Oni: My Removal from Office Brought Serious Setback to Ekiti
Segun-Oni
Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti
Former Ekiti State governor and candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), for the June 18 governorship election, Segun Oni, has lamented that his abrupt removal from office through judicial pronouncement in 2010 brought serious setback to the state’s development pace.
Oni, who stated this in a statement by a group under the nomenclature ‘Ekiti Build Back Better’ (EBBB), in Ifaki-Ekiti, yesterday, said he was disturbed by the underfunding and neglect of education in the state by successive administrations.
In a statement issued by the group’s spokesman, Idowu Adelusi in Ado-Ekiti at the weekend, the SDP candidate, claimed that the developmental programmes he had crafted to transform education in and place its tertiary institutions on the same pedestal with their counterparts overseas were jettisoned by the Kayode Fayemi-led administration.
“Ironically, the cistern has been without water. I will ensure regular payment of teachers’ salary, special allowances and other entitlements. There will be regular promotion with financial backing; there will be trainings to bring out the best in them. I will introduce other incentives to motivate them to work. The tertiary institutions in the state will be properly funded to stop incessant strike by unions. I will provide more infrastructure for adequate learning,” he said.
The former governor recalled that during the time he was in office, when he put in place proper funding for the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education as well as effective monitoring system for the primary and secondary schools, a development he said did not give room for truancy and laziness among the pupils and teachers.
The statement read: “Ekiti, under my administration, happened to be the first state in the country to start the now popular free school feeding programme for primary and secondary schools. I re-introduced boarding system in public secondary schools with generating sets and modern Internet facilities.
“My administration as well introduced schools-based entrepreneurship programmes like bread baking, poultry production and production of exercise books and school chalks in public secondary schools through which the students could become self employed after leaving school.
“I awarded adequate and sustainable scholarships and bursaries to all qualified Ekiti students in tertiary institution’s both at home and abroad without knowing the governor or government officials as prerequisite.
“We established two promising universities: The University of Education, Ikere-Ekiti (TUNEDIK) and University of Science and Technology, Ifaki-Ekiti (USTI) to expand Ekiti educational frontiers and meet the yearnings of the people in the areas of teaching, science and technology.
“The establishment of the two universities never affected the funding of the existing Ekiti State University (EKSU). My administration established a link between EKSU and the Educational Trust Fund (ETF) which went a long way to assist the university in terms of infrastructure development; and up till now, most of the buildings on the university campus are ETF/TETFUND-funded.
“I also Increased the monthly subvention to the EKSU to take care of the shortfall in staff wage bill. It was never struggled for by the university or the staff unions before it was done. I facilitated a grand collaboration with a South Korean university for a two-year free students exchange programme and for the university to build a three-in-one standard laboratory complex for USTI, free.
“Arrangements were also made to move 30 high flying second year students from various departments in USTI to South Korea for a two-year Students Exchange Programme and for work to commence on a three-in-one Standard Laboratory Project.
“Two USTI lecturers had already been deployed as an advanced team to South Korea for training and to prepare the ground for the students, a year before the time. One of the lecturers sent to South Korea for the Students Exchange Programme never came back when the programme was discontinued and USTI was closed down.”
