•Says consequences of their misdeeds now glaring
•Commends Governor AbdulRazaq for rescuing Kwara children’s future
The Progressive Nation Initiative (PNI) has lambasted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State for their failure to invest in basic education for over 8 years, particularly since the infamous diversion of UBEC funds under the administration of Governor Abdulfatai Ahmed in 2014.
In a statement issued by its Public Relations Officer, Aisha Suleiman, PNI said PDP and its leaders have committed a grievous offence for which the Kwara people should never forgive them by stealing the future of thousands of Kwara children with their destruction of basic education in the state.
“We at Progressive Nation Initiative (PNI) are very sad to receive the report that Kwara State ranked 34th in the 2021 WAEC rating of states in Nigeria. This is evidently the result of the failure of the Kwara PDP leaders to invest in basic education for several years. This particularly gives the lie to the denials by the PDP leaders. The students whom they failed to invest in their education while they were in Primary School have now grown up to be in Secondary School today, and they sat WAEC. The result was not encouraging at all and it is essentially the report card of PDP that has been telling irresponsible lies that it invested in the education of these pupils.
“The Kwara people should never forgive PDP for stealing the future of our children. Under their government, UBEC funds of about N1 billion was diverted. That was a grant given to them to invest in the education of Kwara children, but they diverted it. For this criminal diversion, Kwara State was blacklisted for years. It was when Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq was sworn in that he rescued the situation and took Kwara off the list. But huge damage had been done already. The new government is just starting from the scratch.
“The PDP leaders have always been covering their ineptitude by allowing wholesale examination malpractice during WAEC, and that was why Kwara State was penalised back in 2019. They gave appointments to incompetent teachers to take charge of the education of our children. They failed to renovate our schools across the three senatorial districts. They failed to provide necessary materials for teaching and learning. Under PDP, teaching appointments were shared at party meetings. That was what they reduced the future of our children to. It is not a coincidence that this failed party is the one backing the incompetent sunset teachers they recruited at the twilight of their administration and sponsoring them to blackmail the government. They want a total collapse of our education system.
“If PDP had invested in basic education, would we have over 2,000 basic school structures dilapidated across the state? Would we have teachers who cannot communicate effectively? The result of their impunity and misdeeds are now glaring. There is no hiding place for them. When Governor AbdulRazaq said it would take us years to go out of the pit PDP threw Kwara into in terms of basic education, one of them came out to say nonsense. Are we not seeing the reality now?
“The whole of Kwara State will never forgive PDP for their crime against Kwara children. We salute the courage of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq in changing the narratives of basic education. Just three years down the line, he has renovated, reconstructed and given facelift to over 600 basic school structures out of the over 2,000 dilapidated and moribund structures PDP left behind. The rot they left behind include some of our children learning under mango tree. Governor AbdulRazaq is fast correcting that. We are optimistic all of these school structures would be touched if he is given another opportunity. A vote for PDP in the 2023 election means going back to the shackles of slavery and destruction of basic education.
“We thank Governor AbdulRazaq for recruiting competent hands in our schools, especially for refusing the blackmail of the PDP sponsored, incompetent sunset teachers who are on a mission to further ruin the future of our children. Governor AbdulRazaq oversaw a recruitment process that was devoid of nepotism, favouritism. He ensured competent hands were recruited. That’s the way to go for the future of our children. As Kwarans, we must consolidate on this to move forward and never slide back to the hands of termites. We also laud Governor AbdulRazaq for fixing our relationship with UBEC as a key partner in basic education. We are getting the low-hanging fruits already, especially the just constructed UBEC Smart School. We thank him for introducing technology and digital literacy to our public school system through KwaraLEARN. Our pupils are now trained diligently in public presentation, debate, and they are doing fine. We have some of these trained pupils who made a great outing at a national debate competition. They are now representing Nigeria at the international level.
“Our advice to Kwarans is to not reverse these gains by allowing the destructive PDP to get power again. Leaders who stole the future of our children must never be returned back. The UBEC grant they diverted and incompetent teachers they recruited and failure to invest in basic education are still haunting us as a state. But the PDP still remains shameless, irresponsible as they continue to mock the sensibilities of Kwarans. Their spokesperson will issue a long statement to say nonsense on a problem they created soon. That’s very insensitive for people who killed our basic education which used to be a great one under our forefathers. They threw the labor of our heroes past in vein. Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is restoring the lost glory now. We must support him.”
Signed:
Aisha Suleiman
PRO, Progressive Nation Initiative
August 24, 2022