2021 budget will take care of LAUTECH funding, Makinde assures

Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has declared that funding Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso (LAUTECH) would pose no difficulty to the state, as it had been captured in its 2021 budget.

Makinde, who said this while speaking on a radio programme in Ibadan, yesterday morning, added that the state has been taking full financial responsibility of the institution since the beginning of 2020.

The governor said he met with his Osun State counterpart, Gboyega Oyetola recently and implored him to let other factors aside politics reign on the issue of the institution and the fate of the students and their lecturers, which informed the agreement to cede LAUTECH to Oyo State.

Makinde said: “When we came in, we said Oyo State will fund for January to July, and Osun for the other part, but for some reasons, when we came in we had to intervene and for this year 2020, Oyo State has been funding LAUTECH alone and we have appropriated enough money in the 2021 budget to continue doing this.

“Nothing is going to change. Of course, we have issues with how the University has been running in the past, we have to change it, but it won’t matter where you come from, there won’t be Osun must go. It is a university, and we have what it takes to put LAUTECH where it used to be nationally and also put it on African and international ranking.

“Now the real work has start, we have to ensure it is well funded and it contributes to the economy of Ogbomosho and Oyo State, I will be going to Ogbomosho to meet with the stakeholders very soon. However, I want to plead with the lecturers that there is no Osun forum, no Oyo forum.”