Date: 2021-11-18

KWSUBEB has seen a viral video trending this morning on the ugly state of Shubanul Islam LGEA school, Oke Ogun, in Ilorin South LGA. We sincerely sympathise with the pupils, teachers, and all the stakeholders in the community, particularly members of the School Based Management Committee.

While Kwarans are aware of the depth of inherited infrastructural deficits in our basic schools across the state, every fair-minded individual can also appreciate the huge infrastructural renewal and reforms that are ongoing in our basic schools statewide.

However, KWSUBEB wants to put it on record that the situation in Shubanul LGEA SCHOOL is toxic politics taken too far. A few weeks ago, some unauthorised persons went into the school without permission and started removal of roofs of a block of 2 classrooms in the school under the pretense of executing a constituency project. According to the information, the project was reportedly being facilitated by Hon. Gani Cook Olododo, member representing Ilorin East and Ilorin South in the Federal House of Representatives.

KWSUBEB ordered the stoppage of the purported renovation works because the whole school has been captured in our ongoing renovation works. That of the school is to begin later this month as it falls under the second phase of our works. The 2018 and 2019 renovation works.

We were therefore surprised that anyone could just enter the school premises without permission or concurrence of the appropriate authorities to start removal of building materials for their personal use. Such behaviour is shocking, given the series of public enlightenment and radio announcements we have made to individuals, corporate groups and NGOs who may want to contribute to the infrastructural improvement of our schools facilities to first notify SUBEB and obtain approval in line with global best practices before embarking on such act.

Days after this encroachment, KWSUBEB received a letter from the Oke Ogun Community Development Association pleading that we should allow the unauthorised work by agents of the Hon. member to continue. We invited the community to a meeting about three (3) weeks ago. The meeting was attended by representatives of Oke Ogun Development Association; the Alangua of Oke Ogun; Education Secretary of Ilorin South LGEA; SUBEB Director, Physical Planning and other members of management team of SUBEB.

After extensive deliberations, the meeting resolved that the representative of Hon. Olododo, who led the team that removed the roof of the two classrooms, should be made to put them back in place, pending the commencement of SUBEB work later this month, November, to ensure condusive teaching and learning environment for the pupils.

It would interest the public that the said agent signed an undertaking to that effect. The man in question removed about 118 iron sheets and kept them in his house before the Oke Ogun Development Association forced him to return the building materials to the school under the costody of the School Based Management Committee and the Development Association.

KWSUBEB was persuaded by the respected Alangua of Oke Ogun and others at the meeting not to arrest him.

The community agreed to inform Hon. Olododo to direct his intervention for the area to control the ecological problem facing the area since KWSUBEB has already captured the school for renovation, and money has been appropriated for the said project from UBEC.

Back to the viral video, the camera man deliberately failed to capture the roofs of the classrooms illegally removed to justify the alleged neglect of the only primary school in Oke Ogun after several acclaimed letters requesting for intervention.

We reiterate that KWSUBEB, as presently constituted, is a responsible public organisation. We are more determined to ensure that our basic education is better repositioned.

We assert also that the ongoing turnaround of our basic schools, after years of neglect, is a marathon race. We especially commend the administration of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for his commitment to this renewal. We however urge members of the public to appreciate that these statewide renewal projects can only come in phases and may take years.

Finally, the viral video is a baseless and bad politics taken too far. One would have expected the camera man to interact with the teachers, members of SBMC and the Executive Committee of Oke Ogun Development Association for full information and to show the public the roof of the two (2) classrooms that were removed without any authorisation before embarking on his devilish act.

Signed.

Atere Aminat

Press Secretary

KWSUBEB

18/11/2021