Majority of our own members can’t afford our university, says Olukoya
The General Overseer of Mountain of Fire and Miracle (MFM), Prof Daniel Olukoya, has blamed the high school fees being charged by Faith-Based universities in the country on the high cost of maintaining those universities.
Olukoya, who was conferred with honorary doctoral degrees in Management of the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), said the energy cost was responsible for the high school fees being charged by the Universities owned by religious bodies. There are 13 Faith-Based universities in Nigeria.
Olukoya, who is the proprietor of one of the Faith-based universities, Mountain Top University, Ogun State, said the parents of those who attend the churches of faith-based universities are finding it difficult to send their children to such schools because of high school fees necessitated by the cost of maintaining the schools.
Absolving the proprietors of the institutions, Olukoya said “It is not the fault of those proprietors. I am one of them. I am always at the back of the poor because I know how difficult it was for me to get to the university. My parents didn’t have the money.
“But then the current situation states that if you cannot pay good money to the lecturers or the professors, you won’t get good teachers. And if you run a private university and you are paying less than the federal universities, you will not get good professors.
“So it is the financing and paying the salaries. And that is the situation now Power. To run a university on a generator is a lot of money. In our university, most of the money goes to diesel. It is now we are installing solar.”
Speaking on the situation in the country especially security and economic challenges, Olukoya advocated divine intervention through prayer.
His words “There is only one weapon that can kill any problem, it is prayers. No matter how strong it is, prayer can dismantle any problem. And so I keep preaching here that what we need in Nigeria is divine intervention.
“Let God intervene in what we are doing. Divine intervention is greater than your brain, what your brain can do. And from what is happening in the world, you can see that God is showing mankind that they are helpless.
The Vice Chancellor of the FUTA, Prof Temidayo Oladiji said the institution graduated 6,405 students for the two academic sessions. Out of the figure, 519 students bagged first-class, 3,408 second-class upper division, 2,139 second-class lower division, and the rest 339 fell into the third-class category.
Speaking at the 34-35th convocation ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor said the university conferred postgraduate diplomas, master’s, and doctoral degrees on 960 graduands. Three eminent Nigerians, including General Overseer of Mountain of Fire and Miracle (MFM), Prof Daniel Olukoya, were conferred with honorary doctoral degrees. Others included Messrs Ayorinde Ogunruku and Joel Ogunsola.
Speaking on the impact of the institution in the last two years, Prof Oladiji said the university has enhanced food security through the production of tomatoes and bell peppers on the farm. It has also produced a variety of loaves, including low-sugar bread for diabetics and weight-watchers.
She said the students of the university have been equipped with entrepreneurial skills to solve local challenges while the engineering students have produced interlocking blocks for the construction of external works and burglarproofs for windows.
She said the University was ranked among the Top Ten in Nigeria and also maintained its enviable position as the best University of Technology in Nigeria, a position she has maintained consistently for two decades.