.. Ooni of Ife
…as Sultan lays foundation stone for Ojaja University in Osun
TUNDE ADELEKE, Osogbo
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, disclosed that establishing a university is not a money-making venture but a lasting legacy for humanity.
This is just as the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, performed the groundbreaking ceremony of Ojaja University in Osun State.
Ooni made the remark at the turning of the sod for the Ile-Ife campus of the University, on Saturday, an event which marked one of the activities lined up for his 10th anniversary on the throne.
He said, “I want to thank everybody I want to thank everybody, because this is the greatest feat of my 10th anniversary, the Commissioning and turning of the soil of Ojaja University Campus.
It took a very long route starting from Ilorin Eyekorin, Kwara state and I told the Vice Chancellor, Engineer Hassan , who started Crown Hill University and brought me on board but I couldn’t continue and I said I have this vision too that some day I will set up Ojaja University.
“Six years ago, rather than for the University to completely collapse, I offered to take it upon myself. Exactly five years low and behold, we started pushing, it was a very challenging investment.
Anyone who sets up a university don’t think you are going to make money from it, it’s a lie! Rather, turn it into a legacy project.
“Sultan came here 10 years ago we had no single structure. Exactly today we have over forty to fifty structures on this land and I know very soon this place will be filled up with structures because we have lots of hectares of land available.“
In his remarks, the Sultan of Sokoto described the project as a historic and commendable initiative, stressing that investing in education remains one of the greatest legacies any leader can leave behind.
“This is a programme worth waiting for. Even if you spend the whole day here, you are not wrong because today is a special day for humanity,” the Sultan said.
“Ooni and I deliberate on so many issues together, agree on what to do and what to say before you hear anybody saying negative things, and that is why I don’t comment when I hear negative things, I only laugh, because I know they are not true.
“And of course, such a thing should bother any leader because if you are a leader people must say negative things about you, but if you are a nobody, nobody will bother about you.
So if you are in a position of authority no matter how small the office is, some will definitely say something about you, don’t answer that person because you are making such person look important.”
Meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor of the Institution, Professor Jeleel Ojuade, noted that, “Today, Ojaja University expands its path and with it, the intellectual horizon of a generation.
Kabiyesi, this unveiling coincides with ten years of your transformative reign, a decade during which culture, innovation, enterprise, and education have been repositioned as tools of national renaissance.
“As we open the gates of the Ojaja University, Ile–Ife campus, we welcome not just a new institution but a new promise. A promise that education in Nigeria can be bold, modern, ethical, and solidly built on the cultural strength that defines us.
The establishment of the Ile-Ife Campus is therefore not merely an institutional expansion; it is an affirmation of your creed that knowledge is the most sacred inheritance a leader can gift his people.”
For a better society
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