Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan

Residents of Oyo State place their demands before their governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi

On Saturday May 29, 2015, Senator Abiola Ajimobi was sworn-in as the governor of Oyo State for a second term in office. With that, he became the first governor to serve for two terms in the history of the state, though, his victory has been challenged by Senator Rasheed Ladoja, erstwhile governor of the state and his strongest opposition in the last governorship election at the Oyo State Governorship Election Tribunal holding at Iyaganku Area of Ibadan.

In his inaugural speech, Ajimobi promised that he would work assiduously for the change the residents are yearning for, stressing that: “One thing I assure you all is that I will be the governor of all; the governor of my friends and foes. I will offer my shoulders to lean on in time of your sorrow and my palm for a ‘high-five’ in your moments of exciting happiness. I will care for the vulnerable in our state, protect those afflicted by existential hazards and misfortune and bring smiles to the faces of those hit by the harsh sun of the time.”

On the basis of this promise, various groups in the state have started coming up with demands that would make their lives better, short of which, according to them, would earn the governor a poor scorecard by the year 2019 when his administration will end. The stakeholders include people in the education, health, and the agricultural sectors, farmers, market operators, and business owners.

Residents also appealed to the Oyo State House of Assembly not to collaborate with the executive to make laws that are inimical to the wellbeing of the people. They warned the legislature to desist from passing bills that will give room to over-taxing the masses.

In the education sector, stakeholders expressed dismay over the state of education in Oyo State, saying that over the years the standard keeps nose-diving because the government is not giving the right attention to the sector. Ajimobi’s first term in office received knocks for under-funding the sector, leading to poor infrastructure, lack of science laboratories, inadequate classrooms and furniture. This led to over-crowded classes with up to 80 students, some sitting on the floor to receive lectures and insufficient academic and non-academic staff. At Methodist Grammar School, Bodija and Bashorun Ojoo High School, between 50 and 80 students were found occupying a classroom while at N. O. Idowu at Olorunda-Aba, most of the classroom blocks are dilapidated, while all science laboratories were in terrible shape.

•Senator Abiola Ajimobi

A parent at Ashi Area of Ibadan, Mr. Babatunde Kayode, opined that the current government in the state is not serious about education. He said: “Oyo state government is not giving enough attention to education, and students are the ones suffering for this. They are only paying lip service to education. Schools lack chairs and tables for students, and that is why most students sit on the floor. During Ladoja’s administration, it was 30 students per class but now it is over 80 students per class. Teachers are not enough. As a matter of urgency, government should see to it that the school environment is conducive for learning just like what we have in states like Ondo, Osun, Edo and Ogun with model schools”.

A co-education worker in the Ministry of Education painted a gory picture of the state of schools in the state: “I will not deceive you. Schools don’t have enough teachers. It is the PTA that is helping. For instance, Wesley College, Elekuro, Ibadan has 13 permanent teachers and PTA teachers are over 43, while NYSC members are over 50. Government should stop deceiving people that the school is free. What makes it free when they are not providing textbooks, infrastructure and transportation for the students? So, my expectation is that this government should fix education by providing all the necessities”.

Private schools operators decried the multiple taxes and levies they are subjected to as well as the harmonization of their schools’ calendar with the public schools. They enjoined the government to have the interest of students and operators of private schools at heart when formulating policies in this dispensation.

A prominent proprietor who did not want his name mentioned said, “Oyo State Government under this dispensation does not see us as partners, only as income generators. Standard private schools in the state pay between N2m to N3m per annum for various levies. Apart from a yearly N100,000, we pay exorbitant emission and environmental taxes when we are not manufacturing companies. We pay property tax, advert tax, mobile bus tax, and all sorts of rubbish taxes and levies. Apart from taking from us, there is no benefit that we get from the government. We construct roads that lead to our schools, we do the drainage, we generate electricity through heavy generators that consume several litres of diesel, we provide water, we provide the security; name it, we provide it.”

“The government is trying its best to destroy private schools as it has destroyed public schools. They pay examination fees for students in public schools but tax students in private school as if they are international students. It is even so sad that they are using Federal Road Safety Corps to make money from us. Any school bus that is not painted yellow is arrested by the FRSC and forced to pay heavily. It will go a long way if this administration stops the multiple taxation and levies, stop the harmonization of the school calendar and allow us to run our schools in the best way so as to let the students who pay through the nose for qualitative education have it. It is not a government business as regards when we want to resume and close in private schools as long as we follow the syllabus in the best international best practices. They should put in place private school-friendly policies so that we can continue to give qualitative education at a reasonable cost,” he concluded.

Some residents want transparency in way the incumbent government runs the affairs of government, specifically demanding that apart from the governor and his cabinet members publicly declaring their assets, reduce the salary of political office holder by 50 percent as well as a comprehensive budget proposal rather than budget speech which does not reflect allocations to sectors. “The practice before the advent of this administration is that governors present a comprehensive budget which contains the breakdown of allocations to each sector. This will help to assess the government at the end of the year. But this government doesn’t do that. It presents a budget speech and says that the ministry of finance will later come up with the breakdown. This breakdown has never come to the public domain and it is not even in the website of the state. This to me is fraudulent and does not provide a clear picture of how the government is spending our money. We want to know how Governor Ajimobi is spending our money by letting us know what and what is allocated to which sector”, an economist said.

Also, the health sector has great expectations from the government. Various stakeholders described the sector as moribund, needing urgent attention of the government for its bouncing back to a living sector, describing the little equipments and structures in the state owned hospitals as dilapidating and outdated.

Lauding the former governor of the state, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala for his efforts at renovating and furnishing some health facilities including General Hospital, Yemetu, Ibadan, some health personnel disclosed that the incumbent government in its first term did not really equip the state hospitals to provide the required services needed for the people.