I have to start this piece on a
very sarcastic note. I was browsing the Contact Profile of a friend of mine on
Blackberry Messenger just a few days ago and his display picture came out very
amusing. The picture showed the comedian ‘Bovi’ eyeing another young man in a
very funny way. Underneath this picture was the caption, ‘Guy, dem never serve
me rice for your Papa burial oh...No worry, shey my father go soon die!’ As you
laugh out the sarcasm, there is a lesson in the joke: For everyone who
complains about the performance of one person, when their time comes, we will
all witness how well they also will perform; ‘se ipako onipako ni a n ri, a kii
ri ti ara eni.’
Whille Otunba Christopher Adebayo
Alao-Akala was the Governor of Oyo State, the then ACN were very vocal in the
condemnation of his government as non-performing and a colossal failure. I said
it then and I stand to be corrected, that these ACN talkatives are just conmen
eager to feed on the vulnerability of the people of Oyo State to plunder the
State treasury. Fate is beginning to prove me very right. Ajimobi emerged the
Governor of Oyo State in earnest and he began making promises to rebuild Oyo in
no time.
Today, we have a tale of
disappointments, failed promises, abandoned/failed projects and Oyo State have
moved much backward than it has made any forward movement in the last three and
a half years. Much pitiable is the condition of the education system in Oyo
State at the moment. While the State Government is going about claiming it has
made giant strides in the development of education in Oyo State, schools in Oyo
State are groaning under experiences of decay of infrastructure, lack of
instructional materials, shabby conditions of teaching and learning among other
woes bedeviling the education sector in Oyo State.
As enticing as media reports
emanating from Oyo State sounds, even though they appear doctored to me and of
only face value, a physical encounter with these projects being praised on TV
exposes one to a different dimension entirely in the Oyo State governance – a dimension
of corrupt practices that extends into media manipulation and grand schemings
to fool the entire nation and make every outsider think Oyo is getting better
while it is actually sinking deeper into collapse.
Before my sojourn in the
Pacesetter State, I once said loud that of all APC Governors, Abiola Ajimobi
was still better as he is a little sincere and much more committed to serving
the people. I was terribly wrong. I came to Ibadan to realize that particularly
in such sensitive areas as education, the Ajimobi Government has been a
monumetal failure. For every one school building that his government has
renovated, another two buildings somewhere in the State have gone into total
collapse without any attention. Many school children now learn in terrible
environments which are not only non-conducive for learning but are also
detrimental to the health of the students.
I personally encountered one of
such infrastructural decay in Oyo State Schools when I visited the Unity
Secondary School, Ijokodo Ibadan. I must say without hesitation, that the
school bore little or no difference from an animal farm in terms of
infrastructure and the conveniences of the learning environment. I began to
wonder immediately that if the school could be that bad in Oyo State, how
exactly will Sen. Abiola Ajimobi justify the claims by Oyo State media houses
that his government has done exceedingly well in all sectors of the State? Or
will it not be safe to conclude that as far as education is concerned in Oyo
State, Abiola Ajimobi has failed? Will we be saying too much if we say that he
has achieved more in taking education backwards in Oyo State than forward?
For me, judging from my
experience in the school named, Sen. Abiola Ajimobi has taken a step forward
and two backward in the education sector of Oyo State. My candid advice is, he
must immediately rectify all these major flops, tidy his house, so that the
next Governor of Oyo State does not have to run into too much trouble trying to
untangle the massive knots Ajimobi has created in the education sector. I
believe a word, is enough for the wise!
See photos below:
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