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Osun State Government has revisited the alleged misdeeds perpetrated by the administration of Gboyega Oyetola when he was the governor of the state.
The government asked President Bola Tinubu to be cautious of his dealings with the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, saying Oyetola “portends bad omen.”
The state government, through its Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, in a statement issued on Sunday, stated that it was reacting to a statement credited to Oyetola that the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke has crippled education sector in the state and also relieved teachers of their duties.
Alimi attributed the huge number of out of school children in Osun State to years of neglect of the education sector inherited from Oyetola administration, listing upcoming recruitment of 6,000 teachers as part of the administration’s three pronged approach to redressing the situation.
“In a rebuke of a statement credited to the former Governor, the state government described the linkage of high number of out of school to disengagement of last minute, illegally recruited teachers as an insult on the people of Osun state, positing that Osun suffers years of educational neglect and misplaced priority under Oyetola government.
“It is on records that the last administration in a series of post election booby traps employed over 10,000 workers to make the state ungovernable for the incoming Adeleke government, a development the new government promptly addressed with six executive orders to restore normalcy.
“If the former Governor was really interested in addressing the rot in the education sector, how come he waited till he lost the election before rushing through recruitment of teachers against due process and extant laws?
“If the so-called recruited teachers were retained, how would that have positively impacted on poor learning conditions, dilapidated school infrastructures,parental economic crisis and overwhelming dislocations within the school environment which are the real reasons for the high number of out of school children inherited from Oyetola government?
“As part of efforts to clear the mess of past government, the state government organized an education summit which proffered far reaching recommendations covering all sub-sectors of the state education system.
“A white paper has now being approved by the state Executive Council for the implementation of the recommendations of the summit.
“The administration further posited that his administration embarked on holistic reform of the education sector by addressing the three key determinants of educational performance namely teachers’ welfare, learning environment and learning materials, noting that the administration is simultaneously implementing measures on the three areas.
“In the last one year, 31 schools have been comprehensively rehabilitated with another 32 ongoing statewide. The administration is also paying close attention to the welfare of teachers through ongoing addressing of issues tabled before the government by the association of school principals, Nigerian Union of Teachers and the Parents and Teachers Association.
“Accusing the past government of neglecting and politicizing the education sector, the administration cited the abandonment of the mega schools, the crippling of the school system and the neglect of the six technical colleges, noting that his administration has since commenced actions to restore the state educational glory,” the statement read.
Following need assessment across Osun schools, Alimi posited that the incumbent administration is set to employ six thousand teachers before the end of June, adding that “the reform is holistic as school environment, personnel requirement and welfare as well upgrade of school buildings are simultaneously being effected.”
Making further allegations against Oyetola, the Commissioner said, “It must also be recalled that the so called processes employed in the recruitment of the said 1,500 teachers was not only shrouded in political mischief and illegality but clinically embedded with many shenanigans and favoritism anchored principally on the intention of finding soft landings for Oyetola’s political cronies and sympathisers.
“With all humility and sincerity, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, should put blood relationship sentiment he has with Oyetola apart and be nationalistic enough, to embrace the fact that, with the likes of Oyetola in his cabinet, the coast is not too good for him enough in the minds of the people of Osun state, because, Oyetola’s present state of mind is nothing short of a drowning man, who will always catch at a straw.
“The sins of Oyetola, officially and unofficially, as a former Governor in Osun state, are so humongous and unpardonable that, for many years to come, the people of this state, will never forget in a hurry the many wrong policies and actions which his administration imposed on the people of Osun state.
“As a way of recall, it was Oyetola who put peace loving people of Ikirun , Igbajo,Iree and others into the present Obaship cul- de-sac and unnecessary conflicts due to the abuse of power he manifested in filling the vacant positions of the royal stools in the aforementioned towns.
“Or have we forgotten the Yes or No, aberration which Oyetola put in place in the name of the so-called Local Government elections in Osun state ? It was a charade of an election, not known to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which Oyetola committed the sum of over two billion naira tax payers money of Osun people into ?
“Or the already ramshackled nature of a construct in the name of a so-called mega flyover bridge, in Osogbo, the Osun state capital, which Oyetola put in place and which is already cracking?
“The sins of Oyetola while at the helm of affairs in Osun were legion in nature but can only be given a reference one after the other as the occasion demands.
“Oyetola represented and still represents nothing short of bad influence for the people of Osun state. Unfortunately and perhaps deliberately, he is yet to come to terms with the reality of the mother of all political falls he experienced from the good people of Osun state during the 2022 free, fair and credible governorship election.
“Like we earlier advised and warned, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, should be wary of such bad influence like Mr Oyetola in the present National Executive Council. His type portends a bad omen for anything good and developmental, not only in Osun state but Nigeria as a whole.”
