Ogun Assembly To Pass Law Upgrading MAPOLY To University Status End Of January

Ogun State House of Assembly on Tuesday gave assurance that the bill to upgrade Moshood Abiola Polytechnic,MAPOLY, Abeokuta to a University of Technology‎ would be passed into law January ending.

Hon Suraj Adekunbi,Speaker of the Assembly made the disclosure on Tuesday‎ while speakking at the 2nd International Conference of Environmental Studies organised by the School of Environmental Studies of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic,MAPOLY with the theme ” Sustainability of Land, Shelter, Urban Development and Management in Developing Countries”

It would be recalled that,the Governor,Ibikunle Amosun had earlier sent a letter to the Assembly requesting for the upgrade of the 38 year old indtitution

The number one lawmaker in the state, at the event explained that the House when  resumed would urgently give the bill a speedy hearing, and thereafter sent a clean copy to the governor for his assent.

He further added that after the passage of the bill and assented to by the governor, the institution would have the opportunity to embark on full scale research on how to sustain the environment.

His words  “The Governor has deem it fit to put up such bill and presented it to the House for deliberations and subsequent passage. When we resume I can assure you that we are going to give that bill accelerated passage and I want to promise you that before the end of this month we will present a clean copy of the bill to the Governor for his assent, “.

Adekunbi while speaking on the conference noted that it would create a platform for Nigeria and other developing countries to place better attention and be well informed about their environment.

He called for sensitisation of members of the public towards such conferences, saying that all stakeholders had a major role to play in the overall development of the environment.

The Dean of the School of Environmental Technology, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Prof. Julius Olujimi in his keynote address said that sustainable urban management and development was a global issue and an inevitable phenomenon in developing countries of the world hence all asundry must work together to protect their immediate environment.

Olujimi pointed out that problems associated with land, shelter, urban management and development constituted socio-economic,  cultural and environmental challenges to the attainment of sustainable development and effective urban governance.

“It is essential for government at all spheres to ensure easy accessibility to land for all and sundry. Land laws need to be flexible, agricultural friendly and embrace all aspects of housing and construction activities which will provide framework and structural development of the city, ” he said.

He commended the the polytechnic  for putting up the programme, saying it would go along way in helping to proffer solution to environmental problems.

Earlier in his welcome address,  the Director, School of Environmental Studies of MAPOLY and the conference convener, Arc. Koyejo Jolaosho said that the conference was aimed at bringing together researchers, stakeholders in the built environment to share ideas and experiences with the view to ensure sustainable human environment.

“The conference is also to provide an avenue for training and retraining of the trainers as well as the operators or users of research results”,he said

In his own speech, Rector of the Polytechnic,  Prof. Oludele Itiola urged the participants to come up with new ideas that would help in protecting the environment and sustainable urban development.