Osun Guber: Education’ll be a Devt Enabler, Says Akin Ogunbiyi

The governorship aspirant of the Peoples’ Democratic Party in Osun State, Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi, has declared that his education agenda for the state would rest on three strong pillars.

The pillars, according to Ogunbiyi, are the provision of functional educ
ational system, with facility and resources made available; attainment of education for every child in the state; and a programme anchored on technological advancement.

He said the pursuit of this agenda would ensure that no child is left behind as good and sound education only engenders a society that is at once vibrant and progressive, insisting that the stifling environment and lack of basic tools of education continue to deprive Osun State and, indeed, Nigeria, the benefit of harnessing the potential greatness of the Nigerian child.

The aspirant made this known in a press statement titled, ‘Creating a Conducive Environment for Educational Advancement of Children in Osun State’.

According to him, “the frustrating environment in Nigeria is the reason why some of us have decided to change the process and contribute our quota.

“There’s a young man in my community who has become a wonderful role model in dedication, steadfastness and perseverance. He was in the past wrongly described as a fanatic, religious bigot and extremist but far from that, he’s not. I found him to be a devout Muslim and a very responsible young man. It was these qualities that propelled our foundation to work with him pursuant to going overseas.

“A brilliant chap, we are recommending him to the youths in our community and will be an ambassador for the state, to let our people know how far you can go with education – he had a distinction in Architecture from the University of Ife, won nine awards; he now has a PhD and lectures at a UK University. Almighty Allah will continue to guide and guard him and, even without appointment, he’s by dint of hard work, a worthy ambassador for our community and our state.

“The importance of education cannot be over-emphasised. With good education, you’ll have an enlightened populace; an enlightened populace with good skill set and knowledge lead to development; and development leads to progress, economic prosperity and political stability. Those are the outcomes you get with good education.

“But when you play politics, play to the gallery using education, then we will keep getting it wrong as is the case now in Osun.
“Even without being in government, we have an education road map on which we spend over N50 million annually and we try to help as many as possible to get good education both in Nigeria and abroad. Our Foundation seek and elect brilliant but indigent children for scholarship both here in Nigeria and sometimes abroad

“For instance, imagine the allocation to this state, as well as the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, and compare that to the allocation to education annually, you’ll see where the problem is coming from”, he added.

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