The Media and Strategy Office of the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State, Alh. Abdullahi Shuaibu Yaman has faulted the State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazak's assessment of the State's education sector under the past two administrations, saying “the Governor is jittery because of the looming electoral defeat in 2023 and, therefore, may continue to make a wrong assessment of the past administrations whose leadership served the state diligently and dedicatedly”.

In a press statement on Monday signed by the special adviser to the PDP gubernatorial candidate on media and strategy, Abdulwahab Oba, “Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazak and is either suffering from selective amnesia or under the influence before giving such a warped assessment of education in the state pre-2019.

“Paradoxically, most tertiary institutions under AbdulRahman were established by the state's past governors who are incidentally leaders of the PDP, including Alh Shaabah Lafiagi, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki and Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed whose tenures the Governor now contemptuously referred to”, Oba stated.

“If AbdulRahman was not under the influence, he would probably have remembered that all schools in the state were established and controlled either by individuals or private organisations before they were grant-aided and came under government control by David Lasisi Bamigboye.

“Alh. Shaabah Lafiagi established the Lafiagi College of Education and the College of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Ilorin.

“If AbdulRahman is not suffering from selective amnesia, he needs not be reminded that Dr. Saraki established the Kwara State University, Malete and the Aviation College, Ilorin while Dr Ahmed not only constructed KWASU's School of Engineering, Malete and various other campuses for the school but also established the International Vocational and Technical Centre, Ajase-Ipo, Oba said.

“Throughout his 42 months administration of the state, Governor AbdulRahman has not added a block to any of the institutions in question, while the staff of the College of Education, Ilorin, have not received full salary since June this year”, Oba alleged.

The statement reads further, “throughout his tenure, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki was paying salary and other entitlements as at when due, apart from other infrastructural development of the institutions.

“This was what Dr Ahmed inherited and continued until the global economic recession dictated the need for a review of status quo as most educated and 21st-century administrators would have done.

“After the review, Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, Kwara State University, Malete, College of Education, Oro, IVTEC, Ajase-Ipo and Aviation College have all been paying the salaries of members of their staff as at when due with minimal government intervention”.

According to Oba, “as the 2023 election draws closer, the frustration, confusion and intellectual deficiency of the governor are getting more obvious and uncontrolled.

” It is one day, two lies to distract attention from his alleged certificate and transformer distribution scandals and why Kwara' State's N17b is “sitting in a bank”, yet to be identified, while the state suffers infrastructural decay.

AbdulRahman must tell Kwarans why an audit firm, SSAC Advisory and Professionals, whose status with CAC is INACTIVE at the time of the report, was given access to the state's account without publicised approval of the state's House of Assembly. Has the Governor lost total confidence in the civil servants?

“It is obvious that Gov. AbdulRahman is jittery about impending failure in the 2023 election as a result of soaring acceptance and popularity of the PDP's candidate, Alh Abdullahi Shuaibu Yaman.

“If elected, Alh Yaman promises to return government to the people through constructive engagements with various strata of the state, home and abroad. The civil servants, including the teachers, will be accorded their legitimate pride of place in the administration of the state”, Oba stated.