Makinde: The Free Education That Wasn’t | Muftau Gbadegesin

My last week’s column hit a raw nerve: it screwed the propaganda machinery that Seyi Makinde’s administration has built around their cosmetic approach to education in the state.

In a lengthy, acerbic and, dare I say, watery rejoinder, Pastor Sulaiman Olanrewaju, PhD, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde, had hope to bully and silence this columnist with his grammatical braggadociousness.

Instead, the column, based on the stark reality obtainable in all 521 public secondary schools across 26 zones in the state, exposed and revealed the extortion, exploitation, and complicity of their administration’s ‘free education scam’.

Not surprisingly, the CPS, rather than addressing the core issues raised with facts, masked his public relations expedition with infantile, puerile rhetoric. From the rejoinder, one could say without equivocation that Pastor Olanrewaju hurriedly wrote the piece to mislead, misinform, and ultimately save the government’s face from imminent public embarrassment.

For instance, Pastor Sulaiman described the investigation as an isolated case but went on to shoot himself by saying the Makinde’s free education policy is on course. “Gbadegesin’s attempt to generalise isolated incidents – if they happened at all – into a sweeping conclusion is intellectually dishonest”, Pastor Olanrewaju asserted. But how could the extortion and exploitation that took place (and is taking place) in 571 schools and across all 26 zones of the state, involving thousands of students and hundreds of struggling parents, be an isolated case?

For a fact, Pastor Olanrewaju, an accomplished journalist, had all the apparatus of the government at his beck and call to verify all claims. He could launch a clandestine media fact-finding mission into some of the issues raised. He could place calls to his loyal friends in selected schools to confirm the reality across most schools. He could send his boys to sneak into schools as undercover agents and report back to him. He could step on the toes of those damaging the image of the government. Finally, he could report the matter to his principal, Governor Seyi Makinde, for swift action.

But, characteristic of the ruling class, Pastor Olanrewaju went on to dismiss the pains and plights of economically battered parents who have had to cough out thousands from their peanuts to keep the public schools up and sluggishly running while shielding corrupt school administrators from accountability, saying, “Issues raised ignore official directives, enforcement actions, and the substantial investments that continue to strengthen the free education policy.”

For one thing, Pastor Olanrewaju wanted to make this sensitive revelation about the messenger while carpeting the message under a glittering PR rug. In essence, this is not about the columnist. From inception, this column has always been about the people. It has always been about commending and condemning those in power regardless of whose ox is gored. This column has always been about parents who believe in the promise of Governor Seyi Makinde’s ‘free education policy’.

Interestingly, no amount of propaganda can stop the exodus of out-of-school children that has now doubled in their seven years of (mis)governance in Oyo State, the highest in the Southwest. From 400,000 out-of-school children in 2019 to 670,000, no verdict could be more revealing, disturbing and troubling than that. This columnist is aware that when Governor Seyi Makinde declared the free education policy across the primary and secondary schools in 2019, CPS Olanrewaju was not in government. That may help explain his swift but miscalculated reaction to the story.

To set the record straight, the Makinde administration rode to power on the tidal wave of anti-Ajimobi sentiment. In fact, he won the election not because of the strength of his ideas or the beauty of his blueprint. Unfortunately, in close to eight years, he has wrecked the pace-setting glory of education in the state. Not just in its cosmetic beautification, which has backfired, but in its insincere and populist efforts to stamp out the rot that has ruined the system. In a nutshell, the Makinde’s high-handedness has destroyed the system from within.

First, by starving the sector of its legitimate funds. This columnist challenges Makinde’s administration to release the invoice of its investment in education. Most principals have repeatedly spoken about the audio grants disbursed to run schools in whispers. No one in the school hierarchy apart from the principals can assertively and authoritatively state who gets what, when and how.

Pastor Olanrewaju argued that the free education policy has been reinforced through running grants to schools and the provision of textbooks and learning materials. One only needs to visit public schools in the state to know the contradiction in that assertion. Had the so-called running grants been transparently and regularly disbursed, this columnist wouldn’t have bothered about calling the government’s attention to the illegality going on in the school.

Precisely, the CPS must be reminded that the reason principals are exploiting poor parents is that money meant for schools is being funnelled to an unrealistic presidential ambition. The proficacy and mismanagement of our common patrimony is the reason schools are underfunded and innocent children are outside of classrooms and in the street, trying to survive a government that is more interested in optics and showbiz than in showing some spine.