Telling lies with impunity. Cooking up figures with audacity. Spreading propaganda with shameless abandon. These are some of the negative hallmarks of Seyi Makinde’s administration in Oyo State. More children are out of schools in Oyo State now than when Makinde assumed office.
The parlous state of education in Oyo State has become a festering wound; one that glossy press statements and rehearsed statistics cannot conceal. Yet, Governor Seyi Makinde continues to parade the claim that his administration has returned “thousands of children” to school, as though repetition can magically transform fiction into fact. This is not governance; it is grandstanding.
From the outset, the Makinde administration has shown an alarming fondness for headline-grabbing declarations over measurable outcomes. The governor’s boast of rescuing out-of-school children would be heartwarming if only it aligned with realities on the ground. Across urban and rural communities in Oyo State, classrooms remain overcrowded, learning materials are grossly inadequate, and infrastructural decay persists. In many public schools, pupils sit on broken chairs or on bare floors. Laboratories are relics. Libraries are ghost rooms. Teachers are overstretched, under-resourced, the only plus being that teachers are being paid regularly, even as pupils and students continue to record outstanding woefulness in their academics.
Where, then, are these “thousands” of children who have supposedly been restored to the classroom?
The truth is uncomfortable but unavoidable: more children are slipping through the cracks. Poverty continues to tighten its on noose on Oyo citizens and residents. Despite that the national inflation is recording rapid declining, the wobbly local economy in Oyo State has tightened its grip on struggling families. When survival becomes the priority, schooling becomes a luxury. In markets and on highways, in workshops and on farms, the presence of school-age children during school hours tells a different story from the governor’s triumphant rhetoric.
A serious government would present verifiable data; disaggregated figures, independent audits, enrollment-to-attendance ratios, retention statistics, and completion rates. Instead, what the people of Oyo State receive are sweeping claims devoid of transparency. Education is reduced to a public relations talking point.
Beyond enrollment figures lies the deeper crisis: quality. Even for children who remain in school, what is the standard of learning? Examination results have not shown the dramatic transformation one would expect from an administration that claims unprecedented educational revival. Infrastructure upgrades are sporadic. Teacher recruitment has been inconsistent. Training and retraining initiatives lack sustained impact. A state that once prided itself as an educational pacesetter in the old Western Region now struggles to defend its reputation.
Education is not a billboard achievement; it is a generational investment. It requires painstaking planning, budgetary discipline, community engagement, and accountability. It demands the humility to admit shortcomings and recalibrate. What it does not require is the audacity to cook up figures in the hope that no one will ask questions.
The people of Oyo State deserve better than propaganda. They deserve classrooms that inspire learning, teachers who are empowered to teach effectively, and policies rooted in evidence rather than optics. They deserve a government that understands that the future of any society is written in its classrooms and not in its press releases.
If Governor Seyi Makinde truly believes in the transformation of education, let him open the books. Let independent bodies verify the claims. Let parents, teachers, and civil society groups interrogate the numbers. Until then, the boast of returning “thousands” of children to school will remain what it appears to be: a convenient narrative masking a troubling reality. History will not be kind to leaders who gamble with the education of their children. And no amount of spin can rewrite that verdict.
