Osun State Governor Adegboyega Oyetola on Thursday bagged the Awolowo free education award of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife.
He received the award at the 2021 edition of the Lecture Series of the institution’s Faculty of Education, which was delivered by former Governor of Osun, Chief Adebisi Akande.
The award, according to the organisers, was in recognition of the governor’s significant efforts to turnaround the educational fortunes in the State within the almost three years of his Administration.
Oyetola who dedicated the award to the memory of the founder of free education in Nigeria, late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and the people of Osun, described the honour as “an invitation to continue to seek better and improved ways to sustain free education in the knowledge and technology-driven world.”
The governor also restated his commitment to sustain the legacy of free education in Osun, adding that his administration had succeeded in its resolve to retain education as the bedrock of socioeconomic and infrastructure development of the state.
He said: “Despite the limited resources at our disposal, we have sustained free tuition in primary and secondary schools in the State while also providing free feeding for our pupils to enhance their nutritional abilities and mental alertness.”
Speaking on the theme of the lecture, “Awolowo Legacies In Education and Policies: Enduring Lessons for Contemporary Nigeria,” Chief Akande said the late Awolowo was an exceptional model in politics whose indelible legacies in education cannot be over-emphasised.
He said the late sage believed so much in education as he, in 1952, awarded 200 scholarships to indigent students for a university education having submitted in his advocacy for mass universal education as a panacea to socioeconomic development.
The OAU Vice Chancellor, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, said the award was in recognition of Oyetola’s tremendous contributions to educational reformation and advancement of the course of quality, functional and qualitative education in the state.
