by Alexander O. Onukwue

Thirty-four thousand students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology have been out of school for more than one academic session, but the Governor of Oyo State – one of two states in custody of the institution – was part of the latest entourage to see Buhari in London.

With Rauf Aregbesola, his Osun State counterpart, the self acclaimed “most prudent Governor” has been in the bad books of many Nigerians for the situation in LAUTECH, where a good number of young Nigerians in the most active stage of their lives are being made to wander and wait without hope for resuming and completing their academic journey.

So why did the Governor jet out to London on the visit to Buhari?

Ajimobi’s presence at the meeting was supposed to fulfil a federal character kind of representation. Considering that the previous visit was comprised of a delegation of four, none of whom was from the South-West, it seemed right to the organizers that the region be represented. Ayodele Fayose, the arch-nemesis of President Buhari was almost a no-choice, and Akinwunmi Ambode supposedly has flooding issues to deal with from Alausa. The new man at Ondo, Rotimi Akeredolu, is still getting to know his staff at the Government House in Akure, leaving the choice of three – Aregbesola, Amosun and Ajimobi – two of whom are involved in the LAUTECH problem.

Government’s responsibility to its citizens involve being sensitive to its people. As much as it was found necessary to have a representative delegation visiting President Buhari, it would not have been out of place for the Governor of Oyo State to have abstained, out of a sense of the urgency of the situation at LAUTECH. He already receives so much stick for his apparent negligence of the students’ and lecturers’ plight; leaving the country for a mission that would not arrive at any significantly different outcome was a disordered pick off his list of priorities.

Never mind the Not Too Young To Run bill that has scaled through the Constitution Review process at both chambers of the National Assembly, the “constituted authority” in Oyo State has remained reluctant to relieve the young scholars from their exile before they become too old for jobs and for earning a place in the ever fast moving new world.