Edo PDP, Obaseki trade words over failing education sector

Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday berated the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led government for allegedly paying lip service to the education sector in the state, particularly state-owned tertiary institutions.

According to the secretary, Mr. Chris Nehikhare, it is obvious that the state government has no education policy in place, especially as it affects the College of Agriculture, Iguoriaki, and others.“On August 8, 2017, Governor Obaseki announced that he was temporarily closing down the College of Agriculture, Iguoriaki, for three months. He promised to restructure and revamp the college to a world-class institution. He set himself a timeframe.

“Nine months later, on May 25, 2018, he dispatched sack letters to all the staff, academic and non-academic, that their services were no longer required, though the students were just two weeks away from their final examinations.”He alleged that the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led state government employed the services of security agencies to chase everybody out of the school vicinity, adding that their sack was backdated to January 31, 2018.

The governor, he added, manufactured alternative facts about paying off the staff and sending students on internship with Presco, Okomu and even Leventis, which, according to him, have been comatose for decades.

But the governor responded that the PDP did not understand his educational reforms.His special adviser on media and communication strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, said the “Obaseki-led administration is committed to ensuring that institutions of higher learning have the requisite structures, both human and physical, to train students who would compete with their peers anywhere in the world.

Osagie added that the college was nowhere near the mark, as the institution was in a state of disrepair with potential danger posed to the lives of the students as a result of failing infrastructure; hence it had to be shut to make room for a holistic overhaul.