By Sola Abegunde
“If you can’t do it, it doesn’t mean no one else couldn’t”.
I am not surprised that the Allied People’s Movement, APM and its gubernatorial candidate, Bimbo Adekanmbi are having sleepless nights over the unveiling of Senator Sharafadeen Alli’s programs and manifesto.
Personally, I expected the All Progressives Congress, APC Gubernatorial candidate to make the policy of 30-Pupil per classroom a top priority.
He has to. That program, which was unfortunately disrupted, would have been a Model for the Federation by now, if continued by successive Administrations after Ladoja.
I was therefore amused when I saw the write up by the Adebo Ogundoyin Support Group regarding the policy, as enunciated by Senator Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli.
Sadly, for this emergency Group, the Adebo Ogundoyin Support Group, the policy of maintaining 30 Pupils per classroom is not feasible. In fact, for them, it is more than rocket science and they felt that the APC Gubernatorial candidate was playing politics with the promise to resuscitate a policy which had once been in effect in this state.
Their position is laughable to say the least and I think those who wrote the piece must have been bereft of information, or, perhaps, they are being hypocritical.
The questions are, has it ever been practiced? The answer is yes. Where was it practiced? The answer is Oyo state and who was the Governor who introduced the policy? The answer is not far fetched. The present Olubadan of Ibadan Land, former Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, former Chief Executive Governor of Oyo state introduced the policy.
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In fact, Senator Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli served as Secretary to the Government of Oyo state and Chief of Staffs to the Governor during the time the policy was in operation. So, it’s not like Alli was talking about something which happened in the moon.
I think I need to repeat it here, the younger generations need to read more and research before jumping into conclusions on issues which they lack first hand information.
I see that they agreed with Senator Alli that the policy is great and that it will make our primary and secondary Education far better than what we have currently.
Their only fear, if it is genuine, is that such a policy will be very costly.
They also talked about the collapsed infrastructures in our public Education sector and I think Governor Seyi Makinde must accept responsibilities in this regard.
If the Governor had given Local Governments the freedom to access their monthly allocations in the past seven years, if he had motivated them to prioritize infrastructures in our primary schools, we won’t be where we are today.
The Local Governments are critical partners in the Education and Primary Health sectors.
Senator Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja, as the Executive Governor of Oyo state, gave full financial and Administrative freedom to the 33 Local Governments.
Sarafa Alli has promised to apply same approach. He was a critical member of the Ladoja Government. So, why should it be difficult for him to replicate what he had learned?
It is not like there are no resources to spend to upgrade infrastructures in our public primary and secondary schools. What is lacking is the will.
Senator Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja, as Governor, not only sustained the 30 Pupils per classroom policy, students were also being given free text and exercise books.
Not only that, he was renown for paying salaries to civil servants and pensions promptly and I can say it equivocally that the whole idea of the payments of salaries before the month runs out and the 13th month mobilization started from his Administration, even though, he didn’t attach a name to the extra arrangements which were paid out to civil servants in December.
To cap it, as Governor, Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja also prioritized employment of Teachers and non-teaching Staffs.
I am surprised that any reasonable person or Group would advocate against a policy which tends to provide succour for Teachers and Pupils of our public primary and secondary schools through the decongestion of our terribly congested classrooms just because Governor Seyi Makinde is not committed to doing so.
I pity the APM and its Gubernatorial candidate, Bimbo Adekanmbi. They are trapped. They are bound to bear the burn of Governor Seyi Makinde’s misrule of seven years.
Even, where they disagree with him, they would not dare to voice their disapproval and that could be extremely frustrating.
The interesting thing is that, when Ladoja was introducing new policies in our primary and secondary Education sector for optimum results, the resources available to him were far too low, compared to what we have now.
It is not like we can’t go back to the policy of 30-Pupil per classroom, we can but there must be the will and that is exactly what Senator Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli is saying. He is saying, I have seen it done. I will repeat it. Simple.
If Adekanmbi has better ideas, let him come out and tell the public. Let us compare, but certainly, we can not remain under the present commotions where , even senior Teaching Staffs sit under trees and over a hundred Pupils are crowded in a classroom, sitting in classrooms without roofs and on bare floor.
Sarafa Ali has said that he has a method to change the status quo and I believe Oyo state citizens would believe him, most especially, knowing fully well, that he has a legacy to protect.
Sola Abegunde.
