Crisis looms in Kwara State over the siting of the state government’s proposed University of Education, unless prompt drastic steps are taken.
While Kwara Central, through the Ilorin Emirate Development Progressive Union (IEDPU), last December, demanded to host the institution, Kwara South did the same, claiming that the state government’s projects were not evenly distributed.
Addressing newsmen, yesterday, Kwara South Consultative Forum (KSCF) said if the school is sited in Kwara Central, “it will not only injure our unity but also stall every effort at engendering even spread of development across the state.”
It, however, noted that adding the proposed school to the existing tertiary institutions in Kwara Central is being unfair to other districts.
Reacting further to the IEDPU December 25, 2023 meeting that also canvassed that the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) be renamed Alimi University, KSCF said: “Renaming UNILORIN after the founder of Alimi Dynasty is a highly provocative suggestion, which is indifferent to the diversity and divergent history of the other ethnic groups in the state.
It stated: “The fact that the university is located in Ilorin does not confer ownership on the city. The privilege of being the host community should not be misconstrued to mean exclusive ownership either. The entire state is the catchment area.”
Secretary-general of KSCF, Simon Daramola, at the Omo Igbomina Hall in Ilorin, explained that KSCF is not an interloper seeking relevance or to fish in troubled water.
“Our concern is to disabuse or discourage any attempt to foist on the rest of us any agenda that will paint other citizens in subservient hue, inferior or outsiders in their own state.”
“This press conference is, therefore, not intended to antagonise or confront IEDPU, but to promote oneness and create a state where a sense of belonging is promoted.
“What we need most at this point in time are attitudes, pronouncements and desires that will encourage all of us to live in peace and harmony with one another. The significance of the history of the head of the Alimi Dynasty bears no relevance to the people of Igbomina, Ibolo and Ekiti descents in Kwara South and even the other senatorial districts. It will, therefore, be unjust and unreasonable to impose a name that does not have a statewide spread on our collective inheritance,” KSCF argued.
