Oyo State Governor, Engr. ‘Seyi Makinde, has declared that his administration will remain truthful to the people of Oyo State, if re-elected.
The governor while speaking with the Oyo State League of Imams and State Rabith’s Acquaintance at the Rabitot-ul-Aimmat Wal Ulama South West office, near Bodija Market, Ibadan, said he will continue to be fair to all religious faithful in the state.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, quoted Makinde as saying that his administration has been handling issues relating to religious bodies in the state objectively since assuming office.
According to him, his administration has been maintaining the policy instituted on the use of Hijab in the public schools of Oyo State by the previous administration in the state.
He charged the electorate to cast their votes based on merit, saying that there won’t be any room for those that want to divide the people through religion.
The governor said: “I have noted all the things you have said and if I summarize everything, what you mean is that I am returning as the governor of the state. “And I can assure you that the next government will be better than what we currently have.
“I agree that there are some misconceptions and if I did not address them, people may not be well informed about certain things.
“You talked about appointments into the pilgrim’s welfare board and Education Secretaries. We appointed the education secretaries about two days ago and we have 10 Muslims out of 33 of them.
“The current Commissioner for Education is a Muslim and you know education is one of the major pillars of this administration. Let me repeat it again, if our elites want to cause division with religion, it won’t be possible. As we speak, we have more Muslims holding top positions in this government and I am the only Christian in this echelon.
“What is important is to ensure that those we have appointed deliver dividends of democracy. “We have been trying to balance appointments but must be careful with the way some critics are manipulating data for us. When this government came in, we said there is a gap in our secondary schools and the standard has become low. That was why we recruited 5,000 teachers. I met with stakeholders and said if we must reverse the rot in the sector, 80 per cent of the teachers must be recruited on merit, and 20 percent can be given special consideration.
“And I am happy that we are seeing the result now because the report available to me is that the best set of teachers came from the recruitment, and they are the ones in our schools now”.
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