Hon AbdulRahmon Abdulraheem Abiodun, Commissioner for education, Oyo state was live on Fresh FM 105.9 on the program titled “Situation Room” anchored by Mayor Isaac Brown, where he discussed the efforts of the government towards achieving excellence and internationally best standards.

Abiodun disclosed this while on live and however said that the government is trying in its capabilities to ensure no one enriches his or her pocket in the name of taking grants from the government.

He ceased the opportunity to debunk the rumor that has been flying all around that a man allegedly converted some students to tubers of yam.

He said, “Let me start with the incident that happened in Bashorun High School last week Friday, it was just a mere rumor which came from someone who was, I don’t know if he is deranged not really, the guy who alleged that someone turned students to tuber of yam, when I asked him questions, he did not see this happening at all, he only suspected and I was surprised that the incident he did not witness he was trying to say, he said that the students wore a particular uniform of a particular school.

And I asked him questions about what time did you see this man, he said a few minutes to 6am and I know with the little knowledge that I have that students of public schools hardly get dressed around that time. It’s usually around 6:30, 7am.

“Secondly, I said was there anybody that raised an alarm regarding that? he said no. Then I said, have you been noticing that man in that area before? He said yes.

How did you come to that conclusion? Did anybody report anything to you? He was even at some points saying that the man tried to bribe him with eight pieces of 50naira notes.

He would turn students to tubers of yam and to keep you shut, he would give you 400naira? I couldn’t see the difference between the two of them.

I did profile of the school and no parent or teacher said a student was missing. By the time I and my team got there around 8:30 when the news broke, it was hell of a time controlling the parents and the okada riders going up and down creating unnecessary tension, it was then I called on police to come and give us security in that area and by the time the whole thing went down and I saw the man himself, the person that alleged that someone did it, then I knew that he was lying.

It was then, I handed him to the police to tame his statement because something has to be done to rumors mongers like that because that can not help us in the state.

Besides, the accused was lucky he could have been lynched but he was not, he was rescued. Same thing with the old woman that sent man on an errand, we got there and saw four remaining tubers of yam. And the story of the man that was accused was the same as mama’s story.

They partially destroyed the woman’s house and carted away two goats. With the report, I realized those people were thieves. Or what’s the connection, are they saying the goats were formally human beings too?

However, talking about the grants meant to augment the 3,000 naira scrapped by the government, he was asked if the government is still paying the grants to the schools as there are speculations that principals are now borrowing money to run schools, he said, “Let’s start with the cancellation of three thousand naira which some people up till this moment have not come to the reality, three thousand naira to you and I may mean little or nothing to us but we have some people that it will mean a lot to.

As I’m talking now, I can authoritatively confirm to you that grants have been released for this term. The story is always that, they will always want to tell you the story that will favour them but we know the reality, this is the government that based its doing on facts and data that are very clear.

We need to know how you’re spending the money and what you’re spending the money on?.

In line with what my predecessor had said we really have to be sure of what we are doing so that people will not just take advantage of the magnanimity. Once we see data that show how the money is spent, the grant is released immediately. The last grant was released last week.

And if the principal sees any need for us to make supplementary or adopt something, we will do it, we are prepared to do that because these schools belong to the government and the government is willing and ready to really finance it. That’s the more reason the budgetary allocation for education of Oyo state surpassed even UNESCO because we are serious about what we are saying and we don’t want a situation whereby some people will take advantage of the situation and be enriching themselves.

We have to be sure of what’s on ground, what they want, how much do they need? Then we make it available

Talking about infrastructure, when asked about if he is aware that some schools still require students to bring lockers from home, he said “any parent that has been told to do this should be bold enough to report this.

This year alone, we have provided tables and chairs for schools in Oyo state and as I’m talking now, any school that feels it has not been given should be bold enough to let me know. I have a list of those schools.

In each school for now, we are supplying 50 pairs of furniture for both chairs and tables. And then after the exercise which will come to an end by the end of this month, we will now audit the position of things and procure more and try to fit into the areas of urgent needs as well. It’s an ongoing process because if this had been done long before now, we would not have this problem. And the quality of furniture we are procuring now can stand a test of time. They are not the type that students can easily damage, we leverage on quality.”

When asked about what the government is doing to provide for the primary school pupils as they’ve done for the secondary students, he said, ”We will soon provide books to them at primary level and all the necessary things needed, including teachers. We need to work on the data available, so that we will not make mistakes. We are collating the necessary data to be able to employ teachers for them. It’s a process that’s going on.

African church grammar school in a very bad shape, government is not looking away from this, every time we are in the raining season we always have problems of buildings and the roofs being blown off by wind or storm and this compounding our problems and that’s why we are collating data on this, which we have been able to do. We need to merge this to our budgetary allocation so as to have a holistic statement of all these.

The problem is a recurring problem because when it rains there will be problems, even in our own respective houses. It’s like we usually have yearly maintenance of our buildings and surroundings.

Very soon by January, the rehabilitation of the schools will commence. We just need to collate the data and know the cost and provide the quality job there, not just a palliative one. We want to have it once and for all and put that behind us.

When asked about the government’s disposition to casual workers which some described as pure human slavery, he said “this had been brought to my attention and as at last week, I called for pieces of advice on this from my officers and I can assure you that the issue is one of the utmost issues I have to work on now because they have been there for long.

They were in that position for nine, ten years ago, if those that were there before did the needful we wouldn’t be in a situation like this but we’ve accepted it and we are ready to work around the clock and ensure that sanity comes to place on this issue.

Talking about the non teaching staff, we need to do the needful and you know that His Excellency is a man that wants everything to be done properly so that there won’t be any form of lapses in the system. If you look at the quality of teachers we posted to secondary schools, you must be having some feedback on that. It’s the process that produced these sets of people and it’s that process we are leveraging on. We have to do all the necessary and ensure that we bring out the best so that the non teaching staff also add value to school administration.