MIMIKO AT RUN - SAYS
GOVERNMENT MUST RETURN TO THE PEOPLE
 The Executive Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko has said that government must go back to the people in the developing countries, particularly in Africa before there could be any meaningful development in these countries. The governor made these assertions on Tuesday May 12, 2009 while delivering a lecture titled: “Governance in Developing Countries: The Problems and the Challenges” at this year RUN History and International Students Association’s week at the university auditorium. According to Dr. Mimiko, the current system where the people of Africa do not have any input in the administration that governed them cannot bring about any development to Africa. As he put it “the people’s vote must count before you could restore the confidence of the people in their leaders”.
Dr. Mimiko told his audience that he derived his greatest joy from affecting the lives of other people positively. He therefore charged the students to be ready to bring about positive change in their community and the country at large. He disclosed that the bane of Africa was that of bad leadership. He was of the opinion that the people of Nigeria were easy to rule and that all they need is for the leadership of the country to mobilize them. He said that some of the political leaders in Nigeria stole what they do not need.
On the crisis in education in Nigeria, Governor Mimiko noted that most of the schools built by Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the South-West were the ones still in existence. He further noted that rather than develop education in Nigeria, the rich among us send their children abroad for higher education. He said that the situation is so bad today that the product from public universities were no longer what it used to be. He disclosed that during his days in the university, it was unthinkable that a non-undergraduate boy would approached an undergraduate lady to be his girlfriend, but that today our undergraduates ladies are being slept with by trailer-drivers under trailer.
Governor Mimiko promised to partner RUN in the development of higher education in his state and RUN. He told the students that they belong to the privileged few in Nigeria because RUN and some good private universities in Nigeria were doing good job in university education. He said that education is the bedrock of development and therefore urged the federal government to devote the lion share of its budget to education.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor L. B. Kolawole said that “on behalf of the entire staff and students of this great university, I wish to congratulate the governor on your recent inauguration as governor of the Sunshine State after a hard-won victory”. Professor Kolawole told the governor a brief history of how RUN came into being. He noted that while the Redeemed Christian Church of God and other well meaning philanthropists have hitherto supported the university fully, it is our desire that in the true tradition of university system, financial support should come from different sectors of the economy. As he put it “Afterwards, the products of this university would serve the nation in different capacities and therefore there is every reason for government at all levels to lend their full support to private universities”. |
