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UNIOSUN AND UNILESA Students Pay N1.5m as Osun Earns N381bn: Universities Starved while Governor’s Office Overspends N43bn

Published by admin on February 27th, 2026.

UNIOSUN AND UNILESA Students Pay N1.5m as Osun Earns N381bn: Universities Starved while Governor’s Office Overspends N43bn

• While the Governor’s Office Gulped N43bn

By Adebayo Adedeji

The administration of Ademola Adeleke continues to tout its commitment to education, yet the figures from 2025 tell a troubling story. Beyond the falsehood and propaganda lies a pattern that suggests education in Osun State is receiving more noise and rhetoric than real intervention.

In 2025, the state government sustained the imposition of what many consider excessive financial burdens on students of Osun State University (UNIOSUN) and University of Ilesa (UNILESA). From these two institutions alone, the government collected staggering N9.9 billion from UNIOSUN and N7.4 billion from UNILESA in school fees, totalling N17.3 billion.

However, despite these huge collections, the government struggled to reinvest barely 67 per cent of the revenue back into the universities. What this means is that the state government only used part of the student fees to fund the universities. Strange.

The 2025 budget proposals and actual expenditures also reveal glaring inconsistencies: For the University of Ilesa, the government proposed N9.2 billion in spending. Yet, in reality, it expended only N5.7 billion. For UNIOSUN, N7.9 billion was proposed, but barely N6 billion was finally released. These shortfalls occurred in a fiscal year when Osun State reportedly received a total revenue of N381 billion. Yes, the state made N381 billion in revenue in 2025.

If the state’s revenue profile was robust, why were its universities left underfunded? Inadequate funding, no doubt, has impacted the operation of the universities. University authorities, constrained by limited subventions, have been compelled to shift the financial burden onto students. Students are now forced to pay as high as N1.5 million as school fees—an alarming figure in a state where many families are struggling with economic hardship.

Why should students of UNILESA and UNIOSUN shoulder such crushing costs in a year of significant state earnings?

Even more disturbing is the sharp contrast between educational allocations and spending on the Governor’s Office. In 2025, Governor Adeleke’s office, according to the budget performance report for Q2025 published in January 2026, expended N43 billion—N13 billion above the initially proposed budget, of N30 billion.

While universities face funding shortages and students grapple with soaring tuition, the Governor’s Office exceeded its budget by billions.

Beyond the education sector, pensioners have also felt the strain and the irresponsibility, and lack of focus of the Adeleke regime. The state government proposed N6 billion to settle gratuity arrears. Yet, reports indicate that not a single kobo was released to affected senior citizens.

As members of the administration and its inner circle enjoy the privileges of office, many retirees—who devoted decades of service to the state—remain trapped in financial hardship.

Why are students paying N1.5 million in school fees despite the state’s N381 billion revenue in 2025?

Why were budgeted allocations to UNIOSUN and UNILESA, for example, not fully honoured?

Why was the Governor’s Office allowed to overspend by N13 billion while critical sectors remained underfunded?

And why were pensioners denied their promised gratuities?

These are salient questions that Governor Ademola Adeleke and his team must answer immediately.