BOLA BAMIGBOLA writes on reversal of some policies of a former Governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, by his successor, Gboyega Oyetola

The cordial relationship that existed between Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State and his predecessor, Rauf Aregbesola, has obviously gone sour. This became more evident at the dawn of 2020 but Aregbesola and his former chief of staff have been managing to keep this from the glare of the public, despite their followers having constantly clashed at different venues.

The reversal of some policies introduced by Aregbesola educational in the state has further threatened the relative peace between the camps of the ex-governor, who is now the Minister of Interior, and the incumbent governor.

Aregbesola’s loyalists are of the opinion that the policies were reversed not necessarily because they failed to achieve the desired result as claimed by Oyetola’s government. But they believe the incumbent governor only used his cabinet to push through part of his plans to gradually erode Aregbesola’s legacies in a bid to cement his hold on to power. Before announcing the decision to stop reclassification, merger and single uniform for all public schools, among others, it was not hidden that some of the policies might not survive for many more days, after a Prof Olu Aina-led committee of experts put in place by Oyetola to review education policies of Aregbesola’s administration passed a death verdict on them.

Disclosing the decision of the cabinet to journalists after the State Executive Council meeting of March 2, the state’s Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Funke Egbemode, said the council unanimously agreed that nine of the policies be upturned straightaway.

Opon Imo (tablet computer), the only policy that survived the purge, Egbemode said, would be repackaged and reintroduced to schools.

Also, during the press briefing, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Ismail Omipidan, pleaded with journalists to refrain from presenting the incident as an action aimed at the former governor but as a step taken, following demands of the people backed by advice from experts.

However, the reversal is considered in some quarters as an indictment by Oyetola, who was declared as the ‘engine room’ of Aregbesola’s administration by the former governor and others that were in the previous cabinet and are still in the SEC presently.

Oyetola, while receiving the report of the Policy Review Roundtable on some extant policies in the education sector of the state, on February 24, had offered explanations as to why the government considered reviewing some of the policies of his predecessor.

The governor said, “As a government, our policies and programmes are driven by citizens’ needs. These needs, which were further validated by the United Kingdom Department for International Development-funded Citizens Needs Assessment exercise in Osun, were harvested during the Thank You Tour/Town Hall Meetings, where the people told us in plain language that they wanted some aspects of our educational policies removed, adjusted or improved upon.

“That was what led to the Policy Review Roundtable Summit, the report of which we are receiving today. We are prepared to do what will improve the lots of our people and protect the future of our children.”

However, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Aregbesola’s cabinet, Kolapo Alimi, during an appearance on a radio programme, Frank Talk, monitored in Osogbo, said, even with the introduction of the policies in 2012, Aregbesola still won the 2014 governorship election “overwhelmingly.”

 He said, “We introduced the uniforms in 2012 and had an election in 2014. The parents of the poor students were the ones who voted Aregbesola and we led by over 100,000 votes. But most of the people castigating this single-uniform policy are the ones that will not send their children to those government schools.”

Aligning himself with Alimi’s argument, an Osogbo-based lawyer, Chief AbdulFatai Abdulsalam, while commenting on the issue, faulted claims that people’s demand was the reason behind the reversal of the policies.

The legal practitioner, who was of the opinion that Oyetola and others presently in the cabinet were also part of the team that fashioned out and implemented the policies, said there might be other considerations not known to the public behind what he described as the startling reversal.

Describing all the policies introduced by Aregbesola in the education sector as products of well-thought-out research meant to address certain issues affecting teaching and learning in public schools, Abdulsalam said the reversal would erode the gains already recorded in the sector.

 He said, “I am disappointed. The reversal of the policy is an indication that the government does not have a direction or focus. Those educational policies that were reversed are products of research and critical thinking. It is not all the policies of the past government that are laudable. But all the policies that were reversed have fundamental reasons that brought them into being.

“Each of those policies has something that it was meant to protect. For the present government to now come around and set up a review panel and get it reversed is wrong; the present administration has acted wrongly in this instance.

“Governance is about continuity and growth. You have to work on the previous policies for advancement. Those previous policies were formulated to cater for certain issues. For example, the single school uniform policy; there was a reason for its introduction.”

He said the policy was introduced because the students were wearing tattered uniforms to school. He added that a common uniform was then mass-produced for the students.

The lawyer said, “There was a reason for the reclassification of schools and slight change in the name of schools, too. Many public school students are indigent. Children of most of the elite are not there. The reclassification of schools was to bring all together under one school.

“With the reclassification, all students on school feeding from Primary 1 to 4 were brought together. Before reclassification, Aregbesola observed that feeding some pupils while others were left out was causing a psychological problem for some pupils, as some of them even preferred to stay put within classes that were being fed.

“In order to get rid of that, the past administration had to come up with the reclassification, which took those pupils in Primaries 5 and 6 to middle schools. Before implementing the initiative, the Aregbesola government consulted the National School Board in Abuja and got an approval.

“The present governor and many others that are in the present cabinet were part of the past administration and they all contributed to the development of the policies and their implementation.”

Policy reversal should not be politicised —PTA

Offering a completely different perspective to the matter, the National Public Relations Officer, Parent-Teacher Association, Dr Ademola Ekundayo, who was Osun State chairman, PTA, when the said policies were introduced in 2012, said parents were engaged when the policies were to be implemented by Aregbesola administration.

Ekundayo stated that the association was not fully engaged in the processes leading to the reversal of the policies. He, however, said PTA as a group did not fully support some of the policies when Aregbesola introduced them in 2012 and urged stakeholders not to politicise the reversal in the interest of the students.

The PTA spokesman said, “I don’t want them to politicise it because education should never be politicised. First and foremost, we parents were not carried along in the process leading to the reversal. It is true that many people are against the merger and single uniform, as well as the change from 6-3-3-4 to 4-5-3-4.

“Coming back to 6-3-3-4 is a welcome idea, but the issue that parents have with the so-called free education is that it is not holistic, because when you are giving free education devoid of any tuition and the basic textbooks are not provided, it will amount to nothing. Opon Imo is not a substitute for textbook.”

Ekundayo explained that in schools, ordinary literature texts were not available; adding that if things continued in that way, the government of the day would be promoted at the expense of the “declining value in education.”

He added, “The reversal will restore sanity to our schools and any student that misbehaves will be properly identified and each school principal will be able to identify their students. It is a welcome idea.

“But to implement the policies, government needs support of parents because they have to prepare to buy new sets of uniform for their children. The government and parents need to deliberate on it because the government cannot do it alone. We were not involved in the process of reversal.”

Reversal not targeted at Aregbesola —Oyetola’s aide

But the Commissioner for Political Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, Taiwo Akeju, insisted that the reversal was not targeted at Aregbesola but was in response to popular demand by the people.

He said the reversal was what the people wanted, adding that Aregbesola’s place in Osun’s history remained secure, even with the reversal of some of his policies.

According to Akeju, the reversal to 6-3-3-4 was as a result of the demands of the people, while some of the policies by the past administration like ‘Opon Imo’ tablet had been retained and would be strengthened because there was a need for it.

“The reversal of some policies was not aimed at eroding Ogbeni Aregbesola’s legacies as governor, because he has achieved great feats in terms of infrastructural development in Osun.

“There is no crisis at all. The reversal is just what the people want and it was a unanimous decision that the cabinet came up with. Eminent personalities like Prof Olu Aina, Gen. Alani Akinrinade (retd.) and others sat on the panel that made the recommendations for us,” Akeju added.

Why we supported the reversal —NUT

The leadership of Nigerian Union of Teachers in Osun told our correspondent that the reversal did not just happen, but occurred following suggestions by the review panel inaugurated by the governor.

The state Secretary of the union, Olukayode Salami, told our correspondent that teachers were represented in the panel that recommended the reversal.

Salami insisted that the single-uniform policy had caused a lot of crises within the school community and maintained that school uniform, as a source of identification, must not be the same in all public schools in the state.

He said, “The 4-5-3-4 policy has been welcomed and tried but as a result of anomalies and discrepancies discovered, we then called for its reversal to 6-3-3-4 and the return to the recommendations of National Policy on Education.

“School merger as a policy has caused a lot of troubles for our students, as some of them that are male were sent to a school establish for only girls. Some male students are today carrying SSCE results obtained from girls schools. To stop having situations like this one, there should be a review of the policies. It’s just a review, not a total end for the policies. Teachers are fully in support of government action.”

It is not clear if the reversal will open the floodgate for reversal of more actions taken by Aregbesola while in office. The days ahead will also determine if the relationship between the minister and his former aide is actually cordial as their supporters will want people to believe.