The two institutions have something in their favour in terms of many years of existence and development of infrastructure over the years. It was my bonded duty to draft the two bills and lead debates.
So, the journey began in 2016 when the two bills were passed by the Senate after going through first, second and third reading under Senator Bukola Saraki as President of the Senate and during President Mohammadu Buhari’s first tenure. Unfortunately, it was not passed in the House of Representatives before expiration of the 8th National Assembly under Senator Saraki as chairman. Unrelenting, Senator Adeola again presented the two bills in the 9th Senate with Senator Ahmad Lawan as President of the Senate during the second tenure of president Buhari. This time the bills went through first and second reading, public hearing and third reading and were passed. Graciously, the House of Representatives concurred with the passage of the bills and hopes were high that President Buhari would assent to the bills. However, for unexplained reasons the bills were not assented till the end of the 9th National Assembly and dream of a people and a hardworking senator was yet again in vain.
But Senator Adeola is not a quitter and when he crossed over from Lagos in 2023 to Ogun State as a senator now representing Ogun West Senatorial district, he once again pushed fixatedly for the passage of the bill to upgrade Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro to a federal university. In his lead debates that was accepted leading to the various passages, Senator Adeola has always stated on the floor of the senate and in public hearings, and it is worthy of quoting verbatim that: “Mr. President, Distinguished Colleagues, the establishment of this University in Ogun State will also go a long way in balancing the spread of educational infrastructure in the state and other parts of our nation. Among the three Senatorial Districts of Ogun State, the Senatorial District where this proposed University is cited, is the only one without a state or Federal Government owned University with the two other Senatorial Districts having upward of two State/Federal Government owned universities located therein.” Again, the Senate and the House of Representatives passed this bill that had featured in three successive sessions of the National Assembly without a successful conclusion. In the meantime, several other federal and private universities have been approved even without much noticeable agitation and infrastructure.
But almost a decade after the initial agitation for a legislative canonization, a progressive and a fair-minded president happened on Nigeria in the person of President Tinubu. The people of Ogun West senatorial district had massively voted for Tinubu and Senator Adeola and it looks like payback time all the way for Ogun West Senatorial District. As announced by Senator Akpabio, President Tinubu graciously assented to the bill to upgrade Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro to Federal University of Technology, Ilaro. President Tinubu has made history for the people of Yewa-Awori in Ogun State as a major contributor to freeing the senatorial district from the shackles of inequity and marginalization. Beyond the liberating role of education generally in society and technological education in modern world, President Tinubu may have set in motion a cascade of deeds that may yet lead to total political liberation for a senatorial district relegated to the backwaters of development for over 48 years since the creation of Ogun State.
The story of FPI to FUTI and the various undercurrents, subterfuges and virulent opposition with the principal actors of its success being President Tinubu and Senator Adeola signposted another liberating deed for the people of Ogun West Senatorial district. You cannot suppress people with genuine and legitimate cause forever. Before this milestone, Senator Adeola under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu has attracted massive infrastructural development in the last two years in Ogun West in the area of construction of roads, schools, health care facilities, markets, town halls, Police Stations, supply of transformers and hundreds of solar street lights that are gradually being extended to other senatorial districts in Ogun State. With the jury still out on the fact that is in public domain to the effect that Senator Adeola has brought more good governance to the people of Ogun West than all administrations since the creation of the state, it is a no brainer that the people of Ogun State are eagerly waiting for his envisaged declaration for 2027 so that they can firmly tell all political ‘wananbes’, opportunists, serial contestants and losers and photo-ops aspirants and candidates, that Ogun State people now have a new template for what good governance should look like beyond political rhetoric. Good governance is all about meeting basic needs of the people for the majority. Ogun State waits with bated breath. For now, much appreciation to progressive President Tinubu and a determined Senator Adeola Yayi from the people of Ogun West and indeed Ogun state.
Chief Kayode Odunaro
A Member of Yewa Think Tank is the Chief of Staff to Senator Adeola
