Former Senator representing Ekiti North Senatorial District, Senator Ayo Arise has said he facilitated the establishment of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, FUOYE, through direct engagements with the Federal Government in 2010.
Addressing journalists in Ado-Ekiti, Arise, who served in the National Assembly between 2007 and 2011, said the narrative crediting others with the establishment of the university was an attempt to distort history and diminish the contributions of those who ensured Oye-Ekiti became its permanent location.
He recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan announced on *November 28, 2010 the Federal Government’s plan to establish six new federal universities in states without such institutions.
Arise said he wrote to the then Minister of Education through the Permanent Secretary, Professor Oladapo Afolabi the next day, requesting that one of the universities be sited in Oye-Ekiti.
According to him, he was directed to meet the then Minister of State for Education, the late Kenneth Gbagi where he also met the then Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Peter Okojie and Professor Mahmood Yakubu of TETFund.
Arise said Gbagi later indicated that Oye-Ekiti had been identified alongside Otuoke as locations for two of the proposed universities.
The former lawmaker also acknowledged the role played by Dr. Femi Ajayi in conveying messages to President Jonathan, and former Governor Kayode Fayemi in resolving land issues.
He said he met Fayemi on July 31, 2011 over the Certificate of Occupancy, which led to the agreement for a dual-campus arrangement with Ikole-Ekiti hosting the Faculty of Agriculture and Oye-Ekiti as the main campus.
Arise urged Ekiti people to approach the history of FUOYE with fairness and integrity. “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,” he said.
