The Chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Dr Nureni Adeniran has revealed the reason the Engineer Seyi Makinde-led government completed the ongoing and abandoned projects in schools across the state.
Speaking at SUBEB office, Ibadan, on Tuesday, Adeniran said the completion of the projects was done in the best interest of the state as against what happened in the past.
He said “Immediately we came on board, and I received the briefs from different departments, we swung into action. The first thing I did was that I saw the list of projects that were on going and abandoned. We undertook a tour to all the 33 local government areas.
“At the end of the day, we addressed the media and told the contractors to come back to site because initially they were afraid that maybe as it was done in the past, may be those projects will be taken away from them. But we assured them that the present government of Engineer Seyi Makinde will not do that because Oyo state is for all of us.
“Of course, they have been given that job in the previous administration, the only thing they can do for us is to come back and complete their jobs and get paid and we did that for them unconditionally. Some of them came back and they were able to complete the job. Though, we are still running after few of them to complete the own.
“This explains those things you heard in the news that it’s Ajimobi’s work. If Ajimobi started a project and they could not complete it, will the next government come and abandon it? Of what benefits will that be to the good people of the state? There are some of these projects that we met at the foundation level, to the glory of God today, they have been completed. If we had abandoned them, what will be the benefit of our students that are suppose to use these structures.
“Out of about 54 projects that they had, we were able to complete about 6 or 7 within the 100 Days and Engineer Seyi Makinde commissioned them. And during the first year anniversary, we were able to complete up to about 25 model schools aside the other blocks of classroom that we have been able to complete. It’s possible because of the mindset of this administration and the pro activeness of the staff and management of Oyo SUBEB.”
Asked about the implementation of Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) in the state, Adeniran said over 5,000 out-of-school children had been added to the enrolment number in the state’s public primary schools.
He added that the implementation was BESDA would soon see Alamjiris and street hawkers attracted to schooling.
Adeniran explained that the state had identified centres across 21 local government areas in the state where Almajiris and hawkers will be trained.
He pointed out that the centres will become operational as soon as training for teachers to man the centres is concluded.
