The All Progressives Congress in Oyo State has taken a swipe against Governor Seyi Makinde who the party accused of taking the people of the state for a ride allegedly on account of many fake promises, poor handling of governmental affairs and lack of direction of the Peoples Democratic Party’s administration.
The latest outburst from the opposition Oyo APC came in apparent reaction to the announcement made by the Makinde administration that its Free Education policy did not cover the payment of West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) registration fees for the final year students in public Senior Secondary Schools across the state.
In a statement issued on Wednesday and made available to journalists in Ibadan by its Assistant Publicity Secretary, Prince Ayobami Adejumo, Oyo APC described the development as a sour grape deliberately put in the mouth of the people who had believed the PDP administration’s many lies particularly on its fake Free Education policy.
“Just like many other people, we found it very difficult to believe what started like a rumour but our doubt was finally erased on Tuesday when Makinde’s Commissioner for Education told the whole world that there was no provision for the payment of WAEC or NECO fees in their orchestrated free education programme even after the governor and his lackeys had repeatedly assured of running a completely free, qualitative and quantitative policy on education at both primary and secondary levels.
“This sudden U-turn came at a time many unsuspecting parents had fallen for the media noise surrounding the handling of education industry in the state and thereby opened their eyes to gross insincerity and grandstanding on the part of the present administration. The disclosure came with a rude shock because it was never expected and more so, Gov. Makinde would not do anything new if he had gone ahead to offset the examination bill and thus ease the task for the poor parents.
“It is recalled that the immediate past APC government of Senator Abiola Ajimobi paid the same WAEC/NECO registration fees for final year students in public schools for four years until when economic melt down set in. The same Ajimobi employed 5,000 new teaching and non-teaching staff and deployed them in schools across the state in addition to provision of state-of-the-art facilities such as modern classrooms, laboratories and teaching aids. Another highpoint of APC government intervention in the school system was the introduction of the School Governing Boards (SGBs) which made a huge difference.
“The questions on the lips of informed minds now bother on what actually form the components of free education policy by a government in the absence of sufficient facilities (including pieces of furniture, laboratories and equipment), employment of more teachers, payment for WAEC/NECO registration fees among others? Why cancel the N1, 000 per term SGB fee only to add extra charges to WAEC’s actual registration fees? Why did Gov. Makinde wait until the last minute before coming up with a deadline for the unexpected payment? Adejumo queried.
In another development, Oyo APC has faulted the claims by the spokesman of the PDP who reportedly alleged that former Governor Abiola Ajimobi was no longer popular in the state. APC described such insinuation as “a figment of the imagination of an uninformed mind who thinks access to the media should always offer him every opportunity to be reckless in speech.
“As far as we are concerned, Oyo PDP exists only in the media space as we are aware of the activities of Gov. Makinde’s media handlers who churn out proxy press releases using the ruling party’s name and fund such with state resources. The end of such satanic practice is near as the good people of the state cannot wait to have sanity restored again by the imminent APC government”. The statement added.
