“What exactly is happening in Oyo State tertiary institutions, why should we continue to neglect the ivory tower, and why do we toy with the future of tomorrow leaders?”
These are some of the questions agitating the minds of a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship aspirant, Barr Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli, when reacting to the latest spate of strike that has just been announced by workers and lecturers in the tertiary institutions owned by Oyo State.
Reacting through his media aide, Comrade Taiwo Ibrahim, the former Secretary to the Oyo State Government observed that strikes from that echelon of education has become a phenomenon in the administration of Sen Abiola Ajimobi in the last three years.
“The other time,it was a marathon strike at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, now it is all the tertiary institutions, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, and the grouse has always been default in the payment of salaries to workers.
“Presently, workers in those institutions are claiming they are owed between sixteen and twenty four months salaries, for God’s sake,how do we expect a worker with such a challenge to offer any serious service?
“No wonder, education has taken a back seat in APC administration, our students cannot really say when to enter and when convocation takes place neither can they legitimately demand for their rights.”
Alli recalled that the other time they did, they were rebuffed by the governor when he demanded from the LAUTECH students to respect “the constituted authority.”
He wondered if the present government was interested at all in the future of Oyo State judging from the position of the state in the results of students who sat for the School Certificate vis a vis those of the other states of the federation.
He lamented that if education could be paralyzed at secondary and tertiary levels,then Ajimobi was toying with the future of the state.
Alli queried Ajimobi to explain what he did with the enormous debt he has sunk Oyo State into and the various bailout funds he has taken from the federal government that he has failed to pay workers’ salaries due to them over the years.
