Date Published: 05/02/10

Mimiko pledges to make Ondo Varsity global reference point

…flags of N1billion intra-campus road network

Olusegun Mimiko

Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko has expressed the determination of his administration to make the State-owned University, the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko (AAUA), a global reference point by embarking on the total transformation of its infrastructure and manpower.

Dr. Mimiko made this known at the weekend while flagging-off the construction of about N1 billion Intra-Campus road projects at the institution. According to him, all the needed physical infrastructures, aesthetic environment, facilities for learning and strength of workforce would be met to improve its status while the students should be disciplined and be willing to subject themselves to learn in a well structured environment.

His words: “Our investment to develop the infrastructure of this University is not negotiable.  We are determined to make it one of the best not only in Nigeria but also in the world; it shall be a Citadel of learning in character and in deed and our products will be able to among the best anywhere. This is our dream and we shall not relent until we achieve this.

“Like I always say since we came on board, we have made it clear that education remains the number one investment the State government has to make if we have to secure our future in this country and the State.

Our Government shall leave no stone unturned to ensure that education is given a pride of place as we are well aware that it is by investing heavily in education that any meaningful development can take place in our country.”

Towards this end, the Governor disclosed that his government had signed a MoU with a United States based company, Vena, to build nine secondary schools in the State that would be equipped with state-of-the–art teaching facilities, laboratories and boarding facilities. He added that admission into these schools would be purely on merit.

 The Governor, who charged the contractor to work according to specifications and ahead of schedule while noting that many contracts were awarded on the campus in a hurry by the last administration in the state, however assured the University community that all contracts awarded would be completed. Saying: “No project inherited by this administration will be abandoned.  We are not going to allow our children; I mean our future leaders; to suffer.  All the projects are for the sake of our children.  You know most of the projects were awarded in a hurry”.

Earlier in his speech, the Acting Pro-chancellor and Chairman of Council of the Institution, Mr. Dan Nwuanyanwu noted that the project covered 10 kilometers of roads on the campus, adding that it would open up the institution’s over 800 hectares of land  for development. Nwuanyanwu,  pleaded for the completion of two contracts worth N700 million that were controversially awarded by the Olusegun Agagu administration but which had been abandoned disclosed that a 1000 KVA generating set  has been installed and commissioned while the temporary Faculty of Law has been completed and now in use.

The State Commissioner for Works, Mr. Yele Omogunwa had in his address had stated that the Mimiko administration had paid the sum of One billion, nine hundred and three million, one hundred and eleven thousand and eighty sixty naira, seventy kobo (1,903,111,086.70) to contractors for on-going roads projects in the State.