THE National Universities Commission (NUC) has Thursday issued a letter of recognition for the take-off of the newly approved University of Ilesa in Osun State.

The Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed presented the letter of recognition to the Executive Governor of Osun state, Adegboyega Oyetola, at brief ceremony in Abuja.

The letter of recognition was handed over to Oyetola after the Law establishing the University, Academic Brief and the Physical Master Plan of the institution were presented to Executive Secretary of NUC.

Rasheed in his remark, establishment of University was a best legacy anyone could leave anywhere in the world, adding that the Governor has compensated Osun people with a full-fledged University the ownership of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) was ceded to Oyo State following the unending ownership tussle between the two states.

He noted that the upgrade of the College of Education Ilesa to University status has brought number of universities in Nigeria to 2020 with 111 of them that are private universities.

The NUC boss noted in spite of this high number of private universities, they only accounted for 5 to 6 per cent of the over two million students enrolled in Universities while the remaining 95 per cent of students are in public varsities.
The Governor while thanking the Commission for the recognition, disclosed that new University of Ilesa shall focus on Agriculture and Agri-business to address food insecurity, mining technology building on the abundant gold deposit in Ijesaland and Medical Sciences to enhance the human resource need in the health sector.

“We are very deliberate in our approach as we seek to contribute to the diversification of our economy and wean it away from over reliance on oil”.
“In anticipation of the license issuance, we have identified credible candidates for the Governing Council and Principal Officers, ready to be appointed and hit the ground running, he said.

The Governor was accompanied to NUC by the former Governor of Osun State and first interim chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, former Minister of Heath, Professor Isaac Adewole, Speaker, Osun House of Assembly, Rt. Honourable Timothy Owoeye among others.