From Priscilla Ediare, Ado Ekiti
The Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has said that the current slash in the monthly subvention to Ekiti State University (EKSU) was a temporary measure occasioned by the nationwide financial challenges.
The governor made the clarification on Friday in Ado Ekiti when a delegation of the university’s Governing Council led by its Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council, Prof Bamitale Omole, paid a courtesy visit to the Governor’s Office.
The governor explained that it would be reviewed as the state’s finances improve.
He said payment of the backlog of subvention will be considered but urged the management to harness other possible ways of generating funds for the university.
The governor, reacting to the encroachment challenges faced by the institution, said the government will call a meeting with the landowners in a bid to find a solution to the challenges and probably pay compensation since the university has the statutory papers.
Governor Fayemi said his administration would continue to focus more on basic education, stressing that the numeracy and literacy learnt at the basic level were the basis for effective tertiary education. He explained that that was the reason basic education was made free and compulsory by his administration.
He urged the university to find ways of saving resources especially in the areas of blocking leakages at the Bursary department through the automation system they have put in place.
The governor also advised the university community to look inward using their various initiatives and innovation to support the subvention coming from the state government.
‘We have not reduced the subvention of the university, the subvention had been caught in a nationwide challenge, as I am sure you all know that NNPC has not remitted money to the federation account in the last three to four months. So, what we had already planned at the beginning of the 2021 budget has been caught in that web and as much as we tried to increase the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) at the state level, we have not been able to meet our obligation which is what has been responsible for the emergency reduction in the subvention, but it’s not a permanent reduction,’ the governor said.
Earlier, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman Prof Omole commended the various impactful achievements of the governor in the university.
While assuring the governor that the EKSU Governing Council will not derail from working in line with the administration’s education roadmap, Prof Omole made a case for an upward review and payment of the backlogs of the institution’s subvention, and government intervention in the encroachment challenges it faces on a daily basis concerning its lands.