Don implores South-West governors to build on Awolowo’s legacy

A don at the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries, University of Ibadan, Dr. Babatunde Oduntan, has urged the South-West governors to build on the legacy of Chief Obafemi Awolowo on education.

Oduntan, who is the National Co-ordinating President of Association of Urban Day Grammar School, Ring Road Old Students (UROSA), Ibadan, stated this during the donation of some items and projects by the old students to the school.

Oduntan, who stated that the projects were meant to restore the school’s lost glory, canvassed massive investment in education, saying that if public schools were not important, Awolowo would not have invested so much in it.

He said: “The governors in the South-West should build on Awolowo’s legacy on schools. It is good to do so. They should look at the model Awolowo’s legacy was looking at. When it comes to education, we should have a standing policy that can be built on which every other part of the country will emulate.”

In her remarks, the Principal of the school, Mrs. Titi Taiwo, expressed gratitude towards the gesture of the old students.

Meanwhile, Osun State Governor Gboyega Oyetola has been urged to return missionary schools taken over by the government and also reverse the single uniform policy in the state education sector, among other unpopular policies.

The Archbishop of Ibadan Province of the African Church, Most Rev. Augustine Odufuwa, who spoke in Ilesa during a courtesy visit to the palace of Owa Obokun of Ijesaland, Oba Gabriel Adekunle Aromolaran, asked the governor to consider returning missionary schools to their original owners for education to develop in the state.

Besides, the cleric advocated a holistic reversal of the schools’ merger and single uniform policy, stressing that returning the schools to the missionaries remains the best option.

Also, the Catholic Bishop of Osogbo Diocese, Most Rev. John Oyejola, in a statement said that the step would transform the education sector in the state.

In the same vein, traditional rulers in Osun Central and West Senatorial Districts and old students’ association of Ebekun Secondary Commercial Grammar School, Iresi, also urged the governor to immediately implement the recommendations of the committee on education review and return the schools to their normal positions.

The monarchs made the call in a communique issued at the end of the quarterly meeting of the Osun Divisional Conference of Obas, signed by the Chairman and Secretary, Oba Adedokun Abolarin Aroyinkeye, Orangun of Oke lla and Oba Rasheed Ayotunde Olabomi Odundun IV, Aragbiji of Iragbijiland respectively.