The Igbomina Professionals Association (IPA) in Kwara has suggested that the proposed Kwara University of Education be sited in its community.

The association made the request at a news conference in Ilorin on Saturday.

The president of IPA, Bayo Atoyebi, said that they were very happy to know that the state government plans to establish a university of education in Kwara.

“We have submitted a memorandum as requested by the 11-man panel constituted by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq in November 2023.

“We called this conference to state why the proposed Kwara State University of Education should be sited on Igbomina land and not anywhere else.

“We are disturbed by the utterances of some groups demanding that the proposed university be located in Ilorin, the state capital, where more than 90 per cent of state and federal institutions are located,” the IPA president said.

Mr Atoyebi narrated the history of higher education in Kwara from its creation on May 27, 1967, saying that the first higher institution owned by the state, the College of Technology, was established in 1973 and sited in Ilorin.

Also, two of its foundation schools, the School of Engineering and the School of Management and Vocation, are located in Ilorin.

The University of Ilorin, established by the Federal Military Government in 1975, is also located in Ilorin.

The president noted that the College of Education, Ilorin, was originally conceived and established as the College of Education, Oro, an Igbomina community, but is located inside Ilorin.

He also mentioned that Kwara State University, Malete, located in Ilorin, as well as KWASU Teaching Hospital, formerly General Hospital, and the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, are in Ilorin.

Also, the State College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies, the College of Nursing and Midwifery, the Football Academy, the College of Aviation, the College of Agriculture, and the Michael Imoudu National Institute of Labour Studies, are all in Ilorin.

Mr Atoyebi also mentioned the newly established Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Ilorin, saying that the association sought to attract development projects to its area in Igbomina land.

He said that they were taken aback by the spirited demand by the Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU) that the proposed Kwara State University of Education be sited in Ilorin.

The president said that IEDPU did not consider that the state capital was already saturated with state government-owned and federal tertiary educational institutions, to the detriment of the two other senatorial zones of the state.

“This, to all intents and purposes, will be unjust and repudiate justice, equity, and fairness.

“We believe that the concentration of these institutions and other amenities in Ilorin has led to uneven development and huge rural-urban migration in the state,” he said.

Mr Atoyebi said that Igbomina land occupied a large portion of Kwara and contributed a large percentage of citizenry and resources to the state, yet there was no single public university or establishment to provide jobs and developments for them.

“We also wish to state that Igbomina land has vast land suitable for educational institutions like the proposed University of Education.

“We believe that the location of a government university in Igbomina land will boost government programmes and attract businesses in their different forms and other developmental projects.

“It will also enhance and promote the government’s inclusion of Igbomina people in its scheme of development.

“We believe that our governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, is a decent and fair-minded leader who will consider our request for justice and fairness in the establishment of this university,” Mr Atoyebi said.

The president said that their members had used their hard-earned resources and expertise to offer solutions to problems such as insecurity, poor education, poor health care delivery, unemployment and communal clashes.

IPA is a group of professionals who are indigenes of the Igbomina community of Kwara and have members residing across the country and the Diaspora.

(NAN)