A former Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Dr Akin Onigbinde (SAN), has tasked the country’s tertiary institutions to proffer solutions to the myriads of problems confronting them, noting that ivory towers are full of people with extraordinary talents and intellect, hence, should be able to chart the way forward for the schools.

Onigbinde, who stated this at the 70th birthday and retirement lecture of a former Vice-Chancellor of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Prof. Adeniyi Gbadegesin, urged universities to figure out solutions to the challenges plaguing the system.

Gbadegesin, who is a former Head of the Department of Geography and Dean of Social Sciences of the University of Ibadan (UI), is retiring from the premier institution.

Onigbinde, who chaired the event, lauded Gbadegesin for his contributions to academic development. He said: “The university system attracts the very best men and women of extraordinary talents to lead the charge in every sphere. Universities provide solutions and give insights into the challenges confronting humanity and society on every frontier. It is time for these institutions to step back and proffer solutions to their challenges.

“First, federal universities should interrogate the laws by which they were established and contemplate ways of changing, modifying or working around those provisions to ensure their survival and fitness for purpose, both now and in the years ahead,” Onigbinde stated.

He noted that if the structure and some provisions of the law need to be changed, repealed or new provisions enacted, the National Assembly, especially members with the knowledge, background and temperament appropriate for such an enterprise, should be contacted.

He lamented that as a laudable, noble, and cerebral effort of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over the years, it has not been driven in the direction of initiating and accomplishing the anticipated change.

“Consider the hard work, dedication and intellect that past and current leaders of ASUU as well as seasoned academics, including Dr. Mahmood Tukur, Festus Iyayi, Bade Onimode, Bala Usman, Segun Osoba, Assisi Asobie, Atahiru Jega, Dipo Fasina, Omotoye Olorode, and Magdalene Agbor, have put into the struggle to see the university system work well. What do we have to show for the multi-generational struggles?

“This may suggest that the methods of ASUU may not achieve the legislative re-engineering needed to effect a change in course. Besides, as healthy as the regulations may be to public institutions as mechanisms for quality assurance, the internal contradictions are mind-boggling,” the senior advocate lamented.

Subsequently, he enjoined the institutions to rethink and reappraise what constitutes their core teaching and research concerns.

In his lecture titled: ‘Instrumentality of geo-informatics as patent tools for environmental governance,’ a former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Dr Usani Uguru Usani, said the environment is geography, and geography is the rudder for daily livelihood practices.

Usani, who is of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, commended the contributions of Gbadegesin to environmental research.