Adeleke Playing Politics – Oyetola
The immediate-past Governor of Osun State now Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola “crippled” the education sector in the state, according to the Osun State Government led by Governor Ademola Adeleke.
Adeleke, its Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, his predecessor brought the education sector to challenges due to its failure to recruit enough teachers and sustain the legacy of previous administrations in the state.
The government’s release was a reaction to a statement credited to Oyetola that the present administration in the state crippled the 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 by the Oyetola administration, listing the upcoming recruitment of 6,000 teachers as part of the administration’s three-pronged approach to redressing the situation.
It would be recalled that Oyetola had in 2021 reversed all the education policies of the former Governor Rauf Aregbesola administration where he served as Chief of Staff, which ‘had set the state on the path of transformation in the sector.’
The reversal was seen by many stakeholders as a product of ‘bad politics,’ as the move took the state backwards in its success stories due to the huge infrastructural and human capital invested in the sector.
The Adeleke government also asked President Bola Tinubu to be cautious of his dealings with the former governor now Minister, saying Oyetola “portends bad omen.”
The statement said: “In a rebuke of a statement credited to the former Governor, the state government described the linkage of a high number of out-of-school to disengagement of last minute, illegally recruited teachers as an insult to the people of Osun state, positing that Osun suffers years of educational neglect and misplaced priority under Oyetola government.
“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 a 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.”
“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 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 been approved by the state Executive Council for the implementation of the recommendations of the summit”.
However, Oyetola, while speaking through his former Special Adviser on Political Affairs, Sunday Akere, expressed worry over the surge in statistics, as he implored Adeleke not to politicize the education sector in the state.
He explained how he engaged the services of 1,500 teachers, but that they had been fired politically by Adeleke.
“My advice to the government is that it should not play politics with education,” he declared.
Sodiq Yusuf is a trained media practitioner and journalist with considerable years of experience in print, broadcast, and digital journalism. His interests cover a wide range of causes in politics, governance, sports, community development, and good governance.
