Joint Action Front, a coalition of civil societies in Oyo state has alleged that Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo State is handing over the prestigious Government College Ibadan, to people they described as business profiteers.
In a statement on Thursday jointly signed by the duo of Ademola Aremu and Abiodun Bamigboye, coordinator and secretary respectively, they revealed that Makinde secret inaugurated a board of trustees for the institution, adding that it was against any public private partnership arrangement that concedes school ownership to businessmen.
29th September, 2022
Press Statement
ALLEGED TAKEOVER OF
GOVERNMENT COLLEGE IBADAN (GCI)
The inauguration of a separate Trustees Board for GCI is unnecessary and raises a huge doubt over Oyo State Government sincerity on public education.
Joint Action Front (JAF) faults any Private Public Partnership (PPP) arrangement that concedes public schools’ ownership to profiteers and insists that education remains a social service not a commercial commodity.
The attention of the Oyo State JAF has been drawn to the inauguration of a board of trustees specifically for GCI by the Engr Seyi Makinde – led government. This board was reportedly inaugurated on Wednesday, 28th September, 2022 at the executive chamber of the Governor office for the purpose of operation, management and development of the GCI.
JAF considers the inauguration as a wasteful duplication of the responsibility of the Secondary School Governing Boards set up and inaugurated by the same Engr Seyi Makinde-led government of Oyo State with a lot of media noise and propaganda few months ago.
As a matter of fact, the schools governing board comprises of representatives of government, parents, teachers, students, community including the old boys Association. This is unlike, the so called newly inaugurated board of trustees which is largely dominated by the so called representatives of old boys Association without students and community given any representation.
Take for instance, the composition of the newly inaugurated board of trustees include: seven (7) members of old boys Association, 2 representatives of parents and two political appointees of the Governor. Those who were reportedly nominated as the government representatives in the newly inaugurated Board of trustees are political stooges of the Governor without any proven records or credentials in education related professions. This is unlike in the School Governing Boards, wherein government representatives were drawn from credible staff and professional of the ministry of education.
JAF rejects in its entirety the composition and inauguration of the so called board of trustees. The domination of the board of trustees by the those who call themselves members of old boys Association with an exclusion of community and students representatives has no doubt raised a huge snag on whether the real basis for the inauguration of the board is for the operations, management and development of GCI as claimed by the Engr Seyi Makinde-led government. More so when the Memorandum of understanding, MOU, claimed to have been signed between the Oyo State government and Wale Babalakin-led GCI old boys Association was never made available to all members of board of Trustees let alone to the general public.
It is in the light of this background, JAF demands for the public release of the signed MOU over GCI takeover. We at the same time charge the leadership and members of PTA including host community not to relent in their agitations against the plan by Engr Seyi Makinde-led government to handover the GCI to business profiteers.
As a matter of fact, the unbalanced composition of the inaugurated Boards of trustees and earlier statements credited to Governor Seyi Makinde over his request to Loyola college Old boys Association clearly showed that Makinde-led government has not completely dropped the plan to handover GCI to Wale Babalakin-led GCI old boys Association for profit driven purpose. It will be recalled that Governor Seyi Makinde few weeks ago charged the Old boys Association of Loyola College to send their request to take over the ownership of the school to state government for a due consideration.
JAF reiterates its opposition to the planned take over of any public school by old boys Association and condemns the dubious PPP arrangement in the education sector that seeks to hand over the ownership of state public schools to profiteers in defence of profit interest.
Finally, JAF insists that adequate and proper funding of public education is a crucial social responsibility of the government. We therefore, call on Seyi Makinde-led government to immediately cancel any arrangement entered into with any individual or group that is capable of turning public education from a social service to commodity.
Signed
Comrade Ademola Aremu
Oyo JAF Coordinator
Comrade Abiodun Bamigboye
Oyo JAF Secretary
