Senator Ayo Arise represented Ekiti North Senatorial District at the National Assembly between 2007 and 2011, during the 6th Senate. In the interview, he speaks on the role he played in the establishment of the Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE) and other issues
You were said to be at the forefront in the narrative about the Federal Government’s approval that led to the establishment of the Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE) in 2011 under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. But there are indications that your frontal role at locating the university in Oye Local Government Area was undermined. Can you speak on that?
I have become aware of the recent narratives about the establishment of the Federal University Oye Ekiti. Some of these accounts appear to be deliberate attempts to diminish my role in the effort that, by God’s grace and with President Jonathan’s approval, led to the university being established in Oye Ekiti. The following are the accounts as it happened.
I can only pray that the spirit of our forefathers as Ekiti people would visit these new sets of Ekiti and clothe them with the spirit of decency and integrity for which every Ekiti man derives his respect in our society. On Sunday, November 28, 2010, President Jonathan announced his intention to establish six new Universities in states where there were no federal universities. The news was aired by the NTA network at about 9.pm.
The next day, I wrote to the Minister of Education through the ministry’s then Permanent Secretary, Prof. Afolabi, requesting that one of the universities be established in Oye Ekiti. Prof. Afolabi advised me to address the letter to the then Minister of State, the late Kenneth Gbagi. Immediately, I went to his office and, as directed by his secretary, waited for him because he was on his way back to the office.
He arrived less than five minutes later, accompanied by Prof. Julius Okojie of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and Prod Mahmood Yakubu of TETFund, who later became chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). After my initial presentation, Prof. Okojie said that Oye is a rural community because he visited Oye before, to inspect the location for Crawford University before relocating to Ogun State.
Late Gbagi looked at me and said that he was looking for a location where the university could take off immediately. I told him Oye was ready as there was a teachers college established by the Federal Government in the seventies. I then asked him whether he would not consider the hometown of the man who gave him his job simply because the community was rural.
There and then Gbagi said he already has a location for two of the six universities. That’s Otuoke and Oye Ekiti. The next phase was the journey for inspection of the facilities. It was during the visit that they paid a courtesy call to the newly sworn-in governor, Dr, Kayode Fayemi, who decided to take them to Ikole Ekiti for inspection. Late Gbagi thereafter declared that he established a Federal University of Agriculture in Ikole. This was neither done without any Federal Executive Council approval nor that of the President. This became a very serious issue between the two communities.
The same set of people selling the concocted lies we are reading today, festered the ember of hatred between many sons and daughters of Ikole, who believed that Ayo Arise relocated the university from Ikole to Oye Ekiti. This was not the case as nobody requested for the university until I had submitted my letter and had met with Gbagi, Prof. Okojie and Prof. Yakubu.
What was your relationship with President Jonathan at that time?
I became the chairman of Senate Committee on Privatization in July 2007. Vice President Jonathan as at that time was the statutory chairman of the National Council on Privatization. My committee had direct oversight responsibility for the council that the Vice President chaired.
We had a good working relationship, and out of respect for his office, I went to his office to hold my committee discussion with him at the villa periodically. This relationship lasted until he became the Acting President on February 9, 2010 and later President on May 6, 2010. This represented over two and a half years of working relationship prior to the issue of university establishment.
Some quarters believe that a personality also played active roles in midwifing the university?
There was a decent gentleman, Mr. Femi Ajayi, who had relationship with President Jonathan without any doubt when they served together at Iresi.
The President made him his SSA Diaspora, later the DG of NDLEA, and finally Executive Secretary of PTDF, for about 20 months until he was disengaged in February 2016 by Jonathan due to agency reshuffle. Dr Femi Ajayi was the person I could most easily reach at the presidency, and he reliably conveyed my messages to Mr. President. If I had routed my letters and occasional gifts through official channels, I could only have guessed whether they reached the President or what response they received.
One of the gifts I sent was Decision Points by George W. Bush. As far as I am concerned, Dr. Femi Ajayi remains a good man. Through the various federal positions he held, he had opportunities to serve the people of Aiyegbaju, and I believe there are many testimonies to his impact in that regard. Dr Ajayi was no doubt one of the contributors that supported me as needed.
Were there other players in the establishment of the university?
Top on my list of those who went out of their way to assist me with Mr. President was Mrs. Diezani Madueke. As providence had it, I had booked an appointment to see the Petroleum Minister on a different matter. She called me two hours before our appointment that she had to go and see Mr. President.
I quickly took the advantage by telling her that one of the reasons I needed to see her was because I needed the President to commit to the establishment of the Federal University at Oye-Ekiti. She got all the details and the reasons why it has to be Oye Ekiti.
I will continue to celebrate every Ekiti son and daughter that sets and raises the bar of excellence
She was the first person to tell me that the issue of Oye Ekiti as the site of the proposed FUOYE was a done deal. Senator David Mark almost got tired of me, due to the way I was pestering him particularly when the elites of Ikole believed that I was trying to relocate the university that was ab initio located at Oye, by Mr. President.
I cannot but mention the role of my friend, Senator Gbenga Daniel, who I called to discuss with President Jonathan on the issue of the location of the university. He never wavered on his support for me. Engr. Segun Oni was saddled with the responsibility of coming up with a location in Ekiti.
Naturally, he pushed for Ifaki but he had already located a state university in Ifaki (later cancelled by his successor in office). When it became obvious that late Caleb Olubolade, who had a stronger relationship with President Jonathan as he served as military administrator of Bayelsa and then Minister of Special Duties under President Jonathan, was keen on convincing the President to settle the problem between Oye and Ikole by relocating the university to Ijero, Engr. Oni threw his weight behind me.
Let me also mention the name of late Senator Uche Chukwumerije, who ensured that the university’s name or location was not altered due to the intervention of some legislators, who came after I left in 2011. Dr. Fayemi gave me an audience on July 31, 2011, for almost two hours when he was not obliging the Federal Ministry of Education the Certificate of Occupancy for the land in Oye Ekiti.
We both agreed that a dual campus was the solution, where Ikole was to take off with the Faculty of Agriculture. Dr. Fayemi and Prof. Chinedu Nebo added the Faculty of Engineering to make the two faculties at takeoff, while Oye Ekiti remained the campus as approved by the Federal Executive Council. He thereafter issued the Certificate of Occupancy to the Federal Government. The rest is now history.
Some said there was no legislative bill backing the establishment of the university. Can you shed more light on that?
The busybodies raised the issue of my failure to present a bill for the establishment of the Federal University of Oye Ekiti. The current Minister for Budget and Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu and I discussed the issue of the establishment of federal universities in states that did not have one as of the third quarter of 2010. He was the chairman Senate Committee on Education at the period briefly replacing Senator Joy Emodi.
As if the Federal Government heard our conversation, the announcement was made by the presidency to establish six universities in each geopolitical zone in states that had not benefited a federal university. This was later expanded to nine universities.
The need to prepare a private bill was therefore not necessary because of the executive bill that came after the universities were already established. Senator Ndoma Egba later read the bill on the floor of the Senate as the then Senate leader.
It is on record that Senator Opeyemi Bamidele used his position in the Senate to benefit his people through the establishment of the Federal University of Technology and Environmental Sciences Iyin. The bill was passed during President Muhammadu Buhari’s time but was only signed into law under President Bola Tinubu.
We all know the son and father relationship between Bamidele and our President. The people of Ekiti expect performance from their representatives. Senator Bamidele remains the most consequential senator that Ekiti has ever produced. I am happy to be one of his inspirations and I will continue to celebrate every Ekiti son and daughter that sets and raises the bar of excellence.