On February 18, 2022, the Edo State Government under the leadership of Governor Godwin Obaseki at the education policy townhall meeting held by the Edo State Ministry of Education made a decision to create more campuses that would be affiliated to the state-owned varsity, Ambrose Alli Univeristy (AAU) and also made known their plans to move two faculties from the University to these new campuses that would be located at Oredo and Owan Local Government Area. The governor said they planned to move the faculty of technology and engineering to Oredo LGA and the faculty of agriculture and natural resources to Owan LGA of the state.
This plan by the Edo State Government met strong opposition resistance from the masses, most especially the Esan indigenes in the state in whose land the university was situated. They described his decision as being ridiculous and wasteful since it would be fiscally debilitating and mentally fatiguing for students and lecturers to shove between campuses for their curricular activities. The indigenes even threatened to shut down the Benin-Abuja Expressway since they believed the Edo State Government had decided to split the university into three.
One would wonder why the Esan people would oppose such development as many federal and state-owned universities in the country and even universities across the globe have multiple campuses. Well, their reasons may seem to be logical enough.
Firstly, they talked about the decay in the state university. The people were of the opinion that the money be put to use in improving the existing campuses, rather than expanding it to other areas. We are also aware that the state-owned varsity joined the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in its temporary strike action since the school was inadequately funded, brought about by the poor attention given to it by the Edo State Government. If a single campus system is not adequately funded, would a multi-campus be? The governor should ensure infrastructural development in the tertiary institutions.
Secondly, they complained about the movement of important faculties to the proposed campuses. In any academic environment, the faculty of engineering and agriculture are seen to be as one of the most important, and the majority of students in any tertiary institution in the country mainly come from these two highly revered faculties. Moving these faculties out of Esanland would not likely seem pleasant to the indigenes, but the possibility of retaining these campuses at their present locations must not be outweighed as it could still be at Ekpoma, and still be at Owan and Oredo.
This university (previously known as Bendel State University) was established by the late Ambrose Folorunsho Alli of blessed memory who was the then Bendel State Governor during the administration of late Shehu Shagari. He first established the university at Ekpoma, and went on to establish a campus affiliated to the University at Abraka in Delta State, which housed the faculty of education. This campus transformed to what we now know as Delta State University, Abraka and it currently has three other campuses at Oleh, Asaba and Anwai in Delta State.
Blunt refusal of a multi-campus system would be very wrong (in a sane clime, except justified with reasons why it shouldn’t). It may be very expensive to expand or create more campuses. It would also be very complex to operate but it would surely allow for rapid communal development and create more employment opportunities, but more importantly, improvement of the state university should be first attended to before expanding certain campuses to other areas.
