Saraki’s claim on Kwara Education is the greatest fraud of 21st century

Kwara Must Change, a pro Democracy group in Kwara State wishes to inform the general public that the state of education in Kwara State is one of the worst in the country.

This can be verified in our May 9th report, in which Kwara Must Change exposed a heart breaking and endemic rot in Kwara State education sector, particularly in Kwara North and Kwara South in which a whole school only has one staff, who functions as teacher, cleaner and head master/mistress.

As was properly captured in the report, ‘’The super staff, in addition to handling the administrative duties, also teaches all students in all classes, from primary 1 to primary 6, in addition to teaching all subjects including Mathematics, English, Social Studies, Science, Home Economics, Art etc’’.

However, it was surprising to read with utmost dismay, the fraudulent claim by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki over the state of education in Kwara State in which he claimed that he initiated a policy to advance education in the state.

According to the statement, Saraki was said to have applauded the federal government for sharing his decade-old vision for education reform, which he claimed was initiated to resuscitate public education in Kwara State. He then went on to call on other states across the nation to study and emulate the Kwara State model, while also commending his successor, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, for sustaining the model.

Kwara Must Change viewed this claim as the greatest fraud of the 21st century. Apart from the fact that this claim is out rightly false, we find it difficult to understand why a man who destroyed our education and dragged it 20years backward would feel so confident to tell an obvious lie before the public, to an extent that he is laying claim to a none existing policy with zero effect in Kwara State.

Let it be clear that, in Saraki’s 8years tenure as governor of Kwara State, he didn’t not build one single school; neither did he do anything reasonable to improve the education system. This explains why we have student’s learning under tree in Kwara State today and certainly, this is not something to be proud of or something to recommend to others, as no reasonable government would be willing to copy a system that is aimed at taking us back to the Stone Age.

Recall also that just last week, an investigation by Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) based in Kwara State, has revealed the "state of shame" of public schools across the state.

The group observed that due to the negligence of the government, reputable schools that have produced a lot of important personalities in Kwara State have become the options for poor and vulnerable Kwarans, who cannot afford to pay the fees of private schools. It also called on the state government to declare a state of emergency in its education sector.

It is a shame that, while civil society organizations in the state are calling for the declaration of state of emergency in Kwara State education sector, Mr Saraki is busy claiming a none existing glory for imaginary policy he claimed to have initiated.

Similarly, Saraki’s wife, Mrs Toyin Saraki had recently made another false claim that an imaginary project she referred to as conditional cash transfer took place in Kwara State during the administration of her husband, Bukola Saraki.

As we had stated then, “Kwara Must Change maintained that, the only project executed during the administration of Bukola Saraki as Governor of Kwara State was the domestication of poverty, endemic corruption and poverty transfer from one generation to the other.

We maintain that the Bukola Saraki’s administration in Kwara State should simply be described as the administration of poverty transfer from generation to generation and he should be regarded as Mr Poverty transfer.” But considering his latest fraudulent claim of advancing education through a none existing policy, it appeared Dr Saraki wants to be remembered as the greatest liar of the 21st century.

Abdulrazaq O Hamzat
Kwara Must Change