In 2011, the late ex-governor Abiola Ajimobi contested with manifesto to bring ‘New York City’ into Oyo State in terms of Infrastructural plans. There were posters showcasing pictures of foreign cities often placed side by side with the brown roofs of Ibadan. The graphic representation told us how the brown roofs would suddenly transform into the beautiful city of skyscrapers. Modern Oyo State! That was the slogan. The dream was so big like Ben Carson’s, that till today, we are still dreaming it. I was in a government secondary school then which had no substantial teaching staff. Our science laboratory was rather a museum of non-functional, rusted and abandoned materials (they were not equipment, please).
Today, one can tell how the government of then and the successive ones had shattered the dreams of those who finished from the school, and other schools of such nature in the state and in Nigeria as a whole. As many that are products of such education, that may read this too, might actually testify to the rotten state of public schools out there and how the future of young and less privileged children had been on ‘mortgage’ long before they realized.
Oyo State is reported to be leading by allocating 21% of its budget to education in the recent 2021 budget proposal presented to the House of Assembly. The governor has been commended in the social media for that. Although this is still below the 26% budgetary allocation to education as advised by UNESCO for developing countries, but as we know, in the land of the blind, the one-eye man is a king.
Unfortunately, some leaders in the Ministry of Education once said the popular UNESCO recommendation is a myth. But, if it were ever a myth, it is more shameful for a country with moribund state of public education to ever try to downplay it. For Oyo State, we can only hope that this allocation is effectively utilized and not remain a media allocation.
Historically, people have lamented the paltry sums allocated to major sectors especially education, but that such allocations are often mismanaged by the administrations of those institutions remains the worst nightmare. Effective policing of public funds should be a priority at the state and federal levels. An institution like the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAU TECH), having suffered years of truncated academic calendar in the hands of the duo states of Osun Oyo due to poor funding, should not be further neglected in hands of administration high-handedness, now that it has been taken over by the Oyo State government.
Insecurity is gradually becoming a spectre haunting Oyo State. Indeed, the Ajimobi-led administration may claim to have solved insecurity with iron hand; I doubt that today we can say so. This is because the roots of insecurity have always been left unattended to: unemployment, poor education amongst others. Physical infrastructures are as important as the people infrastructure, because, a society cannot rise or develop above the consciousness of its people.
- Gbenga Oloniniran, Ibadan.
