Okun people are the most wisest and enlightened electorates and people in the present Kogi state, a feat the people had sustained from the old Kabba province, and later Kwara state.
Okun land, a politically misplaced people of South West extraction had the potentials and garnered people of highly exposed, highly educated, highly industrious, highly intelligent many decades ago, people that nothing could rattle them in any circumstances.
In the old Kwara state some few decades ago, Okun land was the deciding factor when politics was been played according to the rules, as they had joined their kiths and kins from old Kwara to produce a Governor from Ebira extraction, Late Alhaji Adamu Attah through a well thought out political arrangements powered by Late Abubakar Bukola Saraki, The Turaki of Ilorin.
Dissatisfied with the performance of the then Kwara Governor, Late Alhaji Adamu Attah from the least minority and to show his political dominance and dynamics, Saraki produced another minority of Yoruba extraction from Oyun area, with Late Cornelius Adebayo emerged as Kwara Governor in 1983, still with the political arrangements with the current Okun people.
Even in Kogi state, no political arrangements was bereft of Okun people since the inception of democracy before and in 1999 or rather the creation of Kogi state, but that opportunity should not be taken for granted.
In Education, the entire length and breadth of old Kwara state from the Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and the famous then Kwara State College of Technology, Colleges of Education, and University of Ilorin was dominated by Okun extraction, as even the civil service, public offices, commerical and industrial exploitation of the old Kwara state was at the mercy of Okun land, spread to some part of Oyo and Osun state over six decades ago.
It is on record that educationist from Okun land or origin had produced head of institutions in Kwara, Ondo, Oyo, Ekiti, Osun even after the creation of states exercise that ceased Okun land from Kwara state.
There is no denial that some Okun extraction have refused to come back home to their ancestral origin, owing to the seamless relationship between the Okuns and the South west states.
When you talked of industrialization, enterprising and enterprenuership both in public, private and otherwise, Okun people were the leading light in the old Kwara state, so much so that some industries in the state Capital , Ilorin engaged workers from old Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo and Edo in the areas of job creation and employment opportunities.
It is also on record that the existence of College of Agriculture, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria over the decades in Kabba was obvious, hence the clamour lately by Senator Dino Melaye, Smart Adeyemi Senator that represented both Kogi West for the upgrading of the age long institution to University of Agriculture, that had scaled second reading on the floor of the Senate.
The former Kogi Governor, Late Prince Abubakar Audu made all efforts to convert the federal Agriculture University campus into a state University, but a clear overlap observed by the federal government at that time.
We are also not unaware that Kogi state University now Prince Abubakar Audu University Anyigba was first sighted in Kabba, but for obvious reasons of paucity of funds, and the exigency of that time, it was relocated to Anyigba during the administration’s second term in office, because of the readily available abandoned structures owned by the World Bank in the then Benue Agricultural Rural Development Agency , a World Bank project, that later became Kogi Agricultural Rural Development Agency, after the exit or World Bank intervention.
With the relocation, a satellite campus was to be established in Okene and Kabba to ensure easy spread based on the availability of funds at that point in time.
The administration of Alhaji Ibrahim Idris also considered Kabba , the centre of the old Kabba province as the location of the Federal University Lokoja, then established after intensive lobbying by the administration, but to give Lokoja the state Capital, a befitting status, envisaging the federal presence in Kabba, it was agreed by the State executive council to establish the new Federal University Lokoja, attracted by Alhaji Ibrahim Idris the then Governor at the State capital.
All the scenarios portrayed that the establishment of an ivory tower in Kabba , the heart of Okun people was purely on merit and desirous without any iota of political undertones many decades ago.
But , since democracy is about development, the idea of citing a new University now in Okun land was not out of place by the present administration of Governor Yahaya Bello ,after all nine months as Ag Governor, Chief Clarence Olafemi established College of Education (Technical) in Kabba after exhausting the needs assessment.
Even the establishment and citing of Prince Abubakar Audu University, and Federal University Lokoja was clearly based on merit and needs assessment among many others, and not geared towards achieving political scores.
With the underfunded and underdeveloped Prince Abubakar Audu University in Anyigba PAAU and hurriedly funded Confluence University of Science and Technology CUSTECH, Osara, the establishment of a new University in Okun land desired deep pondering based on the current state of basic education of Primary and post- Primary Education and secondary education and the present realities in Kogi state.
With the recent alarm by UBEC and SDGs of the inability of many states to assess counterparts funding running into 47B and lack of SDGs interventions both in Goals 3 and Goals 4 in Kogi state of late, low revenue generation profile, it is high time to prioritize basic education, hence it is the foundation of higher education in Nigeria.
For my people of Okun land, I joined you to rejoice with the area on the decisions of the state government to open up the age long Educational potentials of the area, but alas , it is not a new development, with the area serving as Human Capital and Educational resource centre of the entire South and Northern part of Nigeria over the decades.
We need to take cue from Oyo state with many Colleges of Education, Polytechnics, and two campuses of Ladoke Akintola University, Lautech at Ogbomosho and Osogbo that had resulted into erratic salary payments and crises among the unions.
Kabba town and Okun land was long overdue of the status of a University town, but not the one that will be saddled with operational lapses or lack of funding, as the hub of all round development not only in Kogi state, but the old Kwara and South West and Northern States.
Okun Agbeo…
Yusuf Is A Public Affairs Analyst, Writes from Lokoja, Kogi state.
