By; AjimobiBayo Akamo,Ibadan.
Governor Abiola Ajimobi, tuesday admitted that Oyo State government made three mistakes on its planned Public Private Partnership of public secondary schools in the state.
The governor stated this in Ibadan while responding to the submission of stakeholders at the rescheduled stakeholders meeting held at the House of Chief, Parliamentary Building in Oyo state secretariat.
According to Governor Ajimobi who took responsibility for the three mistakes made by the state government on the policy, the government “erred by not facilitating a pre-stakeholders meeting ahead of the enlarged meeting called but was disrupted by some workers.
He stressed that as the governor, he had expected the officials of State Ministry of Education to have completed all the needed steps before the issue will be brought to the public, adding, that the proposed N250, 000 non refundable intention form by individuals interested in partnering with the government in running the schools was also done in error.
“We made three mistakes instead of one that people think. The Ministry of education has been one of the most supportive of our administration and we have allowed them run the system on their own. When we came to the point of inviting partners to run the school, we had thought that they would have called on stakeholders before the enlarged stakeholders meeting was fixed, but they didn’t do it and I also didn’t do it, so it was our mistake,”he said.
Governor Ajimobi added that “publishing the notice and calling on interested private partners in the media before inviting stakeholders for a meeting was a mistake.
“Secondly, we made mistake by asking willing and interested partners to pay the sum of N250,000 as expression of interest, even though the maximum we could get at anytime is maybe a hundred applicants which is even still not enough to run the schools or do anything”.
“More importantly, even for publishing the proposal before conveying an enlarged stakeholders meeting, it was a mistake. But for every mistakes that might have occurred, don’t hold anybody responsible, just forgive me”.
He insisted that the state government has never contemplated selling or privatizing any school in the state and that the government “is not returning” any of the schools to any missionary as his administration would not abdicate his responsibility of free and quality education for the people of the state.
Earlier, Governor Ajimobi while frowning at the disruption of the forum last week by the NLC leaders and some politicians in the state, said there was no basis for the indefinite strike embarked upon by the civil servants in the state.
