My Take On The Anti-People Policy Of Ajimobi Adegoke Adelabu Free Education- Kazeem Olalekan Israel(GANI)

THE ANTI-PEOPLES' POLICY OF AJIMOBI ADEGOKE ADELABU CAMPAIGNED AGAINST FREE EDUCATION: WE ARE NOT FIGHTING FOR IT. “Adegoke Adelabu then went to town – and began the most virulent and most mischievous campaign imaginable. And he succeeded. His campaign went as follows: The Action Group wants to deprive you parents of the services of your children in the farms and in the homes. You fathers, when all your children go to school, who will help you make your farm heaps or harvest crops for you? You mothers, when all your children go to school, who will help you in hawking your wares? The Action Group wants to kidnap your children. They say, whether you like it or not, your children must go to school. They say they will force your children to school even if the children say they want to help you at home. They say you will no longer have control over your children; they will teach the children to disrespect you. Our dear people, any father or any mother who keeps even only one child at home out of as many as he has will be sent to jail. Do you not see that the Action Group is evil? That was the tenor of Adelabu’s campaign in Ibadan, which was taken up in all parts of Western Nigeria. I myself listened to some of his campaigns in Ibadan… he took Ibadan and its districts by storm…. The Action Group had marvellous programmes, yes; but in 1954 the people of the Western Region said they did not want those programmes. It was a misguided and uncivilised decision, yes. But they took it. The Action Group was stunned. The NCNC were jubilant…..” – From ‘People, Politics and Politicians of Nigeria (1940 - 1979) by BOLA IGE (Heinemann Educational Books Ltd, 1995). Pages 86 – 87. MY COMMENT: This was a classic case of when politicians played on the ignorance of the members of the public to derail a good and progressive government policy as it is today. We all know that one of the enduring legacies of Obafemi Awolowo, whom many of the APC stalwarts claim to be their role model was free and compulsory education which many of them are acting against these days. We must all know that this latest development in Oyo State is a ploy by Ajimobi and his partners in crime to deprive the children of the poor their right to free and compulsory education as stipulated in all constituted laws. During the Awolowo era, the free and compulsory education kick-started on January 16, 1955 opening the door for many children to be educated, over 50,000 children were enrolled in secondary school because of the massive investment in education that was launched by Awolowo. We expect the government of the day to buy into the idea of providing education to the children of the poor, not depriving them of their rights to education by introducing a policy that would hinder the children of the poor their rights to education, which could lead to increase rate of illiteracy. Today, the people of Oyo State must put everything together to resist the planned public-private partnership in the education sector by Abiola Ajimobi government. Because, if Ajimobi's proposed plan in the education sector of Oyo State is not fully resisted, the immediate meaning of it is that we would be running our education in diametric opposition to what Awolowo did 61 years ago. At that time, Adelabu succeeded in turning the minds of the people against a good policy, but, today we cannot find the opposition figures that will turn the people en-mass against an unpopular policy. It is only we the people that can stop Ajimobi’s outrageous and oppressive policy, because, he wants we the children of the poor to remain fetchers of water and hewers of water. But, then, we need to strongly mobilize ourselves and strongly resist this. We need to come together and form a popular front against obnoxious governance! Kazeem Olalekan Israel (GANI)